VLADIVOSTOK, Russia For generations of expatri ates in the days before jet travel, the first stop on the journey back to Europe from Japan was Vladivostok, Russia's easternmost city and the terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Here, ferries from Niigata docked, and travelers boarded trains for the weeklong journey to Moscow. As a hub of transport and trade, Vladivostok prospered. One hundred years ago, it was home to an international community of traders and businessmen drawn by its status as the only deep-water port in the Russian Far East. Much of the city's rich and cosmopolitan architectural heritage dates from that era, when the city, founded only 40 odd years earlier, grew as rapidly as its booming maritime economy.
That prosperity was brought to an abrupt end by the Russian Revolution. Under Communism, the main importance of Vladivostok -- "Lord of the East" in Russian -- was strategic. As the base of the Pacific Fleet, it was closed to all foreigners from 1958. For more than 30 years, Trans-Siberian travelers began or ended their journey at Nakhodha, a characterless town 200 kilometers further east along the Sea of Japan coast.