Vladivostok
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Vladivostok. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a seaport of eastern Siberia; on the harbor of the Golden Horn in the Gulf of Peter the Great, Japan Sea. It was founded in 1861, and is an important naval station of Russia, and the E. terminus of the Trans-Siberian railway, the first sod of which was cut at Vladivostok, May 24, 1891, the line being opened in December, 1901. The harbor is surrounded by hills which are well fortified. There are two large dry docks, waterworks, electric street railways, and street lighting plants. Vladivostok is an open . port Ice-breaking steamers keep the harbor open in the winter months. Pop. about 100,000. Vladivostok, during and following the revolution in Russia, became an important strategic center. It was the headquarters of the American Expeditionary Force to Russia, and of other foreign expeditions. See RUSSIA: SIBERIA.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a Russian port on the Pacific, the capital of the maritime province of Siberia. Vladivostok is situated on a harbor which communicates through the Gulf of Peter the Great with the Sea of Japan. The city was founded in 1861. The harbor is fortified strongly. The Trans-Siberian Railway reached the port in December, 1901. There are large dry docks, waterworks, electric street railways, and electric lights. Lines of steamers ply to ports of Japan and Korea. The Russian government has subsidized a line running to Seattle, Washington. Under ordinary circumstances the port is closed by ice during three winter months, but steam icebreakers are relied upon to keep the channel open. The population is given at 38,000, including a large garrison of Russian soldiers.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's wrote in 1921 while Vladivostok was still full of foreign troops "the headquarters of the American Expeditionary Force to Russia"; the last Japanese forces left in October 1922 and the Bolsheviks took the city that month, folding the short-lived Far Eastern Republic into Soviet Russia. Far from remaining the "open port" Collier's described, Vladivostok became home to the Soviet Pacific Fleet and was closed outright to foreigners, and to most Soviet citizens, from 1958 until Yeltsin reopened it on 1 January 1992. The 38,000 people Aiton's counted in 1910 have become roughly 600,000, and the harbour the old entries describe is now spanned by the Golden Horn and Russky Island bridges, built for the 2012 APEC summit. The Trans-Siberian terminus and the ice-breaking still hold good.
Written for this edition, 2026.