What is the peculiarity of the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. How the Transsib was created (brief essay)

The Trans-Siberian Railway (abbreviated Trans-Siberian, the historical name of the Great Siberian Way) is a railway across Eurasia connecting Moscow and the largest East Siberian and Far Eastern industrial cities of Russia. The length of the highway is 9288.2 km. This is the longest railway in the world. The highest point of the route - Yablonovy pass (1019 m above sea level) . In 2002 completed its full electrification. Historically, the Trans-Siberian is only the eastern part of the highway, from Chelyabinsk (Southern Urals) to Vladivostok. Its length is about 7 thousand km. It was this section that was built from 1891 to 1916. Currently, the Trans-Siberian Railway connects the European part, the Urals, Siberia and the Far East of Russia, and more broadly - the Russian western, northern and southern ports, as well as railway outlets to Europe (St. Petersburg, Murmansk , Novorossiysk), on the one hand, with Pacific ports and railway outlets to Asia (Vladivostok, Nakhodka, Zabaikalsk). In autumn 2010 the Minister of Transport Russian Federation Igor Levitin said that the capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway is completely exhausted .

Stages of construction of the Great Siberian Way

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.

One of the prominent leaders in the construction of one of the sections was engineer Nikolai Sergeyevich Sviyagin, after whom the Sviyagino station was named.

Part of the necessary 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 working 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 Dalniy 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 there was a break in the rail track: trains had to be transported across Lake 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, as a segment of the Great Siberian Way, it was put into permanent operation; and regular passenger trains for the first time in history were able to follow only on rails, without the use of ferries, from the coast Atlantic Ocean(from Western Europe) to the shores of the Pacific Ocean (to Vladivostok).

After the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, there was a threat that Russia would be forced to withdraw from Manchuria and thus lose control of the Chinese Eastern Railway, thereby losing the eastern part of the Trans-Siberian Railway. It was necessary to continue the construction so that the highway passed only through the territory Russian Empire.

End of construction on the territory of the Russian Empire: October 5 (18), 1916, with the launch of the bridge over the Amur near Khabarovsk and the start of train traffic on this bridge.

The cost of building the Trans-Siberian Railway from 1891 to 1913 amounted to 1,455,413,000 rubles (in 1913 prices).

Modernization of the Trans-Siberian Railway

In the 1990-2000s, a number of measures were taken to modernize the Trans-Siberian Railway, designed to increase the throughput of the line. In particular, the railway bridge across the Amur near Khabarovsk was reconstructed, as a result of which the last single-track section of the Trans-Siberian was eliminated. In 2002, full electrification of the main line was completed.

Further modernization of the road is expected due to obsolescence of infrastructure and rolling stock.

January 11, 2008 China, Mongolia, Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany entered into an agreement on the Beijing-Hamburg freight traffic optimization project.

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 - - - Vladivostok. Historical Moscow - Ryazan - Ruzaevka - Samara - Ufa - Chelyabinsk - Kurgan - Petropavlovsk - Omsk - Novosibirsk - Krasnoyarsk - - Vladivostok.

Neighbors of the Trans-Siberian Railway

The lines of the West Siberian Railway from Omsk and Tatarsk (via Karasuk and Kulunda) connect the Trans-Siberian with Northern Kazakhstan. From Novosibirsk to the south, through Barnaul, Turksib leads to Central Asia. At the end of the 20th century, in the Far East, north of the Trans-Siberian Railway was laid.

Settlements along the Trans-Siberian Railway

Settlements and railway stations located along the Trans-Siberian Railway (the entire list in alphabetical order):

Abramtsevo
Aksenovo-Zilovskoe/Zilovo
Alexandrov
Alzamay
Amazar
Angarsk
Anzhero-Sudzhensk/Anzherskaya
Antropovo
argali
Achinsk
Babushkin/Mysovaya
Balezino
Barabinsk
Belogorsk
Beloyarsky/Bazhenovo
Bikin
Birobidzhan
Biryusinsk
Bogdanovich
Bogotol
Bolotnoe/Bolotnaya
Bureya
Vereshchagino
Vladivostok
Volochaevka
Volno-Nadezhdinskoye/Nadezhdinskaya
Vyazemsky/Vyazemskaya
Galich
Glazov
Golyshmanovo
Dalnerechensk
Danilov
Darasun
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinoslavka
Erofei Pavlovich
Zhireken
Curly
Zavodoukovsk
Zaigraevo
Zalari
Zaozernaya
Winter
Zuevka
Izhmorskaya
Ilanskaya
Kalachinskaya
Kamyshlov
Kansk/Kansk-Yeniseisky
Kargat
Karymskoe/Karymskaya
Kirov
Kozulka
Kormilovka
Kotelnich
Kochenevo
Krasnoyarsk
Ksenievka/Ksenievskaya
Kuitun
Kultuk
Kungur
Kutulik
Leninskoe/Shabalino
Lesozavodsk
Luchegorsk
love
Lyubinsky/Lyubinsky
Magdagachi
Maysky/Tchaikovsky
Manturovo
Mariinsk
Mikhailovka/Dubininsky
mogzon
Mogocha
Moscow
Moshkovo
Mytishchi
Nazyvaevsk/Nazyvaevskaya
Nizhneudinsk
Lower Ingash/Ingash
Nizhny Novgorod
Lower Floodplain/Reshots
Novopavlovka
Novosibirsk
Novochernorechensky/Chernorechenskaya
Irradiation
Omutinsky/Omutinskaya
Orichi
Pereyaslavka/Verino
Pervouralsk
Permian
Petrovsk-Zabaykalsky/Petrovsky Zavod
Ponazyrevo
Mine / Mine
Pushkino
Pyshma/Oshchepkovo
Radonezh
Rostov-Yaroslavsky/Rostov
Sergiev Posad
Candle
Free
Seryshevo
Sibirtsevo
Skovorodino
Slyudyanka
Smidovich/In
Sofrino
Spassk-Dalniy
Station-Oyashinsky/Oyash]]
Strunino
Taiga
Taishet
Tankhoy
Tatarsk/Tatarskaya
Takhtamygda
Tugulym
Tulun
Tyumen
Tyazhin/Tyazhin
Ubinskoye/Ubinskaya
Ulan-Ude
Usolie-Sibirskoe
Ussuriysk
Ust-Kishert/Kishert
Ushumun
Falenki
Khabarovsk
Khilok
Khotkovo
Cheremkhovo
Chernigovka/Flour
Chernyshevsk/Chernyshevsk-Zabaykalsky
Chulym/Chulymskaya
Sharya
Shelekhov / Goncharovo
Shilka
Shimanovsk/Shymanovskaya
Yalutorovsk
Yaroslavl
Yashkino

Below is the main route of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which has been operating since 1958 (the name of the railway station is given through a fraction if it does not match the name of the corresponding settlement):

Moscow-Yaroslavl - Yaroslavl-Glavny - Danilov - Bui - Sharya - Kirov - Balezino - Vereshchagino - Perm-2 - Yekaterinburg-Passenger - [Tyumen - Nazyvaevsk / Nazyvaevskaya - Omsk-Passenger - Barabinsk - Novosibirsk-Glavny - Yurga-I - Taiga - Anzhero-Sudzhensk/Anzherskaya - Mariinsk - Bogotol - Achinsk-1 - Krasnoyarsk-Passenger - Ilanskiy/Ilanskaya - Taishet - Nizhneudinsk - - Irkutsk-passenger- -1 - Ulan-Ude - Petrovsk-Zabaykalsky / Petrovsky Zavod - Chita-2 - Karymskoye / Karymskaya - Chernyshevsk / Chernyshevsk-Zabaykalsky - Mogocha - Skovorodino - Belogorsk - Arkhara - Birobidzhan-1 - Khabarovsk-1 - Vyazemsky (city)| Vyazemsky / Vyazemskaya - Lesozavodsk / Ruzhino - Ussuriysk - Vladivostok

Trans-Siberian Railway in literature

Mazhit Gafuri began his path in literature with a book Seber timer yuly yaki әkhүәle millate(“The Siberian Railway, or the Position of the Nation”) (Orenburg, 1904).

Interesting facts about the Trans-Siberian Railway

Although Vladivostok is the terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway, there are stations on the branch to Nakhodka that are more distant from Moscow - Cape Astafiev and Vostochny Port.
Until recently, the world's farthest train No. 53/54 Kharkiv - Vladivostok ran along the Trans-Siberian Railway, covering 9714 km in 174 hours 10 minutes. Since May 15, 2010, this train has been "cut off" to the Ufa station, however, the running of direct cars has been preserved. The farthest non-stop carriage in the world at the moment is Kyiv - Vladivostok, the distance is 10259 km, the travel time is 187 hours 50 minutes.
The "fastest" train of the Trans-Siberian Railway is No. 1/2 "Russia", with a message from Moscow to Vladivostok. It passes the Trans-Siberian Railway in 6 days 2 hours.
At the Yaroslavl railway station in Moscow, as well as in Vladivostok, special kilometer poles were installed indicating the length of the highway - “0 km” on one side and “9298 km” on the other side (moreover, in Vladivostok, the sign says “9288”).

Plans for reconstruction

The need to reconstruct the Trans-Siberian and BAM was announced at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the modernization of railways in July last year. For the reconstruction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline and the Trans-Siberian Railway, JSC "Russian Railways" and the government of the Russian Federation intend to allocate 562 billion rubles by 2018, of which 150 billion rubles. allocated from the NWF, 110 billion rubles. - in the form of direct budget investments, about another 300 billion rubles. it is planned to attract through the investment program of Russian Railways. In general, according to minimal estimates, the implementation of the project requires 900 billion rubles. investments. However, according to Vladimir Yakunin, president of Russian Railways, the actual amount of necessary investment reaches 1.5 trillion rubles. When implementing the project, by 2020 it is expected to ensure the passage of cargo flows up to 55 million tons per year, compared to today's 16 million tons. As preliminary results of the TPA have shown, the economic effect from the implementation of the projects for the reconstruction of the BAM and the Trans-Siberian Railway is estimated by investors in the amount of 100 billion rubles.

The Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, which allows the use of funds from the National Welfare Fund for the modernization of the Baikal-Amur and Trans-Siberian Railways, was signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

In 1857 Governor General Eastern Siberia N. N. Muravyov-Amursky raised the question of building a railway on the Siberian outskirts of Russia. He instructed the military engineer D. Romanov to conduct surveys and draw up a project for the construction of a railway from the Amur to the De-Kastri Bay. In the 50-70s of the XIX century. Russian specialists developed a number of new projects for the construction of railways in Siberia, but all of them did not find support from the government, which only in the mid-80s of the XIX century. began to resolve the issue of the Siberian railway. There were many proposals from foreign entrepreneurs. But the Russian government, fearing the strengthening of foreign influence in Siberia and the Far East, rejected the proposals of foreign capitalists and their industrial companies and decided to build the road at the expense of the treasury.
The first practical impetus for the start of the construction of the grandiose highway was given by the Emperor of the Russian Empire Alexander III. In 1886, the sovereign imposed a resolution on the report of the Irkutsk Governor-General: “ I have read so many reports of Siberian governor-generals and I must confess with sadness and shame that the government has so far done almost nothing to meet the needs of this rich but neglected region. And it's time, it's time“. And in the same year, having familiarized himself with the opinion of A.N. Korf on the importance of the railway for the Far Eastern regions, Alexander III ordered to “submit considerations” regarding the preparation for the construction of a steel sheet.
In 1887, under the guidance of engineers N. P. Mezheninov, O. P. Vyazemsky and A. I. Ursati, three expeditions were organized to find the route of the Central Siberian, Transbaikal and South Ussuri railways, which by the 90s of the XIX century. basically completed their work. At the beginning of 1891, the Committee for the Construction of the Siberian Railway was created, which issued an important decision that “ The Siberian railway, this great people's work, must be carried out by Russian people and from Russian materials.“, and approved the lightweight specifications highway construction. In February 1891, the Committee of Ministers recognized that it was possible to start work on the construction of the Great Siberian Route simultaneously from two sides - from Chelyabinsk and Vladivostok.

Laying the highway: Vladivostok, 1891.

The beginning of work on the construction of the Ussuri section of the Siberian railway, Alexander III gave the meaning of an extraordinary event in the life of the empire, as evidenced by the text of the tsar's rescript addressed to the heir to the Russian throne: “I order now to begin the construction of a continuous railway through the whole of Siberia, with the aim of connecting the abundant natural gifts of the Siberian regions with a network of internal rail communications. I instruct you to declare such my will, upon entering the Russian land again, after reviewing the foreign countries of the East. At the same time, I entrust you with laying the groundwork in Vladivostok for construction of the Ussuri section of the Great Siberian Railroad, at the expense of the treasury and by direct order of the government“.
Nikolai Alexandrovich complied with the instructions of the august parent. On May 19 (May 31, according to the new style), 1891, at 10 am, two and a half miles from the city, a prayer service was held in a luxurious pavilion on the occasion of laying the road. The Tsarevich also took part in the laying of the first stone of the railway station and a silver plate made in St. Petersburg according to a model approved by the emperor. Thus began a grandiose and difficult construction.

Grand construction (1891-1903).

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. She crossed mighty Siberian rivers, numerous lakes, areas of increased swampiness and eternal 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 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 Ussuriyskaya line and the West Siberian line (from Chelyabinsk to the Ob River), simplified specifications were taken as a basis. 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.
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. According to V. F. Borzunov, from 3.6 thousand to 15 thousand workers from European Russia were involved in the construction of the West Siberian section of the highway in different years, from 3 thousand to 11 thousand workers from Central Siberia, from 2, 5 thousand to 4.5 thousand. A significant part of the builders were exiled prisoners and soldiers. The continuous replenishment of the labor force on the construction of the highway was due to the involvement of Siberian peasants and townspeople and the influx of peasants and philistines from European Russia. In total, there were 9,600 people at the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1891, at the beginning of construction, and in 1895-1896, at the height of construction work. - 84-89 thousand, in 1904, at the final stage - only 5300 people. In 1910, 20 thousand people worked on the construction of the Amur railway.
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 almost complete off-road conditions, the delivery of the necessary construction materials - and in fact everything had to be imported except timber - a lot of time and money was spent. 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, the German cruiser sank in Indian Ocean a Belgian steamer carrying steel parts for the last two trusses of the bridge, delaying completion by a year.
Almost all work was done by hand, the tools were the most primitive - an ax, a saw, a shovel, a pick and a wheelbarrow. Despite this, about 500 - 600 km of railway track were laid annually. History has not yet known such rates. About volume work performed and the enormous costs of human labor are evidenced by data for 1903: over 100 million cubic meters were produced. m of earthworks, prepared and laid more than 12 million sleepers, about 1 million tons of rails and fasteners, built bridges and tunnels with a total length of up to 100 km. Only during the construction of the Circum-Baikal Railway with a length of a little more than 230 km, 50 galleries were built to protect the track from mountain landslides, 39 tunnels and about 14 km of retaining walls, mainly on cement and hydraulic mortar. The cost of all tunnels with pillars and galleries amounted to over 10 million rubles, and the cost of building the entire highway exceeded 1 billion rubles. gold rubles.
Many talented Russian engineers, graduates of domestic educational institutions who gained experience in railway construction in Russia.
The laying of the South Ussuriysk road, begun in April 1891, ended in 1894, and three years later its northern section was commissioned. Temporary traffic on the section from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk with a length of 772 km was opened on October 26, 1897, permanent traffic - on November 13, 1897. The construction of the Ussuri railroad was led by engineer O.P. Vyazemsky. One of the railway stations (Vyazemskaya) on this road is named after him.
In 1896, the West Siberian Railway from Chelyabinsk to Novonikolaevsk (now Novosibirsk) was put into operation with a length of 1422 km. The head of the expedition and construction on the approaches to the Ob River and the bridge crossing over it was the engineer and writer N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky.
The Central Siberian Railway from the Ob to Irkutsk with a length of 1839 km was built in 1899 under the leadership of engineer N. P. Mezheninov. The railway bridge across the Ob was designed by N. A. Belelyubsky, an outstanding Russian design engineer and builder of bridges, later a prominent scientist in the field of structural mechanics and bridge building.
A. V. Liverovsky played a big role in organizing the construction of the Circum-Baikal Railway and solving many technical problems associated with it. He also participated in the construction of the eastern section of the Amur railway, and the unique Amur bridge on the European-Asian continent. On September 12, 1904, the first experimental train passed along the Circum-Baikal Road, and in 1905 regular traffic was opened. A talented engineer, later a prominent scientist in the field of bridge building, L. D. Proskuryakov designed a bridge across the Yenisei near Krasnoyarsk (he was also the author of the bridge across the Amur).
By the spring of 1901, the construction of the Trans-Siberian section of the Trans-Siberian Railway to the Sretensk station was completed, and to connect the European part of Russia with the Pacific coast, a continuous rail track lacked a section of about 2 thousand km from Khabarovsk to Sretensk. True, due to the difficult climatic and geological conditions in the Amur area, as well as for political reasons, the tsarist government at first refused to build a road here and decided to go from Transbaikalia to Vladivostok by a more southerly route, through Manchuria. Thus, the Chinese Eastern Railway, built by Russia and put into operation in 1903, arose, passing through the territory of Manchuria through Harbin to the Pogranichnaya (Grodekovo) station. In 1901, a line was built from Grodekovo to Ussuriysk, and Vladivostok was connected by steel gauge to the center of Russia. With the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway, communication was established with the Far East along the entire length of the Great Siberian Route. Europe gained access to the Pacific Ocean.

After the Russo-Japanese War: Again a New Road (1905-1916).

Thus, the Trans-Siberian Railway already in the first period of operation revealed its great importance for the development of the economy, contributed to the acceleration and growth of the turnover of goods. However, the capacity of the road was insufficient. The movement along the Siberian and Trans-Baikal railways became extremely tense during the Russo-Japanese War, when troops poured in from the west. The highway could not cope with the movement of troops and the delivery of military cargo. During the war, the Siberian railway passed only 13 trains a day, so it was decided to reduce the transportation of civilian goods. In addition, the transfer of troops was complicated by the fact that the section of the Circum-Baikal Railway was not completed, and until 1905 communication between the western and eastern shores of Lake Baikal was carried out using a ferry crossing. The ferry-icebreaker "Baikal" with a displacement of 3470 tons transported 25 loaded wagons in one trip. In winter, from the Baikal station to Tankhoi, a rail track was laid on the ice of the lake, along which steam locomotives and wagons “rolled”. On some days, up to 220 wagons were transported in this way.
After the end of the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian government took a number of measures to increase the capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway. To consider the whole range of issues related to this problem, a special commission was created, which came to the conclusion that it was necessary to increase the speed of trains. To this end, it was decided: to increase the number of sleepers per 1 km of track and the width of the subgrade; replace lightweight rails with rails of heavier types and lay them on metal linings; instead of temporary wooden bridges, build capital bridges, as well as increase the number of steam locomotives and wagons on the line.
On June 3, 1907, the Council of Ministers considered and approved the proposals of the Ministry of Railways on the construction of the second track of the Siberian Railway and the reconstruction of mountainous sections of the track. Under the leadership of A.V. Liverovsky, work began on softening the slopes in the mountainous areas from Achinsk to Irkutsk and laying a second route from Chelyabinsk to Irkutsk. In 1909, the Siberian Railway became double-track for 3274 km. In 1913 the second track was extended along Baikal and beyond Baikal to Karymskaya station. The implementation of important measures to increase the capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway was accompanied by the construction of its new sections or branches from it.
The unsuccessful outcome of the Russo-Japanese War showed that the road running through foreign territory, in a strategic sense, cannot ensure the interests of the country, and forced the tsarist government to create a continuous rail route to Vladivostok through Russia. On May 31, 1908, the State Council decided to build the Amur Railway. The construction of the Trans-Siberian section from the Kuenga station to Khabarovsk with a length of more than 2000 km was started in 1907 and put into operation in 1915. In the same period, the construction of the Minusinsk-Achinsk railway (to Abakan) began.

Conclusion (1916-1925).

Through railway communication from Chelyabinsk to the shores of the Pacific Ocean through the territory of the Russian Empire was opened only in October 1916, after the completion of the construction of the Amur railway and the commissioning of the Amur bridge. The Trans-Siberian Railway was administratively divided into four roads: Siberian, Trans-Baikal, Amur and Ussuri. The transportation of passengers increased continuously: in 1897, 609 thousand were transported, in 1900 - 1.25 million, in 1905 - 1.85 million, in 1912 - 3.2 million.
During the First World War, the technical condition of the road deteriorated sharply. But the most enormous destruction of the road was made during the civil war. Most of the steam locomotives and wagons were destroyed, bridges were blown up and burned, for example, across the Irtysh and the largest bridge across the Amur River, water supply devices, passenger and station buildings. But after the civil war, restoration work began on the road without delay. In the winter of 1924-1925, the destroyed part of the Amur Bridge was restored, and in March 1925, through train traffic resumed on the road, now without interruption, until today.

The Trans-Siberian, the Trans-Siberian Railway (modern names) or the Great Siberian Way (historical name) is a well-equipped railroad across the entire continent, connecting European Russia, its largest industrial regions and the country's capital Moscow with its middle (Siberia) and eastern (Far East) districts. This is the road that binds Russia, a country that stretches across 10 time zones, into a single economic organism, and most importantly, into a single military-strategic space. If it had not been built at the time, then with a very high probability Russia would hardly have kept the Far East and the Pacific coast for itself - just as it could not keep Alaska, which was in no way connected with the Russian Empire by stable means of communication. The Trans-Siberian is also the road that gave impetus to the development of the eastern regions and involved them in the economic life of the rest of the vast country.

Some think that the term "Trans-Siberian" should be interpreted as a route connecting the Urals and the Far East, and literally passing "through" Siberia (Trans-Siberian). But this is contrary to the state of affairs and does not reflect the true meaning of this highway. What about the title? This name was given to us by the British, who dubbed the path not “Great Siberian Way”, as the literal translation from Russian should have been, but “Trans-Siberian Railway” - and then it took root and took root in speech.

And now "Transsib" as a geopolitical concept makes sense as a path connecting the Center and the Pacific Ocean, Moscow and Vladivostok, and more broadly - as a path connecting the ports of the West and the capital of Russia, as well as exits to Europe (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Brest, Kaliningrad) with ports of the East and outlets to Asia (Vladivostok, Nakhodka, Vanino, Zabaikalsk); and not a local route connecting the Urals and the Far East.

The narrow interpretation of the term "Transsib" suggests that we are talking about the main passenger route Moscow - Yaroslavl - Yekaterinburg - Omsk - Irkutsk - Chita - Vladivostok, the exact route of which is given below.

The length of the Trans-Siberian.

The actual length of the Trans-Siberian Railway along the main passenger route (from Moscow to Vladivostok) is 9288.2 km, and according to this indicator, it is the longest on the planet, crossing almost all of Eurasia by land. The tariff length (according to which ticket prices are calculated) is somewhat larger - 9298 km and does not coincide with the real one. There are several parallel cargo bypasses in different sections. The track gauge on the Trans-Siberian is 1520 mm.

The length of the Great Siberian Route before the First World War from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok along the northern passenger route (through Vologda - Perm - Yekaterinburg - Omsk - Chita - Harbin) was 8913 versts, or 9508 km.
The Trans-Siberian Railway passes through the territory of two parts of the world: Europe (0 - 1777 km) and Asia (1778 - 9289 km). Europe accounts for 19.1% of the length of the Trans-Siberian Railway, Asia, respectively - 80.9%.

Beginning and end of highway.

Currently, the starting point of the Trans-Siberian Railway is Yaroslavsky Station in Moscow, and the final point is Vladivostok Station.
But this was not always the case: until about the mid-1920s, the Kazan (then Ryazan) railway station was the gateway to Siberia and the Far East, and in the very initial period of the Trans-Siberian Railway's existence - at the beginning of the 20th century - the Kursk-Nizhny Novgorod (now Kursk) railway station in Moscow . It should also be mentioned that before the revolution of 1917, the Moskovsky railway station in St. Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire, was considered the starting point of the Great Siberian Way.

Vladivostok was not always considered the final destination: for a short time, starting from the very end of the 90s of the 19th century and up to the decisive land battles of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, contemporaries considered the naval fortress and the city of Port to be the end of the Great Siberian Way. -Arthur, located on the coast of the East China Sea, on the Liaodong Peninsula rented from China.
About the geographical limits of the Trans-Siberian (extreme points in the west, east, north and south), you can.

Construction: milestones.

Start of construction: May 19 (31), 1891 in the area near Vladivostok (Kuperovskaya Pad), Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, the future Emperor Nicholas II, was present at the laying.

The actual start of construction took place a little earlier, in early March 1891, when the construction of the Miass-Chelyabinsk section began.
The bridge of rails along the entire length of the Great Siberian Way took place on October 21 (November 3), 1901, when the builders of the Chinese Eastern Railway, who were laying the rail track from the west and east, met each other. But there was no regular train traffic along the entire length of the highway at that time.

Regular communication between the capital of the empire - St. Petersburg and the Pacific ports of Russia - Vladivostok and Dalniy 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 there was a break in the rail track: trains had to be transported across Lake 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).

End of construction on the territory of the Russian Empire: October 5 (18), 1916, with the launch of the bridge over the Amur near Khabarovsk and the start of train traffic on this bridge.

The cost of building the Trans-Siberian from 1891 to 1913 amounted to 1.455.413 thousand rubles, about the cost of building specific sections of the Great Siberian Way.

The modern route of the Trans-Siberian.

Since 1956, the Trans-Siberian route has been as follows: Moscow-Yaroslavskaya - Yaroslavl-Gl. - Danilov - Bui - Sharya - Kirov - Balezino - Perm-2 - Yekaterinburg-Pass. - Tyumen - Nazyvaevskaya - Omsk-Pass. - Barabinsk - Novosibirsk-Main - Mariinsk - Achinsk-1 - Krasnoyarsk - Ilanskaya - Taishet - Nizhneudinsk - Winter - Irkutsk-Pass. - Slyudyanka-1 - Ulan-Ude - Petrovsky Zavod - Chita-2 - Karymskaya - Chernyshevsk-Zabaykalsky - Mogocha - Skovorodino - Belogorsk - Arkhara - Khabarovsk-1 - Vyazemskaya - Ruzhino - Ussuriysk - Vladivostok. This is the main passenger passage of the Trans-Siberian. It was finally formed by the beginning of the 30s, when the normal operation of the shorter Chinese Eastern Railway became impossible due to military and political reasons, and the South Ural route was too overloaded due to the industrialization of the USSR that had begun.

Until 1949, in the Baikal region, the main course of the Trans-Siberian Railway passed along the Circum-Baikal Road, through Irkutsk - along the Angara coast - the Baikal station - along the Baikal coast - to the Slyudyanka station, in 1949-56. there were two routes - the old one, along the shore of Lake Baikal, and the new one, the pass. Moreover, the pass route was initially built in a 1-way version (1941-1948), and by 1957 it became a 2-way and main one.

Since June 10, 2001, after the introduction of the new summer schedule of the Ministry of Railways, almost all long-distance Trans-Siberian trains were launched on a new route through Vladimir - Nizhny Novgorod with access to the "classic course" in Kotelnich. This move allows trains with a higher route speed to pass. But the mileage of the Trans-Siberian still passes through Yaroslavl - Sharya.

The historical route of the Trans-Siberian.

Before the revolution of 1917 and some time after it (until the end of the 20s of the XX century), the main route of the Great Siberian Way passed:
From Moscow, starting from 1904: via Ryazan - Ryazhsk - Penza - Syzran - Samara - Ufa - Chelyabinsk - Kurgan - Petropavlovsk -

The Trans-Siberian Railway, formerly known as the Great Siberian Railway, today surpasses all railway lines on earth. It was built from 1891 to 1916, that is, almost a quarter of a century. Its length is just under 10,000 km. The direction of the road is Moscow-Vladivostok. These are the starting and ending points for trains. That is, the beginning of the Trans-Siberian Railway is Moscow, and the end is Vladivostok. Naturally, trains run in both directions.

Why was the construction of the Trans-Siberian necessary?

The gigantic regions of the Far East, Eastern and at the beginning of the 20th century remained cut off from the rest of the Russian Empire. That is why there is a need to create a road by which one could get there with minimal cost and time. It was necessary to build railway lines through Siberia. Governor-General of all Eastern Siberia, in 1857 officially announced the issue of construction on the Siberian outskirts.

Who funded the project?

It was not until the 1980s that the government allowed the construction of the road. At the same time, it agreed to finance the construction on its own, without the support of foreign sponsors. Enormous investments required the construction of the highway. Its cost, according to preliminary calculations carried out by the Committee for the Construction of the Siberian Railway, amounted to 350 million rubles in gold.

First works

A special expedition, led by A. I. Ursati, O. P. Vyazemsky and N. P. Mezheninov, was sent in 1887 in order to outline the optimal location of the route for the passage of the railway.

The most intractable and acute problem was the provision of construction. The way out was the direction of the "army of a permanent labor reserve" for compulsory work. Soldiers and prisoners made up the bulk of the builders. The living conditions in which they worked were unbearably difficult. The workers were housed in dirty, cramped barracks, which did not even have a floor. Sanitary conditions, of course, left much to be desired.

How was the road built?

All work was done by hand. The most primitive were tools - a shovel, a saw, an ax, a wheelbarrow and a pick. Despite all the inconveniences, about 500-600 km of track were laid annually. Carrying out a grueling daily struggle with the forces of nature, engineers and construction workers coped with honor with the task of building the Great Siberian Way in a short time.

Creation of the Great Siberian Route

Almost completed by the 90s were the South Ussuri, Transbaikal and Central Siberian railways. The Committee of Ministers in 1891, in February, decided that it was already possible to start work on the creation of the Great Siberian Way.

It was planned to build the highway in three stages. The first is the West Siberian road. The next one is Zabaikalskaya, from Mysovaya to Sretensk. And the last stage is the Circum-Baikal, from Irkutsk to Khabarovsk.

From the two final points, the construction of the route began simultaneously. The western branch reached Irkutsk in 1898. At that time, passengers here had to transfer to a ferry, overcoming 65 kilometers on it along Lake Baikal. When it was ice-bound, the icebreaker made a path for the ferry. This colossus weighing 4267 tons was made in England to order. Gradually, the rails ran along the southern shore of Lake Baikal, and the need for it disappeared.

Difficulties during the construction of the highway

In severe climatic and natural conditions, the construction of the highway took place. The route was laid almost along its entire length through a deserted or sparsely populated area, in impenetrable taiga. The Trans-Siberian Railway crossed numerous lakes, the mighty rivers of Siberia, areas of permafrost and increased swampiness. For builders, the site located around Lake Baikal presented exceptional difficulties. In order to build a road here, it was necessary to blow up the rocks, as well as erect artificial structures.

The natural conditions did not contribute to the construction of such a large-scale facility as the Trans-Siberian Railway. In the places of its construction, up to 90% of the annual precipitation fell during two summer months. The brooks turned into mighty streams of water in a few hours of rain. Large areas of fields were flooded with water in areas where the Trans-Siberian Railway is located. Natural conditions made its construction very difficult. The flood did not begin in the spring, but in August or July. Up to 10-12 strong rises of water happened during the summer. Also, work was carried out in winter, when frosts reached -50 degrees. People warmed up in tents. Naturally, they often got sick.

In the mid-50s, a new branch was laid - from Abakan to Komsomolsk-on-Amur. It is located parallel to the main highway. This line, for strategic reasons, was located much to the north, at a sufficient distance from the Chinese border.

Flood of 1897

A catastrophic flood occurred in 1897. For more than 200 years there was no equal to him. A powerful stream with a height of more than 3 meters demolished the built embankments. The flood destroyed the city of Dorodinsk, which was founded in the early 18th century. Because of this, it was necessary to significantly adjust the original project, according to which the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway was carried out: the route had to be moved to new places, protective structures were built, embankments were raised, and slopes were strengthened. Builders first encountered permafrost here.

In 1900, the Trans-Baikal Mainline began to operate. And at the Mozgon station in 1907, the first building in the world was built on permafrost, which still exists today. Greenland, Canada and Alaska have adopted a new method of building facilities on permafrost.

Location of the road, the city of the Trans-Siberian Railway

The next route is made by a train departing along the Trans-Siberian Railway. The road follows the direction Moscow-Vladivostok. A train departs from the capital, crosses the Volga, and then turns towards the Urals to the southeast, where it passes about 1800 km from Moscow. From Yekaterinburg, a large industrial center located in the Urals, the path lies to Novosibirsk and Omsk. Through the Ob, one of the most powerful rivers in Siberia with intensive shipping, the train goes on to Krasnoyarsk, located on the Yenisei. After that, the Trans-Siberian Railway follows to Irkutsk, along the southern shore of Lake Baikal overcomes mountain range. Having cut off one of the corners of the Gobi Desert and passing Khabarovsk, the train departs for its final destination - Vladivostok. This is the direction of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

87 cities are located on the Trans-Siberian. Their population is from 300 thousand to 15 million people. The centers of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation are 14 cities through which the Trans-Siberian Railway passes.

The regions it serves account for more than 65% of coal production in Russia, as well as about 20% of oil refining and 25% of commercial timber production. About 80% of deposits are located here natural resources, including timber, coal, gas, oil, as well as ores of non-ferrous and ferrous metals.

Through the border stations of Naushki, Zabaikalsk, Grodekovo, Khasan in the east, the Trans-Siberian Railway provides access to the road network of Mongolia, China and North Korea, and in the west, through border crossings with the former republics of the USSR and Russian ports, to European countries.

Features of the Transsib

Two parts of the world (Asia and Europe) were connected by the longest railway on earth. The track here, as well as on all other roads of our country, is wider than the European one. It is 1.5 meters.

The Trans-Siberian Railway is divided into several sections:

Amur road;

Circum-Baikal;

Manchurian;

Transbaikal;

Central Siberian;

West Siberian;

Ussuri.

Description of road sections

The Ussuriyskaya road, which is 769 km long and has 39 points on its way, entered into permanent operation in November 1897. It was the first railway line in the Far East.

In 1892, in June, construction began on the West Siberian. It passes, except for the watershed between the Irtysh and Ishim, through flat terrain. Only near bridges over large rivers does it rise up. The route deviates from a straight line only to bypass ravines, reservoirs, and river crossings.

In 1898, in January, the construction of the Central Siberian road began. Along its length there are bridges over the Uda, Iya, Tom. L. D. Proskuryakov designed a unique bridge across the Yenisei.

Trans-Baikal is part of the Great Siberian Railway. It starts on Baikal, from the Mysovaya station, and ends on the Amur, at the Sretensk pier. The route runs along the shore of Lake Baikal, on its way there are many mountain rivers. In 1895, the construction of the road began under the leadership of A. N. Pushechnikov, an engineer.

After the signing of an agreement between China and Russia, the development of the Trans-Siberian Railway continued with the construction of another road, the Manchurian, connecting the Siberian Railway with Vladivostok. Through traffic from Chelyabinsk to Vladivostok was opened by this route, the length of which is 6503 km.

The construction of the Circum-Baikal section was the last to begin (because it was the most expensive and difficult area. Engineer Liverovsky led the construction of its most difficult segment between Capes Sharazhangai and Aslomov. The length of the main line is the 18th part of the total length of the entire railway. A fourth of the total costs required its construction A train passes through 12 tunnels and 4 galleries along this route.

The Amur road began to be built in 1906. It is divided into the East Amur and North Amur lines.

The value of the Trans-Siberian

The great achievement of our people was the creation of the Trans-Siberian Railway. The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway took place on humiliation, blood and bones, but the workers nevertheless completed this great work. This road made it possible to transport a huge number of goods and passengers around the country. The deserted Siberian territories were populated thanks to its construction. The direction of the Trans-Siberian Railway contributed to their economic development.

In the middle of the 19th century, after the campaigns and discoveries of Captain Nevelsky and the signing of the Aigun Treaty with China in 1858 by Count N.N. Muravyov, the eastern borders of the Russian Empire finally took shape. In 1860, the military post of Vladivostok was founded. The post of Khabarovsk in 1893 became the city of Khabarovsk. Until 1883, the population of the region did not exceed 2,000 people.
From 1883 to 1885, the Yekaterinburg - Tyumen road was laid, and in 1886 from the Governor-General of Irkutsk A.P. Ignatiev and the Amur Governor-General, Baron A.N. Korf, received in St. Petersburg justification for the urgency of work on the Siberian cast-iron. Emperor Alexander III responded with the resolution “I have already read so many reports of the Governor-Generals of Siberia and I must confess with sadness and shame that the government has so far done almost nothing to meet the needs of this rich but neglected region. And it's time, it's time."

On June 6, 1887, by order of the emperor, a meeting of ministers and managers of the highest state departments was held, at which it was finally decided: to build. Started three months later survey work on the highway from the Ob to the Amur region.
In February 1891, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to simultaneously start work from opposite ends of Vladivostok and Chelyabinsk. They were separated by a distance of more than 8 thousand Siberian kilometers.
On March 17 of the same 1891, the emperor’s rescript addressed to Crown Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich followed: “I order now to start building a continuous railway through the whole of Siberia, which has (the goal) to connect the abundant natural gifts of the Siberian regions with a network of internal rail communications. I instruct you to declare such my will, upon entering the Russian land again, after reviewing the foreign countries of the East. At the same time, I entrust you with laying foundations in Vladivostok for construction of the Ussuri section of the Great Siberian Railroad, at the expense of the treasury and by direct order of the government.”
On March 19, Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich drove the first wheelbarrow of earth to the canvas of the future road and laid the first stone in the building of the Vladivostok railway station.

In 1892, the sequence of driving the route was proposed, divided into six sections.
The first stage is the design and construction of the West Siberian section from Chelyabinsk to the Ob (1418 km), the Middle Siberian section from the Ob to Irkutsk (1871 km), and the South Ussuriysky section from Vladivostok to the station. Grafskoy (408 km). The second stage included the road from st. Cape on the eastern shore of Lake Baikal to Sretensk on the river. Shilke (1104 km) and the North-Ussuri section from Grafskaya to Khabarovsk (361 km). And last but not least, as the most difficult, the Krutobaikalskaya road from the station. Baikal at the source of the Angara to Mysovaya (261 km) and the no less difficult Amur road from Sretensk to Khabarovsk (2130 km).

In 1893, the Committee of the Siberian Road was established, the chairman of which the sovereign appointed the heir to the throne, Nikolai Alexandrovich. The committee was given the broadest powers.
At one of the very first meetings of the Siberian Road Committee, the building principles were declared: “...To complete the construction of the Siberian Railroad, which has begun, cheaply, and most importantly, quickly and firmly”; “to build both well and firmly, in order to subsequently supplement, and not rebuild”; "... so that the Siberian railway, this great national cause, be carried out by Russian people and from Russian materials." And most importantly - to build at the expense of the treasury. After long hesitation, it was allowed "to involve in the construction of the road exiled convicts, exiled settlers and prisoners of various categories, with the provision of a reduction in the terms of punishment for their participation in the work."

The high cost of construction forced to go to lightweight technical standards for laying the track. The width of the subgrade was reduced, the thickness of the ballast layer was almost halved, and on straight sections of the road between the sleepers, they often did without ballast at all, the rails were lighter (18-pound instead of 21 pounds per meter), steeper, in comparison with the normative, ascents were allowed and slopes, wooden bridges were hung across small rivers, station buildings were also of a lightweight type, most often without foundations. All this was calculated on a small capacity of the road. However, as soon as the load increased, and many times during the war years, it was necessary to urgently lay the second track and involuntarily eliminate all the “facilitations” that did not guarantee traffic safety.

From Vladivostok, they led the way towards Khabarovsk immediately after the consecration of the beginning of construction in the presence of the heir to the throne. And on July 7, 1892, a solemn ceremony was held to start the oncoming traffic from Chelyabinsk. The first crutch at the western end of the Siberian route was entrusted to score a student-trainee of the St. Petersburg Institute of Railways Alexander Liverovsky.

He, A.V. Liverovsky, twenty-three years later, in the position of head of the work of the East Amur road, scored the last, “silver” crutch of the Great Siberian Way. He also headed the work on one of the most difficult sections of the Circum-Baikal road. Here, for the first time in the practice of railway construction, he used electricity for drilling, for the first time he, at his own peril and risk, introduced differentiated norms for directed, individual-purpose explosives - for ejection, loosening, etc. He also led the laying of the second tracks from Chelyabinsk to Irkutsk. And he also completed the construction of the unique, 2600 meters, Amur Bridge, the latest structure on the Siberian road, put into operation only in 1916.

The Great Siberian Way set off to the east from Chelyabinsk. Two years later, the first train was in Omsk, a year later - at the Krivoshchekovo station in front of the Ob (future Novosibirsk), almost simultaneously, due to the fact that from the Ob to Krasnoyarsk, work was carried out at once on four sections, they met the first train in Krasnoyarsk, and in 1898 year, two years earlier than the originally designated date - in Irkutsk. At the end of the same 1898, the rails reached Baikal. However, before the Circum-Baikal road there was a stop for six whole years. Further to the east from the Mysovoy station, the path was led back in 1895 with the firm intention in 1898 (this year, after a successful start, was taken as the finish line for all roads of the first stage) to finish laying on the Trans-Baikal route and connect the railway leading to the Amur. But the construction of the next - Amur - road was stopped for a long time.

The first blow was dealt by the permafrost. The flood of 1896 eroded the embankments that had been erected almost everywhere. In 1897, the waters of the Selenga, Khilka, Ingoda and Shilka demolished villages, the district town of Doroninsk was completely washed off the face of the earth, there was not a trace left for four hundred miles from the railway embankment, it was blown away and buried under silt and garbage Construction Materials. A year later, an unprecedented drought fell, an epidemic of plague and anthrax broke out.
Only two years after these events, in 1900, was it possible to open traffic on the Trans-Baikal road, but it was half laid "on a zhivulka".
On the opposite side - from Vladivostok - the South-Ussuriyskaya road to the Grafskaya station (station Muravyov-Amursky) was put into operation in 1896, and the North-Ussuriyskaya to Khabarovsk was completed in 1899.

The Amur road, relegated to the last turn, remained untouched, and the Circum-Baikal road remained inaccessible. On Amurskaya, having come across impassable places and being afraid to get stuck there for a long time, in 1896 they preferred the southern option through Manchuria (CER), and through Baikal they hurriedly built a ferry crossing and brought from England prefabricated parts of two icebreaker ferries, which for five years trains were to be received.
But there was no easy road even in Western Siberia. Of course, the Ishim and Baraba steppes were lined on the western side with an even carpet, so the rail route from Chelyabinsk to the Ob, as if on a ruler, ran smoothly along the 55th parallel of northern latitude, exceeding the shortest mathematical distance of 1290 versts by only 37 versts. Here earthworks were carried out with the help of American earth-moving graders. However, there was no forest in the steppe area; it was brought from the Tobolsk province or from the eastern regions. Gravel, stones for the bridge over the Irtysh and for the station in Omsk were transported by rail for 740 miles from Chelyabinsk and for 900 miles on barges along the Irtysh from the quarries. The bridge across the Ob was under construction for 4 years, the Central Siberian road began from the right bank.

Before Krasnoyarsk, the "cast iron" was carried out quickly, work was going on simultaneously at four sites. 18-pound rails were laid. There were sections where it was necessary to raise the canvas by 17 meters (on the Trans-Baikal road, the height of the embankment reached 32 meters), and there were sections where the excavations, and even stone ones, were comparable to dungeons.
The project of the bridge across the Yenisei, which has already gained a kilometer wide near Krasnoyarsk, was made by Professor Lavr Proskuryakov. According to his drawings, the most grandiose bridge across the Amur in Khabarovsk, more than two and a half kilometers long, was later hung on the European-Asian continent. Based on the nature of the Yenisei at the time of ice drift, the Krasnoyarsk bridge demanded a significant increase in the length of the spans, exceeding the accepted norms. The distance between the supports reached 140 meters, the height of the metal trusses ascended to the upper parabolas by 20 meters. At the Paris World Exhibition of 1900, the model of this bridge, 27 arshins long, received the Gold Medal.

The Trans-Siberian was advancing along a vast front, leaving behind not only its own track and repair facilities, but also schools, schools, hospitals, and churches. Stations, as a rule, were set up in advance, before the arrival of the first train, and were of beautiful and festive architecture - both stone in large cities, and wooden in small ones. The railway station in Slyudyanka, on Baikal, lined with local marble, can only be perceived as a wonderful monument to the builders of the Circum-Baikal section. The road brought with it beautiful forms of bridges, and graceful forms of stations, station settlements, booths, even workshops and depots. And this, in turn, required a decent view of the buildings around the forecourt, landscaping, and ennoblement. By 1900, 65 churches and 64 schools had been built along the Trans-Siberian Railway, another 95 churches and 29 schools were being built at the expense of the specially created Fund of Emperor Alexander III to help new settlers. Not only that, the Trans-Siberian made it necessary to intervene in the chaotic development of old cities, to improve and decorate them.

And most importantly, the Trans-Siberian Railway settled more and more millions of migrants in the vast Siberian expanses. The whole of Russia built the Trans-Siberian. All the ministries, whose participation in the construction was necessary, all the provinces provided workers. So it was called: workers of the first hand, the most experienced, skilled, workers of the second hand, the third. In some years, when the sections of the first stage started work (1895-1896), up to 90,000 people took to the track at the same time.

Under Stolypin, migration flows to Siberia, thanks to the announced benefits and guarantees, as well as the magic word "cut", which gives economic independence, immediately increased significantly. Since 1906, when Stolypin headed the government, the population of Siberia began to increase by half a million people annually. More and more arable lands were developed, the gross grain harvest rose from 174 million poods in 1901-1905. up to 287 million poods in 1911-1915. So much grain went through the Trans-Siberian Railway that it was necessary to introduce the "Chelyabinsk barrier", a special kind of customs duty, in order to limit the grain shaft from Siberia. In huge quantities, oil went to Europe: in 1898, its loading amounted to two and a half thousand tons, in 1900 - about eighteen thousand tons, and in 1913 - over seventy thousand tons. Siberia was turning into the richest granary, breadwinner, and ahead it was still necessary to uncover its fabulous bowels.

Transportation, including industrial, for several years of operation of the Trans-Siberian Railway has increased so much that the road has ceased to cope with them. The second tracks and the transfer of the road from a temporary state to a permanent one were urgently required.

And he, P.A. Stolypin, decisively rescued the Trans-Siberian from the Manchurian "captivity" (CER), returning the through passage of the Siberian road, as it was designed from the very beginning, to Russian soil.

In 1909, construction began on the last section of the Trans-Siberian Railway - the Amur Railway. Construction was carried out in an extremely difficult conditions. At this construction site, the "prisoners" were already the main labor force. The difficulties of building the road were exacerbated by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Only in 1915 did trains begin to move to Khabarovsk on Russian soil. In the same 1915, they planned to open a through traffic along the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok. Actually, the full-flowing Amur, which separated the railway near Khabarovsk, remained the only obstacle on the way. In the summer, a ferry crossing was organized here, in the winter the rails were laid directly on the ice. During the off-season, the movement of trains here, of course, was interrupted. In order to put an end to this, it was necessary to block the mighty river with a giant railway bridge. It was supposed to become one of the largest in the world - 18 spans in total had a length of over 2.5 km!

Preparatory work began as early as 1912. The lack of skilled labor and the difficult geological conditions at the construction site delayed this construction. And then the First World War led to the mobilization of skilled workers into the army. And again, "according to tradition" "convicts" were involved in the construction ... They performed a considerable amount of work (including most of the caisson ones). But the builders still failed to meet the deadlines. The fact is that the span structures of the bridge were made in Warsaw. Then they were taken by rail to Odessa, and then across the seas and oceans to Vladivostok. From Vladivostok to Khabarovsk they were again transported by rail. And so, during sea transportation, one of the steamers delivering the spans was sunk by a German submarine. It was a disaster: by this time Warsaw had been captured by the Germans, and not a single Russian enterprise could produce the necessary span structures. The missing spans were ordered from America, which drastically delayed the completion of the work.

And then came October 5, 1916. On this day (which, by the way, was the birthday of Tsarevich Alexei), the grand opening of the bridge across the Amur took place. The old newsreel has preserved to this day the details of this solemn ceremony. In the presence of a large number of guests, the wife of the Khabarovsk governor-general cut the ribbon. This meant that the rails of the Trans-Siberian were closed, and it was fully put into operation. In honor of this event, a special commemorative cast-iron plaque was fixed on one of the bridge trusses, the text on which read: "The bridge of the heir to Tsarevich Alexei Nikolayevich across the Amur with a total opening of 1141.41 sazhens with a total length of 1217.81 sazhens was built in the reign of His Imperial Majesty Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II in the summer of the Nativity of Christ 1913 - 1916 ... The laying was done on July 30, 1913. Opening for traffic on October 5, 1916. " Alas, this board did not last long. During the "triumphal procession of Soviet power" through the lands of the Amur region, it was smashed and thrown into the Amur. Only her photographs have survived to this day. Many years later, the bridge itself would be called "unreliable in case of war" and "erroneous", as it was located too close to the Soviet-Chinese border. This, in turn, will lead to one of the most senseless and wasteful construction projects - the construction of ... a railway tunnel under the Amur!

But the bridge stands and will stand as long as the Trans-Siberian Railway will exist. And the Trans-Siberian Railway will exist as long as Russia exists.

The construction 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 in gold. In order to speed up and reduce the cost of construction, in 1891-1892, for the Ussuriyskaya line and the West Siberian line (from Chelyabinsk to the Ob River), simplified technical conditions were taken as a basis - they reduced the width of the subgrade in embankments, excavations and in mountainous areas, as well as the thickness of the ballast layers, laid lightweight rails and shortened sleepers, reduced the number of sleepers per kilometer, etc.

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. A significant part of the builders were exiled prisoners and soldiers. The labor force was also replenished by attracting Siberian peasants and townspeople and the influx of peasants and philistines from European Russia.
In total, at the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1891, at the beginning of construction, there were 9.6 thousand people, and in 1895-1896, at the height of construction work, - 84-89 thousand people, in 1904, at the final stage - only 5.3 thousands of people. 20,000 people worked on the construction of the Amur railway in 1910.
Many works were done by hand, the tools were the most primitive - an ax, a saw, a shovel, a pick and a wheelbarrow. Despite this, about 500-600 kilometers of railway track were laid annually.

The bridge of the rails along the Great Siberian Way took place on November 3 (October 21, old style), 1901, but there was no regular train traffic along the entire length of the highway at that time. The originally set amount of expenses of 350 million rubles was exceeded three times, and the Ministry of Finance went to these Trans-Siberian appropriations. But the result: 500-600-700 kilometers of addition annually, such a rate of construction of railways has not happened either in America or in Canada. The laying of the track on the Amur road, on the very last run of the Russian Trans-Siberian Railway, was completed in 1915. The head of the construction of the easternmost, final section of the Amur road, A.V. Liverovsky scored the last, silver spike.

July 4 (July 1, according to the old style), 1903, was marked by the commissioning of the Great Siberian Railway along its entire length, although there was a break in the rail track: trains had to be transported across Lake Baikal on a special ferry.
A continuous rail track between St. Petersburg and Vladivostok appeared after the start of working traffic along the Circum-Baikal Railway on October 1 (September 18, old style), 1904, and on October 29 (October 16, old style), 1905, the Circum-Baikal Road, as a segment of the Great Siberian Way was put into permanent operation.
On October 18 (October 5, old style), 1916, construction was completed on the territory of the Russian Empire, with the launch of a bridge over the Amur near Khabarovsk and the start of train traffic on this bridge.

Transsib in figures and facts.

During the First World War and civil wars The technical condition of the road deteriorated sharply, after which restoration work began.
During the Great Patriotic War The Trans-Siberian Railway carried out the tasks of evacuating the population and enterprises from the occupied regions, uninterrupted delivery of goods and military contingents to the front, without stopping intra-Siberian transportation.
AT post-war years The Great Siberian Railway was actively built and modernized. In 1956, the government approved a master plan for the electrification of railways, according to which one of the first electrified lines was to be the Trans-Siberian along the section from Moscow to Irkutsk. This was done by 1961.

In the 1990s - 2000s, a number of measures were taken to modernize the Trans-Siberian Railway, designed to increase the throughput of the line. In particular, the railway bridge across the Amur near Khabarovsk was reconstructed, resulting in the Trans-Siberian.
In 2002, full electrification of the main line was completed.

At present, the Trans-Siberian Railway is a powerful double-track electrified railway line equipped with modern means informatization and communication.
In the east, through the border stations of Khasan, Grodekovo, Zabaikalsk, Naushki, the Trans-Siberian Railway provides access to the railway network of 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 constituent entities of the Russian Federation and five federal districts. More than 80% of the country's industrial potential and main natural resources, including oil, gas, coal, timber, ferrous and non-ferrous ores, are concentrated in the regions served by the highway. There are 87 cities on the Trans-Siberian, of which 14 are centers of subjects of the Russian Federation.
More than 50% of foreign trade and transit cargo is transported via the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Trans-Siberian Railway