The Trans-Siberian Railway was called by her contemporaries as one of the great and significant achievements of the human mind, putting this constructed structure on a par with the laid Suez Canal or the discovery of the American continent by Christopher Columbus.
Our contemporary, historian Alexander Goryanin claims that the Russians are just as proud of the built Trans-Siberian Railway as they are of the first launched artificial satellite of our planet Earth.
The length of the entire Trans-Siberian Railway is 9288.2 kilometers, which connected, at the same time, the capital of our Russia with the major cities of Siberia and the Far East region. She is considered one of long roads on a global scale. The highest point of the paths is located on the Yablonov Pass with an altitude of one thousand forty meters above sea level. It should also be noted that the full completion of the electrification of the entire route was completed only in the twenty-first century, in 2002.
Construction history
The history of the Trans-Siberian Railway begins at the end of the eighteenth century, on March 29, 1891, the Russian Emperor Alexander the Third signed a decree on the start of construction work to create the Great Siberian Way. This is the name in the documents originally bore the Trans-Siberian Railway.
There were no lavish celebrations for the centenary of the road. The reasons may be different, if you remember, then in 1991, a hundred years after the start of the operational period of the Trans-Siberian Railway, such a country as the USSR ceased to exist. Not best years was the time after. The country was now trying to build capitalism, however, for the bulk of the people, such an economic system, basically, showed its bestial grin.
In society to the existence of this railway treated with a philosophical outlook: it exists, it works, which means that everything is already fine, while people did not show any emotions.
The official birth of the Trans-Siberian Railway is the date of July 1, 1903 according to the Julian calendar. Russia switched to the Gregorian calendar in 1918. As for the movement of trains along the Trans-Siberian Railway, the first of them went back in the mid-nineties of the nineteenth century.
Tomsk on the Transsib map
Throughout the history of the Trans-Siberian Railway there are many different anecdotal and not very funny cases. Somewhere, in the distance, on a July day in 1896, the citizens of Tomsk heard the sound of locomotive whistles. But they did not sound at the Tomsk railway station, which did not exist yet, but were heard on the highway passing south of Tomsk. All this could mean that from a city of provincial significance, Tomsk could turn into a provincial town, and the young ladies would become ordinary provincial women. In fact, the reason that the main route of the Trans-Siberian was laid south of the provincial city was economic problems.
If the tracks were laid through Tomsk, then the railway would become longer by as much as eighty-six miles, and this is 91.744 kilometers. Given the complexity of the local terrain, and the fact that it is possible to deliver any cargo directly to the railway, then, on that, the rulers decided that the laying of tracks would be carried out south of Tomsk, although the public of the city and the merchants actively opposed such a decision. In 1910, the townspeople addressed a petition to the then Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin. There were several projects to solve this problem, starting with a connection with the Altai railway, then another proposal appeared, to lead tracks from the Ural region, from Krasnoufimsk through the city of Tobolsk. During the period when the entire territory of Russia was blazing Civil War, this issue was not removed from the agenda of the government of the young socialist republic.
Despite the fact that the citizens of Tomsk had a grudge against the Russian authorities, there were those who did not lose money, according to a common myth - they were local cab drivers. The legend said that the designers of the road were bribed by representatives of horse transport, and the railway began to be laid south of Tomsk. In those days, the stables of cabbies numbered 5,000 horses. In fact, at the end of the nineteenth century, every fifth inhabitant of the Tomsk province was engaged in transport. People then claimed that they were fed not by arable land, but by the hard work of cab drivers on the transport route. If the railroads were originally laid through Tomsk, then horse-drawn transport in this province would simply cease to be considered the main type of transportation carried out, and the Tomsk city treasury would lose a significant part of its profits. True, learned men of historical science testify to the absence of such real events associated with bribing road designers, as well as the myth of the Tomsk elder Fyodor Kuzmich, who allegedly was actually Alexander the First, remains only an invented myth. After all, the main mission of all existing legends is nothing more than an attempt to present reality in a different color or angle, thereby embellishing reality.
The start of the work of the Trans-Siberian Railway allowed the economy of the Siberian region to rush forward. The people of the Tomsk province began to actively engage in butter-making. It became profitable for peasants to donate milk received at their farmsteads, delivering it to collection points, in return receiving live cash. There were also small butter factories. The value of Siberian oil was not lower than the Vologda products of this type, but now it became possible to transport their best products over longer distances to other Russian regions, where they were in great demand. Oil products were also exported to Western European countries. All this became possible, thanks, after all, to the appearance of that very dead-end railway line that connected with the main highway. And the bulk of the people were satisfied that their city of Tomsk had not lost its provincial status.
But there are no disadvantages in such situations. First of all, the economy of the provincial city was influenced by its remoteness from the main main line of roads. Tomsk has ceased to be a significant transit point in the Siberian region. The palm passed to the newly formed city of Novosibirsk, built on the site of the godforsaken settlement of Krivoshchekovo. The modern city grew rapidly, becoming a huge metropolis, thanks to the Trans-Siberian railway.
Something happened that should have happened, during the period of the second decade, the twentieth century, the city of Tomsk ceases to be considered a provincial center. The Tomsk province also disappeared from the map, and only with the onset of 1944 did the formation of the Tomsk region take place.
After a whole century, the Trans-Siberian transit still has a negative impact on the Tomsk regional economy. The presence of remoteness from the main route leads to an increase in the cost of incoming various products. There is practically no profit for large wholesale companies to deal with the transshipment of small cargo shipments following in two or three wagons. This does not affect the total volume of cargo, and the delivery time is significantly increased. Sometimes, even to predict the date of the end of such a transaction, no one undertook.
The station point of Bely Yar is a working type settlement, but the rail track laid to it only exacerbates similar economic problems in Tomsk.
One of the main disadvantages of the Tomsk railway line is the presence of only one track. In the summer months, for the most part, repair work on the road is activated. The daily size of the time period for the repair of tracks makes trains stand idle for exactly the same amount of time, which leads to significant direct losses.
The restriction on transport accessibility to the city of Tomsk has a social impact on student outflows. For various reasons, their number in regional universities continues to decline.
historical direction
The historical part of the Trans-Siberian is considered only its eastern branch of the route, which begins in Miass, in the southern Urals, in the Chelyabinsk region, and ends in Vladivostok. The length of this route is seven thousand kilometers, its construction was carried out from 1891 to 1916.
Nine thousand six hundred people have worked on the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway since the beginning of construction. During the peak period of construction from 1895 to 1896, eighty-nine thousand people were already involved in the work. At the completion of the creation of this type of structure, on a large scale, only five thousand three hundred people remained. Almost all the ongoing construction work was carried out "hand-to-hand", where the main tools were: primitive wooden wheelbarrows, picks, shovels, saws and axes. Despite such technical equipment of builders, the annual laying of railway tracks has reached a six hundred-kilometer mark.
The Trans-Siberian Railway made it possible to carry out the movement of trains from European cities located on the oceanic coast of the Atlantic, along railroads, excluding ferry crossings, to the Russian city of Vladivostok, standing on the Pacific coast of Russia.
In total, the Trans-Siberian railway lines connected the Far East region with Siberia, the Urals and the European part of the earth. The unified transport system included Russian ports in the west: St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad, in the north: Arkhangelsk and Murmansk and in the south: Novorossiysk, in the Far East region ports: Nakhodka and Vladivostok, the border urban-type settlement of Zabaikalsk.
The history of the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway testifies to the main milestones of the laying of railway tracks, which began in Kuperovskaya Pad, near Vladivostok, on May 31, 1891. On this solemn occasion, the future Russian emperor Nicholas II, then still in the statue of the Tsarevich. A young man of imperial blood filled a whole wheelbarrow with earthen soil with his own hands and drove it to the embankment of the future railroad track. The actual date of construction is counted from March 1891, when the construction of the road began in the city of Miass, Chelyabinsk province.
The amount of the preliminary estimate for such a grandiose construction was three hundred and fifty million gold rubles. The actual expenditure of funds was multiplied many times over.
The name of one of the leaders of engineer Nikolai Sergeevich Sviyagin is the Sviyagino station point. Some of the cargo intended for the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway was delivered along the Northern sea route, with a stop at the mouth of the Yenisei River. N.V. Morozov, being a hydrologist, took part in ensuring the wiring of twenty-two steamships.
It is also noteworthy that Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich was appointed to the post of chairman of the state committee, whose duties included mandatory supervision of the progress of construction work on the Trans-Siberian Railway. When the Russian autocrat of that time, Alexander the Third, noticed this appointment, he expressed his surprise at such an early age of the chairman of the state committee, calling his son a boy. By that time, the Tsarevich had only exchanged his third decade of his age.
What is the Minister of Railways Russian Empire Mr. Sergei Witte allowed the emperor to object: "If today the heir is not given such responsible assignments, then he will never learn to fulfill them." With such an answer from a subject, the autocrat Alexander III had nothing to object to.
In the third decade of the twentieth century, diplomats from Japan spent days and nights at the car openings, counting the oncoming military echelons. In this connection, camouflaged trains, which were ordinary dummies, followed the road.
The current indicator of the capacity of this road, according to expert estimates, will be able to reach a level equal to one hundred million tons of annual cargo turnover.
The indicator of the time factor of container transportation is equal to a ten-day period, which is three times faster compared to sea routes. Despite such convincing figures, the Trans-Siberian Railway serves only two percent of the total amount of international trade in this direction. The reason lies in the absence of large and powerful sea harbors in the Far East region.
Transsib in the area Far East has a number of railway branches connecting with the station points of the Vostochny and Nakhodka ports and Cape Astafiev.
The most distant routes of the Trans-Siberian Railway began in Kharkov and Kyiv. The length of the first route was nine thousand seven hundred and fourteen kilometers. The time factor indicator reached a value equal to seven days, six hours and ten minutes. On May 15, 2010, this route is reduced, and the named trains go only to Ufa. The direct carriage train continued to follow to the final destination of the former route. A year later, this train set was finally cancelled. The length of the second route from the Ukrainian capital was ten thousand two hundred and fifty nine kilometers, the travel time was seven days, nineteen hours and fifty minutes. Canceled at the same time as the route from Kharkov.
According to the results of October 2014, one of the longest routes was the route from Beijing to Moscow and from Vladivostok to Moscow.
The train set "Russia" is recognized as the most comfortable and fastest, overcomes its journey from Moscow to Vladivostok in six days, one hour and fifty-nine minutes. The average speed is sixty-four kilometers per hour. The Yaroslavl railway station of the Russian capital city can boast of mounted historical pillars, on which the mileage of the entire route is indicated. Similar poles have been installed in Vladivostok and Novosibirsk.
The Trans-Siberian Railway, the Great Siberian Way (historical name) is a railway across Eurasia connecting Moscow (southern passage) and St. Petersburg (northern passage) with the largest East Siberian and Far Eastern industrial cities of Russia. With a length of 9298.2 km, this is the longest railway in the world.
The train leaves Moscow, crosses the Volga, and then turns southeast towards the Urals, where it - about 1800 kilometers from Moscow - passes the border between Europe and Asia. From Yekaterinburg, a large industrial center in the Urals, the path leads to Omsk and Novosibirsk, across the Ob, one of the mighty Siberian rivers with intensive navigation, and further to Krasnoyarsk on the Yenisei. Then the train goes to Irkutsk, overcomes mountain range along the southern coast of Lake Baikal, cuts off the corner of the Gobi Desert and, passing Khabarovsk, takes a course to the final point of the route - Vladivostok. There are 87 cities on the Trans-Siberian with a population of 300,000 to 15 million people. 14 cities through which the Trans-Siberian Railway passes are the centers of subjects Russian Federation.
Historically, the Trans-Siberian is only the eastern part of the highway, from Miass (South Ural, Chelyabinsk region) to Vladivostok. Its length is about 7 thousand km. This section was built from 1891 to 1916.
The highway's birthday is March 30 (April 11), 1891, when the imperial decree was issued on the laying of the Great Siberian Route.
Officially, construction began on May 19 (31), 1891 in the area near Vladivostok (Kuperovskaya Pad). At the laying ceremony, Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, the future Emperor Nicholas II, personally drove a wheelbarrow of earth to the roadbed. In fact, construction began earlier, in early March 1891, when the construction of the Miass-Chelyabinsk section began.
One of the site construction managers was engineer Nikolai Sergeevich Sviyagin, after whom the Sviyagino station was named.
Part of the cargo for the construction of the highway was delivered by the Northern Sea Route, the hydrologist N.V. Morozov led 22 steamers from Murmansk to the mouth of the Yenisei.
The movement of trains along the Trans-Siberian Railway began on October 21 (November 3), 1901, after the "golden link" was laid on the last section of the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway.
Regular communication between the capital of the empire - St. Petersburg and the Pacific ports of Russia - Vladivostok and Port Arthur by rail was established in July 1903, when the Chinese Eastern Railway, passing through Manchuria, was put into permanent ("correct") operation. . The date of July 1 (14), 1903 also marked the commissioning of the Great Siberian Way along its entire length, although trains had to be transported through Baikal on a special ferry.
A continuous rail track between St. Petersburg and Vladivostok appeared after the start of the working movement along the Circum-Baikal Railway on September 18 (October 1), 1904; and a year later, on October 16 (29), 1905, the Circum-Baikal Road, as a segment of the Great Siberian Way, was put into permanent operation; and regular passenger trains for the first time in history were able to travel only on rails, without the use of ferries, from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean (from Western Europe) to the shores of the Pacific Ocean (to Vladivostok).
After graduation Russo-Japanese War In 1904-1905, there was a threat of losing Manchuria and control over the Chinese Eastern Railway, and hence over the eastern part of the Trans-Siberian. It was necessary to continue the construction so that the highway passed only through the territory of the Russian Empire.
Almost all work was done by hand, using an ax, saw, shovel, pick and wheelbarrow. Despite this, about 500-600 km of railway track was laid annually. History has never known such a pace. The most acute and intractable was the problem of providing the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway with labor. The need for skilled workers was met by the recruitment and transfer to Siberia of builders from the center of the country. At the height of construction work on the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, 84-89 thousand people were employed. The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway was carried out in harsh natural and climatic conditions. For almost the entire length, the route was laid through sparsely populated or deserted areas, in impenetrable taiga. It crossed the mighty Siberian rivers, numerous lakes, areas of increased swampiness and permafrost (from Kuenga to Bochkarevo, now Belogorsk). Exceptional difficulties for the builders were presented by the area around Lake Baikal (Baikal station - Mysovaya station). Here it was necessary to blow up rocks, lay tunnels, erect artificial structures in the gorges of mountain rivers flowing into Lake Baikal.
The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway required huge funds. According to preliminary calculations by the Committee for the Construction of the Siberian Railway, its cost was determined at 350 million rubles. gold, therefore, in order to speed up and reduce the cost of construction, in 1891-1892. for the Ussuri line and the West Siberian line (from Chelyabinsk to the Ob River), simplified specifications. Thus, according to the recommendations of the Committee, they reduced the width of the subgrade in embankments, excavations and in mountainous areas, as well as the thickness of the ballast layer, laid lightweight rails and short sleepers, reduced the number of sleepers per 1 km of track, etc. It was envisaged to build only large railway lines. bridges, and medium and small bridges were supposed to be built of wood. The distance between stations was allowed up to 50 miles, track buildings were built on wooden poles. Here builders first encountered permafrost. Traffic along the Trans-Baikal Mainline was opened in 1900. And in 1907, the world's first building on permafrost was built at the Mozgon station, which still stands today. New method the construction of buildings on permafrost was adopted in Canada, in Greenland and in Alaska.
In terms of the speed of construction (within 12 years), the length (7.5 thousand km), the difficulties of construction and the volume of work performed, the Great Siberian Railway was unmatched in the whole world. In conditions of almost complete impassibility, a lot of time and money was spent on delivering the necessary building materials - in fact, everything except timber had to be imported. For example, for the bridge over the Irtysh and for the station in Omsk, stone was transported 740 versts by rail from Chelyabinsk and 580 versts from the banks of the Ob, as well as by water on barges from quarries located on the banks of the Irtysh 900 versts above the bridge. Metal structures for the bridge over the Amur were manufactured in Warsaw and delivered by rail to Odessa, and then transported by sea to Vladivostok, and from there by rail to Khabarovsk. In the autumn of 1914, a German cruiser sank a Belgian steamer in the Indian Ocean, which was carrying steel parts for the last two trusses of the bridge, which delayed the completion of work by a year.
End of construction on the territory of the Russian Empire: October 5 (18), 1916, with the launch of the Khabarovsk bridge across the Amur.
railway line modernization innovative
The Trans-Siberian Railway is a powerful double-track electrified railway line with a length of about 10 thousand km, equipped with modern means of information and communication. It is the longest railway in the world, a natural continuation of the international transport corridor No. 2.
In the east, through the border stations of Khasan, Grodekovo, Zabaikalsk, Naushki, the Trans-Siberian Railway provides access to the railway network North Korea, China and Mongolia, and in the west, through Russian ports and border crossings with the former republics Soviet Union- European countries.
The highway passes through the territory of 20 subjects of the Russian Federation and 5 federal districts. These resource-rich regions have significant export and import potential. In the regions served by the highway, more than 65% of the coal produced in Russia is mined, almost 20% of oil refining and 25% of commercial timber production is carried out. More than 80% of the industrial potential of the country and the main natural resources, including oil, gas, coal, timber, ores of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, etc. There are 87 cities on the Trans-Siberian, of which 14 are the centers of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
More than 50% of foreign trade and transit cargo is transported via the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Officially, construction began on May 19 (31), 1891 in the area near Vladivostok (Kuperovskaya Pad), Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, the future Emperor Nicholas II, was present at the laying. In fact, construction began earlier, in early March 1891, when the construction of the Miass-Chelyabinsk section began.
The main section of the Trans-Siberian Railway with a distance of 7.5 thousand km, passing from Chelyabinsk to Vladivostok, was built from 1891 to 1916. This year, after the completion of the construction of a bridge across the Amur River near the city of Khabarovsk, direct passenger traffic between Moscow and Vladivostok began. Before that, sections of the Chinese Eastern Railway were used to make the same journey, and the journey in one direction took 16 days.
The creation of the Trans-Siberian Railway was a great achievement of the Russian people. Despite all the hardships and dangers, the builders finished the road with difficulties and joys. They paved it on their bones, blood and humiliation, but still coped with this incredibly hard work. This road allowed Russia to transport a huge number of passengers and cargo. The deserted territories of Siberia were settled.
The Great Siberian Way has retained its political and economic significance in our time. Especially now, when the price of a plane ticket is very high, a large number of passengers prefer to travel by rail. With it, we can get to the central regions of the country, spending much less money than other modes of transport. A huge amount of cargo is also transported by rail.
Thus, the Trans-Siberian Railway has become one of the most leading railways in our country. From the day of its construction, it has become the only road that impresses with its length, location and volume of traffic.
The entire Trans-Siberian Railway is divided into several sections:
Ussuri road;
West Siberian road;
Central Siberian road;
Transbaikal road;
Manchurian road;
Circum-Baikal road;
Amur road
Geographical limits of the Trans-Siberian:
· The westernmost station - Moscow-3 (55 o 45 "N, 37 o 34" E);
· The easternmost station - Khabarovsk-2 (48 o 31 "N, 135 o 10" E);
· The southernmost station - Vladivostok (43 o 07 "N, 131 o 53" E);
· The northernmost station is Kirov (58 o 36 "N, 49 o 38" E).
Transsib directions:
Northern - Moscow - Yaroslavl - Kirov - Perm - Yekaterinburg - Tyumen - Omsk - Novosibirsk - Krasnoyarsk - Vladivostok.
New - Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod - Kirov - Perm - Yekaterinburg - Tyumen - Omsk - Novosibirsk - Krasnoyarsk - Vladivostok.
Southern - Moscow - Murom - Arzamas - Kanash - Kazan - Yekaterinburg - Tyumen (or Petropavlovsk) - Omsk - Barnaul - Novokuznetsk - Abakan - Taishet - Vladivostok.
With the commissioning of the Trans-Siberian Railway, Russia has technologically secured its Eurasian character and the ability to influence geopolitical processes. However, it is worth noting that the Trans-Siberian is not the only route connecting Europe with Asia.
To date, the main countries participating in the transportation of transit goods along the Trans-Siberian Railway are: the Republic of Korea - Finland (16.24% of the total transit volume), Finland - Japan (13.37%), Finland - the Republic of Korea (12.83%), Estonia - Republic of Korea (7.96%), Republic of Korea - Kazakhstan (5.41%) and others. In terms of container cargo transportation, the leading positions are occupied by: Japan - Mongolia (16.66%), Japan - Czech Republic (13.71%), China - Ukraine (5.53%), Republic of Korea - Lithuania (5.53%) and other.
Currently, the carrying capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway is estimated at 120 million tons per year. At the same time, there is an acute shortage of carrying and throughput capacity associated with infrastructural restrictions. According to JSC IERT, in 2012 there was a shortage of infrastructure capacity almost along the entire length of the Trans-Siberian. In this regard, the implementation of projects to increase the throughput and carrying capacity of the Trans-Siberian is necessary. In the event that no development of the infrastructure of these directions is carried out, according to some experts, by 2020 the non-export of goods in the whole network of railways will amount to about 86 million tons. Such a volume of non-export of goods will seriously slow down both the development of individual regions and the development of the country's economy as a whole.
Of course, the priority project is the modernization of the Trans-Siberian Railway, since this is the most important highway that provides not only approaches to the ports of the Far East, but also the transportation of goods that originate and are absorbed in the regions of the Far East and Siberia, as well as transit through the territory of our country.
Rice. one Scheme of the Trans-Siberian Railway
Our country can be proud of many achievements in various branches of the national economy. One of these is the Trans-Siberian Railway, which is rightfully considered the longest railway in the world. Its construction took more than one decade even during the existence of the Russian Empire, continued under the USSR and came to an end already during the existence of the Russian Federation. The direction of the Trans-Siberian Railway allows you to get from the European part of Russia to the Far East. But first things first.
Construction idea
The Siberian lands possessed a huge amount of natural resources. However, shipping them to European part country was difficult. The idea of building a railway was expressed by the governor of Eastern Siberia N. N. Muravyov-Amursky back in 1857. However, the government approved the project only by the 80s. This was due to the fact that the idea found a very large number of opponents. They criticized everything - the labor intensity, the cost, and even offered those who support the need for construction to check with psychiatrists. However, the decision was made, and in 1886, Alexander III imposed a resolution on the letter of the governor that it was necessary to start building the railway.
For these purposes, in 1887, three expeditions were organized under the leadership of O.P. Vyazemsky, N.P. Mezheninov and A.I. Ursati to find the best ways for laying rails. According to the project, the Trans-Siberian Railway (Great Siberian Way) was to consist of three sections - South Ussuriysky, Central Siberian and Transbaikal. The expeditions were completed in a few years, and in 1891 the Committee for the Construction of the Siberian Railway approved the lightened technical conditions for the construction and decided to start work. However, the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway was not limited to these three sections. The West Siberian and Amur sections and the Chinese Eastern Railway were also added to it. Such a composition of the Trans-Siberian Railway made it possible to connect Europe and Asia with a continuous railway track.
Start of construction. Stage one
So, Alexander III instructed the heir to the throne, Nicholas II, to lay the foundation stone for the construction of a railway through the Siberian possessions. Despite the high cost and the need for a large number of labor, it was decided to involve only the funds of the Russian treasury and domestic specialists in the work. In 1891, on May 31, a prayer service was held in connection with the event and the laying of the first stone was made by the future heir to the throne, Nicholas II in Vladivostok. In fact, the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway began in March on the section between Miass and Chelyabinsk.
A. I. Ursati was appointed construction manager, but due to conflicts with local city governors, he had to refuse to work in the project. O.P. Vyazemsky was appointed instead of him. He was an engineer, as they say, from God and was able to optimize construction, shortening the path by 17 kilometers. This significantly reduced the time and cost of laying rails.
The construction of the Ussuri section was completed in November 1897. Its length was 729 kilometers. The railroad tracks stretched from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk.
West Siberian section
In parallel with the Ussuri direction in 1892, the construction of the West Siberian railway from Chelyabinsk to the Ob began. K. Ya. Mikhailovsky was given the job of supervising the work. The length of the rails was 1417 kilometers. Their laying took only 4 years thanks to the use of earthmoving equipment. In 1894, the labor movement to Omsk began, and a year later the road was already partially exploited. In 1897, bridges across the Ob and Irtysh were completed, and the site was expensively accepted for permanent use.
The golden mean of the Transsib
Two years after the start of construction of the West Siberian Railway, the laying of tracks for the middle part of the great project - the Central Siberian one - began. Its length was 1830 kilometers: from the Ob River to Irkutsk. This is a rather difficult segment, since the laying of the road was mostly in mountainous terrain. Construction proceeded from two places in an easterly direction - from the Ob and from the Yenisei. The road was laid on the permafrost, because of which some changes had to be made to the project. But, despite all the difficulties, in December 1895 the first train arrived in Krasnoyarsk. All this became possible thanks to the head of the construction site - N.P. Mezheninov. Bridges across the rivers were designed by L. D. Proskuryakov, an outstanding bridge builder of that time. The Central Siberian Railway was put into operation in 1899.
New site and new challenges
The Trans-Baikal Railway cost the Russian Empire ¼ of the cost of the entire Trans-Siberian Railway. It was supposed to run from the southern coast of Lake Baikal to Khabarovsk itself. Construction began in 1895 and progressed very slowly due to floods and permafrost. The line for 5 years was completed only to Sretensk (1105 kilometers).
Further difficulties began to arise on an even greater scale. Political disagreements began to escalate in the Far East, and the state treasury experienced not better times and could not fully finance the construction. In 1900, work was suspended. It was also decided to create a ferry railway across Lake Baikal due to the fact that where the Trans-Siberian Railway was laid, the natural conditions turned out to be too difficult. And this slowed down the progress of all work. It was decided to lay further routes through the territory of China in order to quickly join the Ussuri section.
However, due to the poor capacity of the ferry in 1903, construction work was resumed. Paths were laid along the southern shore of the lake. The section from the port of Baikal to Kultuk was the most difficult - it is a continuous rocky ridge for more than 80 kilometers
friendship with China. Not all beginnings end well
The proposal of the Minister of Finance S.Yu. Witte was met favorably and after the creation of the Russian-Chinese Bank in 1895, in 1896 an agreement was signed with the government of the Celestial Empire on the construction of the Chinese-East Road through the territory of Manchuria. Work on the construction of tracks with a length of 3016 kilometers ended in 1903.
It would seem that the construction of the road is almost completed, there was only a section on the coast of Baikal, which needs to be completed, since the crossing could not cope with the growing needs of transporting people and goods. And indeed, along the railway in Manchuria, new cities appeared due to immigrants from other areas of the Chinese Empire. As a result, overpopulation led to the fact that the Chinese began to move to the region of Primorsky Krai. This provided the territory with an unworthy labor force.
But in 1905, in the war with Japan, Russia was defeated, and most of the railway passing through Manchuria was obliged to transfer to the winner (according to the Portsmouth Treaty). However, such a loss only contributed to the fact that it was necessary to build the Amur railway in order to connect the Ussuri and Trans-Baikal sections of the Trans-Siberian Railway.
The last stage of historical construction
The decision to lay tracks on the last section of the track was made in 1908. The road began to stretch from the Kuenga station, which is located between Chita and Sretensk. At this stage, it was necessary to master new ways of laying the embankment under the sleepers, laying a tunnel in the frozen ground. The completion of the grandiose project was the bridge across the Amur. It should be given special attention. It was designed by engineer Proskuryakov, like the rest of the bridges of the Trans-Siberian Railway. In 1916, this section was put into operation and the construction of the highway was completed.
Directions of the Siberian Way
Despite the fact that the work was completed back in 1916, the railway was rebuilt several times, new branches and nodes appeared. So, today there is not one direction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, but four. This is due to the fact that it was necessary to expand the approaches to the railway to increase the volume of cargo transportation. It includes the main course, which the Trans-Siberian Railway has, - the nodes of the largest industrial cities of Russia - Moscow, Yaroslavl, Kirov, Perm, Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and Vladivostok. This direction is also called the North. The following transport hubs of the Trans-Siberian Railway are included in the historical course - Moscow, Ryazan, Ruzaevka, Samara, Ufa, Miass, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Petropavlovsk. The rest of the stations correspond to the main course.
Significance of the Trans-Siberian Railway
Both at the time of construction and today, the social and economic significance of the Great Siberian Way cannot be overestimated. First of all, thanks to this railway track it became possible to connect the European part of Russia and access to Europe with the East of the country. The railway passes through 87 cities, crosses 14 regions, 3 territories and two republics that are part of the Russian Federation. This path allowed for the migration of the population and the redistribution of human resources.
From an economic point of view, the Trans-Siberian Railway (the natural conditions of which are not conducive to rapid transportation by other modes of transport) made it possible to move resources from Siberia, which is rich in them, to places of production and consumption. Huge volumes of cargo for various purposes are transported annually.
The railway across almost the entire territory of Russia is important even on an international scale. It made it possible to move goods and people from the East to European countries and vice versa. This has undoubtedly improved the international economy.
Development through electrification
On the Trans-Siberian Railway, steam locomotives were engaged in the transportation of goods and people. Naturally, their capacity was limited, and the amount of cargo was also limited to it. In 1929, the electrification of the railway began, which ended only in 2002. Just like the construction of the highway itself, the work was carried out in sections. This limited capacity, as sections without electricity had to change the locomotive and reduce the number of freight cars. Because of this, transportation was delayed in time, which negatively affected economic ties both within the country and outside it. However, thanks to electrification, the development of the Trans-Siberian Railway continued.
In 2014, a plan for the reconstruction and modernization of Russian railways was approved. It is expected to be implemented by 2018-2020. Such measures are being taken in order to further increase the capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway for the transport of goods and passengers.
What will the investment bring? At a minimum, they will entail an increase in the capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and at a maximum, they will make it possible to upgrade locomotives, wagons, tracks, modernize various sections and self-sufficiency. Such prospects for the Trans-Siberian Railway will help the further development of the regions through which it passes.
Some interesting facts
First of all, the Trans-Siberian Railway is the longest railway in the world. This path connects two continents - Europe and Asia. A memorial sign was erected on their border (near the city of Pervouralsk). On the section Skovorodino - Mogocha, the most severe climatic conditions. The longest railway bridge is located on the Amur River. The largest station on the route is located in Novosibirsk. The most intense, fast and dull section is located between Omsk and Novosibirsk. And at the Slyudyanka-1 station, the only marble station in the world was built as a monument to the labor of the builders of the highway.
The words of Mikhail Lomonosov are well known that the wealth of Russia will grow in Siberia. It is less known that the very riches of Siberia grew ... by the railway. It was the construction of the great Siberian route that served as a powerful impetus to the development of industry and the entire economy of the East of the country.
By the end of the 19th century, the idea of building the Trans-Siberian Railway matured and became stronger in Russia. Emperor Alexander III ordered to start the necessary research and discuss the route of the future road in the Committee of Ministers.
In February 1891, a decree was issued on the construction of a "continuous railway through the whole of Siberia" from Chelyabinsk to Vladivostok. Its construction was declared "great popular cause". The highway was divided into seven roads: West Siberian, Central Siberian, Circum-Baikal, Trans-Baikal, Amur, North Ussuri and South Ussuri. Later, the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) appeared.
On May 19, 1891, the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway began in Vladivostok. All construction affairs were in charge of: Administration for the construction of the Siberian Railways, Engineering Council MPS and Bridge Commission. In February 1894, the Committee of the Siberian Railways began its work, which included ministers of various departments, chaired there, according to the wishes of Alexander III, Emperor Nicholas II, and therefore the decisions of the Committee "had the value of laws."
Everything was subordinated to the task of providing a through route to the Pacific Ocean as soon as possible.
The builders achieved a record speed of laying rails - 642 miles per year, which was one and a half times faster than on the recently built Canadian Pacific Railway in America. The Trans-Siberian was built single-track.
In 1894, the railway was brought to Omsk, in 1898 - to Irkutsk. The movement of trains along the entire length of the Trans-Siberian Railway was first opened in 1901. In terms of total length - 7416 km - the road had no equal. Contemporaries compared the discovery of the Trans-Siberian Railway with the discovery of America by Columbus. The organizers of the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 awarded the "Grand Prix" to the Committee of the Siberian Railway and the Russian Ministry of Railways for the implementation of an outstanding construction project and great work on the exploration of Siberia and the Far East.
Recall that over 1.5 thousand steam locomotives and more than 30 thousand wagons were delivered to the main line. Their production made it possible to fully load the factories of the European part of Russia with orders. The railway with locomotive and car repair shops became the largest and most technically equipped industrial and transport enterprise in Siberia.
The Trans-Siberian Railway led to the revival of trade in vast areas. The road, laid from west to east, crossed the Tobol, Irtysh, Ob, Yenisei. The main Siberian rivers were connected with each other and turned into convenient waterways for the transport of goods. The construction of the railway contributed to the development of gold mining and the emergence of a coal industry in Siberia, mines were opened in Cheremkhovo and other places. For 17 years (from 1900 to 1917) coal production in Eastern Siberia increased from 5 million to 115 million pounds and continued to grow.
World practice did not know the railway construction of such a scale, carried out in such difficult natural conditions and at such times.
The large-scale development of the Far East, the sharply increased cargo flow to the Pacific Ocean, required the construction of second tracks on the Trans-Siberian. This was preceded by a thorough engineering, economic and technical study of many issues. The initial increase in throughput was solved at the expense of the device a large number sidings between stations. Special attention devoted to the reconstruction of mountainous areas.
In October 1904, a decision was made to build a second main track on the Trans-Siberian. The principles and technical conditions of the reconstruction were developed by the engineer N.P. Petrov. A particularly large amount of work on laying the second track and reorganizing the mountain sections was carried out in 1907-1910.
IN Soviet time Much has been done on the Trans-Siberian for its technical reconstruction, which makes it possible to successfully cope with significant transportation of national economic goods.
Today, descendants gratefully remember the builders of the Great Siberian Railway.
Yulian TOLSTOV, member of the board of the VOLZhD
The Council of Ministers of Russia divided the construction of the Trans-Siberian into three stages according to the time of construction. This is the most interesting map of the first stage of the Great Road: Chelyabinsk - Ob (1418 km) and Ob - Irkutsk (1818 km). The map, in addition to large stations, shows, in the opinion of the compiler, the most characteristic details of the route.
In February 1891, a decree was issued on the construction of a "continuous railway through the whole of Siberia" from Chelyabinsk to Vladivostok. Its construction was declared a "great people's work." Thus, the Chelyabinsk station of the Orenburg province became the starting point of the first stage of the Trans-Siberian - the West Siberian road.
The Siberian railway was built according to lightweight construction standards, which were approved by Nicholas II. It was allowed to take the width of the subgrade on top up to 5.26 m instead of 6.1 m. Similar concessions were allowed in relation to the thickness of the ballast layer, etc. Only miracle bridges were built in accordance with the rules and regulations.
The toy station at the Oyash station of the West Siberian Railway had carved decorations that were remembered for a long time by all those passing by. The station is located on the stretch Novonikolaevsk - Yurga, on the right side of the platform there is a characteristic sign of the times - a kerosene lantern for lighting.
Transbaikal railway. Semi-barracks on the Turin cliff, on the 753rd verst.
In the semi-barracks, according to the schedule of the track service, the artel headman and his artel (a brigade of railway workers), who were responsible for a certain section of the line, lived.
In 1896, the first section of the West Siberian road was completed - a bridge was built across the Irtysh, a railway station in Omsk. The station has grown in a Siberian solid, stone and quite comfortable. By all accounts, this was the most successful station on the road. The Omsk station grew rapidly, the traffic steadily increased from day to day.
The Ob station (Novonikolaevsk, Novosibirsk) was founded in 1894 on the right bank of the Ob. The station was assigned class III, and a modest standard wooden station was built on it for 18 thousand rubles.
Soon a settlement arose here, which over the past years has become the largest in Western Siberia city and a powerful railway junction of the road network.
The hut of the builder of the highway of one of the settlements of the route. A painful, dull sight - some kind of miserable semblance of a dwelling that is unlikely to protect from rain and even more severe Siberian cold. But this is how they lived and conquered kilometers of the way in the forest thicket with an ax and fire, with hard work.
At the Taiga station of the Central Siberian Railway there was a large locomotive depot for those times, sometimes up to 60 locomotives handled there. After the discovery of coal deposits, the station became a major point for sending coal not only to the Trans-Siberian.
The bridge across the Yenisei was called the bridge of the century, since it was the first in Russia and the second on the Eurasian mainland in terms of spans - 145 m. It was designed by engineer L. D. Proskuryakov. The bridge was built in a short time: 1896-1899. It is important that the spans were lighter than those on other bridges, without losing strength.
The first train to Irkutsk arrived from Krasnoyarsk on August 16, 1898. All in greenery and flags, the "First Siberian Special Purpose Train", which looked like a Christmas tree, at 12 o'clock in the afternoon, overshadowed by the cross of the local archbishop, slowly approached the station. A locomotive whistle sounded on the Angara!
Station Irkutsk (1899) is located on the left bank of the Angara, in the Glazov suburb. The place for the station was chosen by the "Commission for on-site investigation of the construction of the Siberian Railway", headed by the well-known engineer N.P. Petrov. The station had a significant track development, a large depot, behind which the white tower of the Irkutsk railway station is visible.
At 1091 versts from Irkutsk, near the Cossack village of Kaydalovskaya, the so-called "Chinese junction" (now the Tarskaya station) was located. From this junction, the branch deviated to the border, to the connection of Manchuria with the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER).
After the Yablonevoy ridge, behind the Ingoda station, the Chita station, a major railway junction, spreads widely. The city was founded on the Chitinka River in 1653 by the Cossack chieftain Beketov. The railroad came to these parts in July 1900.
The characteristic landscape of the Trans-Siberian Railway: among the centuries-old taiga, steep-sided rocks, a route was cut down and a steel track was laid. A dirt road winds nearby - you can only drive along the railway. This is a place near the Kruchina River, which flows into the Ingoda near Chita.
On May 19, 1896, in Vladivostok, the laying of the Ussuri road, the first link of the Trans-Siberian Railway from the Pacific Ocean, took place. The ceremony was attended by the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Nicholas II. This station was built in 1894 (architect E. Bazilevsky).
A source
- A set of postcards "Construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway", publishing house "Railway Business", Moscow, 2001
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