Episode 264 – The Trans-Siberian Railway

Last time, we finished the two-part series on the operations of the KGB in the United States and Europe.

Today, we will discuss the railway connecting European Russia to the Russian Far East, the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Connecting European Russia to the Russian Far East, the railway spans a length of over 9,289 kilometers or 5,772 miles. It is the longest railway line in the world. The Trans-Siberian Railway runs from the city of Moscow in the west to the city of Vladivostok in the east. There is one other destination that marks a longer distance: the one that ends in Pyongyang, North Korea. While it is an additional 1,000 kilometers longer, its service has been suspended for some time. Also, most of its length is part of the Trans-Siberian Railway. 

To give you an idea of how long this railway line is, it takes 167 hours of travel or close to eight days, with stopovers, to go from Moscow to Vladivostok. It is also the same length as going from Tokyo, Japan to Amsterdam, Netherlands. If you went from San Francisco to New York City, you would have to do it three times to match the Trans-Siberian Railway distance. 

What is impressive is that there is talk of expanding the rail line to go all the way to Tokyo via new bridges that would connect the mainland railway through the Russian island of Sakhalin and the Japanese island of Hokkaido. 

There are three main routes on the Trans-Siberian Railway. The main route begins in Moscow at Yaroslavsky Vokzal, to Vladivostok via southern Siberia. The second primary route is the Trans-Manchurian, which coincides with the Trans-Siberian east of Chita as far as Tarskaya, a stop 12 km or 7 miles east of Karymskoye, in Chita Oblast, or about 1,000 km east of Lake Baikal. From Tarskaya, the Trans-Manchurian heads southeast via Harbin and Mudanjiang in China's Northeastern Provinces. This is where a connection to Beijing is used by one of the Moscow–Beijing trains, joining with the main route in Ussuriysk just north of Vladivostok. 

The third primary route is the Trans-Mongolian Railway, which coincides with the Trans-Siberian as far as Ulan-Ude on Lake Baikal's eastern shore. From Ulan-Ude, the Trans-Mongolian heads south to Ulaanbaatar before making its way southeast to Beijing. In 1991, a fourth route running further to the north was finally completed after more than five decades of sporadic work. Known as the Baikal–Amur Mainline, this recent extension departs from the Trans-Siberian line at Taishet, several hundred miles west of Lake Baikal, and passes the lake at its northernmost extremity. It crosses the Amur River at Komsomolsk-na-Amure and reaches the Tatar Strait at Sovetskaya Gavan.

Ever since Russia began to expand into Siberia starting in 1580 under Ivan IV, transportation over the vastness of the Russian tundra to this land of rich resources was slow, challenging, and dangerous. In the late 19th century, the development of Siberia was hampered by poor transport links within the region as well as with the rest of the country. Aside from the Great Siberian Route, good roads suitable for wheeled transport were rare. For about five months of the year, rivers were the primary means of transportation. During the cold half of the year, cargo and passengers traveled by horse-drawn sledges over the winter roads, many of which were the same rivers but ice-covered.

By the mid-19th century, there was talk about building a railroad connecting Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Vladivostok. The first railway projects in Siberia emerged after the completion of the Saint Petersburg–Moscow Railway in 1851. One of the first was the Irkutsk–Chita project, proposed by the American entrepreneur Perry Collins and supported by Transport Minister Constantine Possiet with a view toward connecting Moscow to the Amur River and, consequently, to the Pacific Ocean. Siberia's governor, Nikolay Muravyov-Amursky, was anxious to advance Russian colonization of the now-Russian Far East. Still, his plans were unfeasible as long as colonists had to import grain and other food from China and Korea. So, on Muravyov's initiative, surveys for a railway in the Khabarovsk region were conducted.

One of the main reasons for the lack of interest in building this large of a railway was that the Russian government didn't believe that there was anything of real value in Siberia. Animal pelts and some natural resources like timber were in abundance, but there was a lot of that closer to Moscow and St. Petersburg. This was, in hindsight, a very narrow-minded way of thinking. There were a lot of people who knew that Siberia had a lot to offer financially, but the regime led by Nicholas II was somewhat clueless.

During the later 19th century, Russia focused on Central Asia, which was seen as a buffer zone between the Russian Empire and the British-ruled Indian subcontinent. Both powers engaged in the "Great Game" to consolidate their presence in Central Asia and influence the region's many khanates. The British advanced to Afghanistan, while the Russians eventually annexed the khanates of Khiva and Bukhara. Russia built the Trans-Caspian Railroad, which in 1888 reached Samarkand in present-day Uzbekistan, putting Afghanistan at risk of a Russian invasion.

What was amazing was the lack of government support for the project. They viewed it as unnecessary and a money-losing proposition. However, on March 9, 1891, the Russian government reversed course and issued an imperial decree which announced its intention to construct a railway across Siberia. Tsarevich Nicholas, soon to be Tsar Nicholas II, inaugurated the railway construction in Vladivostok on May 19th of that year.

Saving money was a significant concern for the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. This meant that they would avoid running the rails through cities. Thus, to save money and avoid clashes with landowners, it was decided to lay the railway outside the existing cities. Tomsk was the largest city and the most unfortunate because the swampy banks of the Ob River near it were considered inappropriate for a bridge. This would happen over and over again. One of the main cost-saving things done during the railway construction was one of the stupidest. They avoided building tunnels through mountains and circumvented them, sometimes taking routes hundreds of miles out of the way. 

Russia’s changed focus shifted east due to the vision of Sergei Witte, who, while working within the Russian ministry of finance, convinced Alexander III in 1891 to begin construction of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. The intent was to extend Russian influence into East Asia and to capture global trade from British hands. The railway would allow merchandise and raw materials to be transported from Europe to the Pacific in half the time it took by sea. It would thus be attractive to traffic by other countries, threatening British domination on their traditional sea routes. So, too, the railway would allow the extraction of hitherto untapped resources in Siberia.

One of the reasons that Sergei Witte was so enthusiastic about the new railway was his work in railroad management for 20 years. He caught the attention of Finance Minister Ivan Vyshnegradsky, who appointed him Russian Director of Railway Affairs within the Finance Ministry, where he served from 1889 to 1891. In August 1892, Witte was appointed to the post of Minister of Finance, which he held for the next eleven years, and he nearly doubled the empire's revenues. During his tenure, he significantly accelerated the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. However, an unforeseen problem would occur with the construction of the railroad line.  

It would cause Russia to come into conflict with another rising power, Japan. Part of this was caused by the railway going through Manchuria. In 1899, the Boxer Rebellion took place in China, targeting "foreign devils" and seeking to drive them out. Rebels in Manchuria had a specific grievance against the railroad, which they believed was responsible for upsetting the region's harmony and causing droughts and flooding. As a result, the Russians moved 170,000 troops into Manchuria to protect their investment there, raising the alarm in Japan over Russian intentions.

Instead of backing down from the potential conflict, Russia doubled down. The Russian government used the Boxer Rebellion as an opportunity to bring a substantial army into Manchuria. Consequently, by 1900 Manchuria was a fully-incorporated outpost of the Russian Empire, and Japan prepared to fight Russia. If not for the ability of the Trans-Siberian railway to supply the troops, it is doubtful that the upcoming conflict, which helped to eventually topple Nicholas II, would have happened.

The Russians holding on to Port Arthur irked the Japanese to no end. Witte was firmly against this occupation. To blunt his influence in the government, Sergei Witte was appointed on August 16, 1903, as chairman of the Committee of Ministers, a position he held until October 1905. While officially a promotion, the post had no real power. Witte's removal from the influential post of Minister of Finance was engineered under the pressure of the landed gentry and his political enemies within the government and at the court. But historians Nicholas V. Riasanovsky and Robert K. Massie say that Witte's opposition to Russian designs on Korea resulted in his resigning from the government in 1903.

As we've covered in the past, the Russo-Japanese War would be a total disaster for the Russians and Tsar Nicholas II. They discovered that the Trans-Siberian Railway was woefully inadequate to supply the troops and send in reinforcements. Trying to save money on the project was to cause many of the problems with the war effort.

The war showcased the limitations of the railway, with its single-line route causing bottlenecks in the movement of troops and supplies. If one train with wounded troops was moving west, for instance, another train headed east with critical supplies had to wait at a station until the first had passed. After heavy losses in the 18-month war, Russia built a longer route, the Amur Railroad, to Vladivostok through its own territory so as to guard against the risk of Manchuria being taken over by the Japanese. In 1916 there was finally a Trans-Siberian Railroad wholly within Russian territory. Its completion marked a turning point in the history of Siberia, opening up vast areas to exploitation, settlement, and industrialization.

During the Russian Civil War, the Whites used the railroad to shuttle troops and supplies from Vladivostok to the front. This presented significant problems for the Red Army. So they decided to blow up key bridges and extensive track lengths to stem the tide. It would help end the threat of the Whites and speed up the war's end.

The Trans-Siberian Railroad would prove crucial in World War II. In the beginning, when the nonaggression pact between the Germans and the Soviets was intact, it enabled Nazi Germany to use the railroad for the movement of goods to and from Japan. The railway also provided thousands of Jews a means of escaping Europe, using an eastward route to Vladivostok before sailing to the United States. 

After Germany invaded the Soviet Union and drove the Soviet Union to join the Allies, the railway allowed the U.S. to move much-needed supplies to the European front via the Pacific. Without the railway, it is doubtful that the Soviet Red Army would have had the supplies necessary to defeat Nazi Germany. 

The Trans-Manchurian line came under complete Chinese control after World War II. it has been renamed the Chinese Changchun Railway. During the Soviet era, several spur lines were built that split off from the main Trans-Siberian line. From 1974 to 1989, construction was completed on a sizeable alternative route, the Baikal-Amur line. This route across the challenging environment of taiga, permafrost, and swamps has made upkeep difficult. The Trans-Siberian Railroad was underused in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union but then saw a resurgence due to improving economic conditions in Russia and tourism at the turn of the millennium. 

Also, it is a critical rail line to transport the vast amount of natural resources that Russia is trying to sell to the rest of the world. Unfortunately, thawing permafrost due to climate change is, however, putting parts of the line at risk and increasing maintenance costs. This is one of the issues that Russia continues to struggle with and may be one of the reasons, as I've mentioned several times in the podcast, they decided to invade eastern Ukraine. That region, also loaded with incredible resources, has a far better transport system than the ones from Siberia.

Over the 25 years it took to complete the railway, more than 85,000 people are estimated to have been involved in the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. It remains the backbone of the Russian railway network, and today it is a double-track electrified line that has enabled millions of people to travel across Russia. 

One of the most exciting aspects of the Trans-Siberian Railroad is the stories of the people who have traveled its length. One of the best books I've come across is one given to me by my daughter this past Christmas. It is Border Crossings: A Journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway by Emma Fick. She and her husband decided to take a 23-day trip starting in Beijing on March 4, 2016, and ending in Moscow on the 27th. Their stops included Ulaanbaatar and the steppes of Mongolia, Irkutsk and Lake Baikal, Omsk, Yekaterinburg, and Nizhny Novgorod, before making it to the Russian capital. 

As they put it in their book, the logistics of traveling through three countries were quite daunting. There are passport and visa issues, the different languages which use different alphabets. The train schedules were rather complex and made travel difficult if you wanted to stop and tour the areas around the stops. 

Let's take a look at some of the stops you can visit while traveling on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Our journey will begin with the first or last stop, depending on your point of view, on the Russian line, that being Vladivostok. 

Vladivostok is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, covering an area of 330 square kilometers or 127 square miles, with a population of 600,871 residents as of 2021. The city was founded on July 2, 1860, as a Russian military outpost on formerly Chinese land after signing the Treaty of Aigun. This treaty fulfilled a desire of the Russians since the time of Catherine the Great to have a naval presence in the Pacific. In 1872, the main Russian naval base on the Pacific Ocean was transferred to the city, which in turn, stimulated the growth of the young town. Its name means Ruler of the East or Lord of the East.

Because of its status as the terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway, it had over 3 million tourist visits in 2017. In addition, the city is the administrative center of the Far Eastern Federal District and is the home to the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet of the Russian Navy.

Our first stop after leaving Vladivostok is Ussuriysk, which lies about 37 miles or 60 kilometers from the Chinese-Russian border. It is also the junction point with the Trans-Manchurian line and Korea branch, located in Baranovsky, 13 km or 8 miles from Ussuriysk. 

The next stop is Khabarovsk, located 30 kilometers or 19 miles from the China–Russia border, at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri Rivers, about 800 kilometers or 500 miles north of Vladivostok. With a 2010 population of 577,441, it is Russia's easternmost city. It also has one of the most significant swings in temperature in the world, going from incredible cold in the winter to sweltering heat in the summer. 

On to Birobidzhan, a city which was planned by the Swiss architect Hannes Meyer and established in 1931. It became the administrative center of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in 1934, and town status was granted to it in 1937. As of the 2010 Census, its population is 75,413, and its official language is Yiddish. While the Bolsheviks created Birobidzhan as a Jewish center, the Jews who settled there were targeted from time to time, especially during the last years of Stalin's administration. Today, only 2,000 Jews reside in the town, representing less than 2% of the population.

After traveling for three days, we cross the juncture of the Trans-Manchurian and the Trans-Mongolian lines along with the city of Chita. A town of around 350,000 people, it is most noted for having a number of the officers who participated in the Decembrist revolt suffered exile to Chita. According to George Kennan, who visited the area in the 1880s, "Among the exiles in Chita were some of the brightest, most cultivated, most sympathetic men and women that we had met in Eastern Siberia."

Ten hours later, we reach the eastern shore of Lake Baikal and the city of Ulan-Ude, which was first settled by a Tungusic people known as the Evenks and later, in 1666, by Russian Cossacks. From here, we travel eight hours to arrive at one of the largest cities in Siberia, Irkutsk. Founded in 1652 by Ivan Pokhabov, he built a zimovye or winter quarters near present-day Irkutsk for gold trading and collecting fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov built an ostrog, or a small fort nearby. The ostrog gained official town rights from the government in 1686.

We get back on the train and travel through the towns of Taishet, Krasnoyarsk, and Novosibirsk. Krasnoyarsk is the 2nd largest city in Siberia, with Novosibirsk being the largest and third-largest city in all of Russia. It also became one of the largest industrial centers of Siberia. Following the outbreak of World War II, the town hosted many factories relocated from the Russian core, away from the invading Nazis.

Now only 1 day and 22 hours away from Moscow, we make it first to the town of Omsk. It is the last stop in Siberia, having traveled from Vladivostok for the past 5 days. Leaving Siberia, we enter the Ural Mountains and the city of Tyumen. From there, we arrive in Yekaterinburg, founded on November 18, 1723. It was named after Yekaterina I, the wife of Russian emperor Peter the Great. It is also the place where Tsar Nicholas II and his family were imprisoned in the Ipatiev House. They were later all murdered there on July 17, 1918.

We're now in the home stretch. First, we arrive in Perm on the Kama River, followed by Kirov on the Vyatka River. From there, we travel another 7 hours to reach Nizhni Novgorod, a city founded on February 4, 1221, by Grand Prince George II Vsevolodovich of Vladimir. In 1612, Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky organized an army to liberate Moscow and all of Russia from the Poles and Lithuanians during the Time of Troubles.

Lying about halfway between Nizhni Novgorod and Moscow is the ancient city of Vladimir. It is one of the medieval capitals of Russia, with significant buildings surviving from the 12th century. Two of its Russian Orthodox cathedrals, a monastery, and associated buildings have been designated among the White Monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

About three hours of traveling later, we finally arrive in Moscow at the Yaroslavsky Rail Terminal. Our trip lasted six days and four hours if we stayed on board the train for the entire time. We have also crossed eight time zones and traveled 9,289 km or 5,772 mi.

Well, I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. Join me next time when we cover the life of one of Russia’s greatest generals, Mikhail Kutuzov - Military Genius & Napoleon's Nemesis.

So, until next time, Dasvidania eh Spasiba za Vineyamineya.