And it is the ardent hope of America that Russia--that Empire which has so generously accorded us her friendship in our times of peril--may not by cataclysm from within, but of her own volition, place herself fully in line with the ideals of an advanced civilization.
SUPPLEMENT TO SHORT HISTORY OF RUSSIA From Rurik to Nicholas III.

the policy of Russia has been determined by its thirst for the sea.

Every great struggle in the life of this colossal land-locked empire has had for its ultimate object the opening of a door to the ocean, from which nature has ingeniously excluded it.
In the first centuries of its existence Rurik and his descendants were incessantly hurling themselves against the door leading to the Mediterranean.

But the door would not yield.

Then Ivan IV.