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Historical Background (1857 - 1891)

In 1857 N. N. Murav'yov-Amurskiy, the general-governor of the Eastern Siberia, set up a question of railway construction on the Siberian outlets of Russia. But it was not until middle 1880's that the Russian government started working on this question. There were many suggestions from foreign entrepreneurs, but the government was unwilling to strengthen the foreign influence on Siberia and Far East of Russia by letting foreign industrial companies and entrepreneurs build a major railway there. Therefore it was finally decided to use domestic funds.

The first real impulse to start construction works on the new railway was given by the Russian Emperor Alexander III. In 1886 he wrote a resolution on the report of general-governor from Irkutsk. In this resolution he wrote: "I have read so many reports from the Siberian governors that now I can admit with sadness that government did almost nothing to satisfy the needs of this rich, but neglected region. It is time to correct this mistake".

In 1887 three expeditions were send to find paths for Zabaikalskaya, Middle-Siberian, and South-Ussuriyskaya railways. Almost all of them completed their mission till 90's. In 1891, Siberian railway construction Committee was formed. It declared that "Siberian railway construction is a great national event; it should be built by Russian people with Russian materials". In February 1891 the Great Siberian Way construction was started from two directions: Vladivostok and Chelyabinsk.

Railway Foundation: Vladivostok, 1891

Alexander III praised the beginning of construction works of the Siberian railway and thought it was one of the most important events in the history of Russian Empire. That is what he wrote to the heir of the Russian throne: "I order to start building the continuous railway across all the Siberia; I want it to connect Siberian regions rich in nature resources with the rest of the Russian railway infrastructure. I want you to declare this as my will after my return from the countries of East. I also want you to start building in Vladivostok the Ussuriysk distance of Great Siberian Rail Way using the funds from Russian treasury".

Nikolai II, the son of Alexander III, followed the will of his parent. On May 31 1891, at 10:00 o'clock in the morning a public prayer was held. The Nikolai II also participated in ceremony of laying the first stone and a silver plate in the railway station construction. That's how the great and complicated railway building began.

Great Construction Works (1891-1903)

Trans-Siberian railway construction was held in difficult climate conditions. Most of the road was build through low populated or not populated areas with tense forests. The road goes across many Siberian rivers, meets many lakes, swampy and permafrost areas on its way. The most difficult for builders was the section around the Baikal. Here they had to blast rocks, to make tunnels, to build additional structures on the rivers that flow into Baikal.

Trans-Siberian railway building required big capital expenditures. According to the Railway Construction Committee calculations estimated costs of road building were 350 millions of gold rubles. The sharpest problem was the problem of attracting labor for the building of Trans-Siberian railway. The need for qualified workers was satisfied by hiring workers in the center and by transporting them to Siberia.

According to officials in different years in construction of different sections of the railway were involved the following number of people. Western Siberian - from 3600 to 15000 workers form European Russia, Zabaylalskaya section - from 2500 to 4500, Middle Siberian - from 3000 to 11000. Most of the builders were convicts and soldiers.

Peasants from Siberia, people from Siberian towns and also peasants and low middle class people from European part of Russia were involved in construction of Trans-Siberian railway as well. At the beginning of construction in 1891 total number of workers on Trans-Siberian railway was 9600. In 1895 - 1896 it went up to 84000 - 89000 workers. On the final stage of construction in 1904, there were only 5300 workers. In the Amurskaya section construction works in 1910 was involved about 20000 workers.

In terms of construction speed (12 years), length (7500 km), volume of work completed, and difficult building conditions Trans-Siberian railway construction was the largest in the world. All the materials for construction except for lumber had to be provided for the railway construction. That was very difficult and expensive to do since there were almost no roads. Raw materials were brought from hundreds kilometers away. Builders had to transport stone 780 km by railway from Chelyabinsk and 600 km. from the banks of the Ob River.

Metal constructions for the bridge across Amur river were made in Warsaw. First, they were transported by the railway to Odessa, then to the Vladivostok by sea. Only after that they were transported to Khabarovsk by the railway. In autumn 1914, German cruiser destroyed the Belgian transport in the Indian Ocean. This transport was caring metal parts for the last two bridge fragments.

As the result the bridge construction works continued for two more years. Almost all the works were fulfilled by hands. Instruments were very simple and primitive: an axe, a saw, a shovel, a miner's hack, and a wheelbarrow. However about 600 km of railway were built daily. This was a new record of that time. Total construction costs were more than one milliard of gold rubles.

In spring 1901 Zabaikalskaya section of Trans-Siberian railway was completed. 2 thousand kilometers of railway had to be built from Sretensk to Khabarovsk in order to join the European part of Russia with the pacific coast. Because of certain political reasons and difficult climate conditions Czar's government decided no to build the Amur section of the railway. It was planned to build it from Transbaikalia to Vladivostok through Mandjuria. That's how Eastern Chinese line was built. It was put into operations in 1903. It goes through Mandjuria to Harbin and to Pogranichnaya station (now Grodekovo station).

In 1903 Grodekovo - Ussuriysk section was built and put into operations, too. Now Vladivostok was connected with the center of Russia. With putting Eastern Chinese line into operation Far East of Russia was joined with the rest of the country by the Great Trans-Siberian railway. Europe got an access to the Pacific Ocean.

After the Russian-Japanese war: new way again (1905-1916)

During the first period of exploitation the Trans-Siberian railway proved its efficiency and importance to the economy's development, encouraged rapid growth of goods turnover. But its traffic capacity happened to be insufficient. Traffic became especially tense during the days of the Russian-Japanese war, when the need to transport troops and freights for them appeared. Railway was capable to handle only 13 trains a day.

From 1907 to 1913 many new brunches and new sections of Trans-Siberian railway were built. The results of the Russian-Japanese war showed that having the railway on the alien territory causes some problems and does not comply with the interests of the country. Therefore Czar's government was forced to build a new railway section on the territory of Russia to Vladivostok. In 1908 construction works on the Kuenga - Khabarovsk distance (1998 km long) began. It was put into operation in 1915.

Conclusion (1916-1925)

Direct railway connection between Chelyabinsk and the pacific coast was established only in October 1916. In 1897 - 609 thousand of passengers were transported, in 1900 - 1.25 million passengers, in 1905 - 1.85 million, in 1912 - 3.2 million. During the years of the First World War technical conditions of the Trans-Siberian railway became worse. However, during the civil war the road suffered a lot more. After the civil war road construction works were immediately organized. Beginning from March 1925 traffic on the railway was opened again, and was never interrupted since then.

Today, the ~ 9600km (6000 miles) Trans-Siberian railroad, often referred to as the "Trans-Sib" or "Great Siberian Way" is the largest and busiest rail network in the world. A true engineering wonder, the road continues to provide steady traffic both eastbound and westbound by train engines running from electric power. It opened the doors to many corners of Eurasia and continues to be instrumental in defining trade and migration flow in Asia-Pacific countries.