ALL EUROPE LOOKS TO RUSSIA'S CAUCASUS
FOR OIL, MINERALS AND FABULOUS TALES
THE CAUCASUS
SALT MARSHES and deserts ill §
suited to mechanized warfare.
RAILROAD
UNDER
CONSTRUCTION
^ OIL PIPE LINES
REFINERIES OIL FIELDS
'HE GERMANS were in the Caucasus in World War
* I, but not for long. Other invaders and traders had
been there long before them to get rare wines for the
Icings of Persia, fair-haired Caucasian women for Tur
key's harems, the music of tinkling gold pieces.
In the shadow of mighty Mount Elborus, 18,470-foot
keystone peak of the formidable Caucasian Range,
mythical Argonauts searched for the Golden Fleece.
Modern Russians work the fertile steppes for wheat,
barley and corn and for two valuable oils: black gold
gushing from the richest fields (almost 190 million
barrels in 1940) of the second largest oil producing
Country; the many purpose oil pressed from great fields
of sunflower seeds.
The natural defense line of the Caucasian Range, a
1,000-mile picket fence stretching from the Black to the
Caspian Sea, shelters from invasion Georgia's rich
manganese deposits, largest in the world; her valuable
Trans-Caucasian mines and the southern oil fields.
Out of the hills onto the steppes mechanized and
on horseback, the Cossacks ride again and sing as they
fight. But this time they wear Yankee-made sub-machine
guns beneath their colorful robes.
NEXT WEEK: Global Map- “The Polar Short Cut'’