informative details
Marina CHERNOVA*
From the history of Russian railways
Railways are extremely necessary for Russia...
They can be said to be invented for it more than for any other country in Europe...
The climate of Russia and its space make them especially precious for our fatherland.
P. P. Melnikov
The history of Russian railways goes back to the XVIII century.
The first cast iron road was built at the Alexander Cannon Factory in 1788.
In the following years, the road from the Zmeinogorsky mine to the Korbalikhinsky silver smelter in the Altai (1806) was put into operation.
The first rail road with steam traction appeared at the Nizhny Tagil metallurgical plant of the Demidovs (1834).
The first steam locomotives in Russia were built by Russian mechanics and inventors, father and son Cherepanov Efim Alekseevich and Miron Efimovich, who worked at the Nizhny Tagil factories and were former serfs of the Demidovs.
The Cherepanovs were engaged in self education, visited the factories of St. Petersburg and Moscow.
For inventive activity, Miron Cherepanov and his wife were given a free license in 1833.
Yefim Cherepanov and his wife were given a free license in 1836.
The Cherepanovs created about 20 different steam engines that worked at the Nizhny Tagil factories.
In 1834, they built the first Russian steam locomotive, and in 1835 — a second, more powerful one.
But soon the Cherepanovs were forced to stop their experiments.
The owners preferred cheap horse drawn transport.
The attempt to establish the production of steam locomotives at the Vsevolozhsk Pozhevsky plant did not receive support, although the Permyak steam locomotive built there in 1839 was even sent to an exhibition in St. Petersburg.
The scope of application of rail transport as a subsidiary mechanism was limited to mining and metallurgical production.
The need for railways for the progressive economic development of the country has not yet been realized at the state level.
While the first sections of public railways were already being put into operation abroad, the Ministry of Railways of Russia, having considered the question of the construction of general purpose railways in 1826, considered it economically unprofitable.
However, the advantages of the railways built in England in 1825-1830 and bringing significant profits, as well as the launch of the Stephenson steam locomotive in 1829, still impressed the Russian emperor.
On April 15, 1836, the decree of Nicholas I on the construction of the Tsarskoye Selo railway was published exclusively in the form of an experiment, the purpose of which was to try to the extent that our climate allows the possibility of constructing rail tracks in the country.
On October 30, 1837, the road between St. Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo was officially opened, and six months later, the section of road between Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk was put into operation.
Contemporaries described the Tsarskoye Selo road as follows: "Here comes a steam locomotive with a pipe from which smoke is pouring out; the car drags several carts that can accommodate more than 300 people; the force is equal to the force of 40 horses; in one hour it runs through a space of 30 versts.
From Tsarskoye to Pavlovsk, 5 versts runs exactly in 7 and a half minutes.
A different kind of pipe is attached to the car, and the conductor blows into it during the journey, warning the audience.
A long line of carriages is attached to the locomotive: here is a huge stagecoach, here are berliners, charabans, wide covered carts with six rows of benches for five people each; cars, carts open to accommodate the same number of passengers; here are huge trucks and carts for various luggage; here are a number of permits for transporting animals: horses, cows, sheep, calves and domestic birds; here are vats for various liquids, buffets for food supplies."
The first Russian road with a length of 25 versts, a gauge of 0.857 fathoms (182.85 cm) was built in a year and eight months.
A specially formed joint stock company of the Tsarskoye Selo Railway spent 5 million rubles in banknotes on its construction.
Thus, the year 1837 became the starting year in the development of railway transport in Russia.
A decisive turn in railway policy occurred a few years later.
Engineers P. P. Melnikov and N. O. Kraft, who returned from America, prepared a detailed report containing information about foreign railways.
Special attention was paid to the economic significance and cultural usefulness of railways.
Moreover, in the conditions of the industrial revolution taking place in Russia in those years, the improvement of means of transport made it possible to solve many economic issues more quickly.
Railway transport was distinguished by the speed of movement, continuity and all weather conditions, guarantees of delivery times and cheap transportation, which made its advantages in comparison with other types of movement of that time obvious.
On February 1, 1842, the emperor signed a decree, according to which it was supposed to begin the construction of the St. Petersburg Moscow railway.
The initiator of the construction of this primary highway this time was the government, which entrusted the treasury with financing this enterprise.
At the same time, Nicholas I did not prevent the detailed study and consideration by government bodies of proposals from private entrepreneurs on the construction of certain rail tracks.
On August 11, 1842, the Department of Railways was formed, in which all orders for the construction of a new line, and subsequently other rail tracks, were concentrated.
The construction of the road began in the summer of 1843 on the basis of a project by P. P. Melnikov, N. O. Kraft and A. D. Gotman.
The road was conceived as a two wheeled path in the shortest direction with a length of about 604 versts (in different sources, the length of the St. Petersburg Moscow line is indicated in 603 and 609 versts).
Initially, a certain amount allocated for construction was 43 million rubles in silver.
The route was built in eight and a half years and cost the treasury 66,850 thousand rubles in silver, which turned out to be cheaper than many foreign railways.
The relative cheapness of construction was achieved due to non standard engineering solutions, the mass use of serf labor, the use of specialization and the flow method of work production.
In the process of designing and constructing the road, the parameters were also determined, which were later taken into account in railway construction.
Thus, the gauge width of 1524 mm has become nationwide on the railway network up to our time.
In addition, the basics of station placement, etc. were developed.
The construction of railway stations according to the instructions of Nicholas I was carried out not by engineers, but by architects.
For this purpose, two famous architects were invited — K. A. Ton and R. A. Zhelyazevich.
K. A. Ton designed the main buildings of the railway stations on the main line — Moscow and St. Petersburg.
They were completed in 1851-1852.
Signaling and communication devices for ensuring the safety of the transportation process were still at the stage of formation during this period.
Despite this, the Russian scientist B. S. Yakobi prepared telegraph communication equipment for the road.
However, the telegraph communication system of the German inventor V. Siemens was adopted for operation.
The official opening of the largest double track road in Europe took place on November 1, 1851.
The newspaper "Northern Bee" enthusiastically wrote about the departure at 11: 15 of the first "nationwide train", which arrived safely in Moscow after 21 hours and 45 minutes.
The road was called St. Petersburg Moscow, and after the death of Emperor Nicholas I, in 1855, it was renamed Nikolaevskaya.
The road has been working properly to this day for more than 150 years.
Foreign types of steam locomotives were used on the first roads of our country.
It was decided to assemble locomotives at the Alexander Iron Foundry in St. Petersburg, using foreign experience and taking into account the features of the new railway line.
As samples, two steam locomotives were delivered to the plant — one from England, the other from the USA, as well as several cars.
The Russian government ceded the Alexander Plant under a six year contract to American entrepreneurs, who, according to the agreement, were supposed to train Russian railway personnel.
In 1845, the plant produced the first steam locomotive of the Stephenson type.
By 1849, 42 passenger and 120 freight locomotives, 70 passenger and about 2000 freight cars were built for the St. Petersburg Moscow Railway.
Despite the interest of Nicholas I in railway construction and the practical implementation of a number of projects, Russia continued to lag behind the developed countries of the world in this area: in 1853, the length of railway lines in the country numbered 979 versts, which was 1.5 % of the world railway network.
This circumstance was negatively manifested during the Crimean War, because the lack of modern communication routes made it impossible to provide the army with the necessary reinforcements, ammunition and food without interruption.
Alexander II identified the further construction of the railway network as a necessary condition for the development of the economy and strengthening the country's defense capability.
In 1855, Adjutant General K. V. Chevkin, a mining engineer and a participant in the construction of the Nikolaev railway, was appointed chief manager of the communication routes.
On January 26, 1857, Alexander II signed a decree on the creation of a railway network.
At the same time, the government signed a concession for the construction of a number of railways with a total length of about 4,000 km.
To implement the planned plans, the Main Society of Russian Railways was formed with the participation of Russian, French, English and German banking capital.
By the beginning of the 1860s, the first sections of the Moscow railway lines were built.
Nizhny Novgorod, Yaroslavsky and Kursky railway stations appeared in Moscow, but the expected influx of foreign capital into Russia due to the sale of shares and bonds of the Main Company did not happen.
In the 1870s, the requirements for the track width were tightened to 1520 mm.
The construction of roads was under threat.
The decision to stop the construction of railways for an indefinite time was opposed by the chief manager of the communication routes, Lieutenant General P. P. Melnikov.
P. P. Melnikov considered it necessary to actively involve capitalists, mainly domestic, in railway construction, but on lines of no primary importance.
By 1865, the length of the railways of Russia was 3000 km.
The successful completion of the construction of the St. Petersburg Warsaw and Nizhny Novgorod lines contributed to the influx of domestic and Russian capital to enterprises of this kind.
In the next three years, concessions were granted for the construction of 26 lines, including the Kursk—Kiev, Kursk—Kharkiv—Taganrog, Orel—Vitebsk roads.
In the early 1870s, a real railway boom began in the country.
In 1865, the Main Directorate was transformed into the Ministry of Railways, which, pursuing a course to unite the entire territory of Russia with a railway network, identified the development of the Donetsk and Krivoy Rog mining basins, access to the Urals, Siberia and Central Asia as the primary tasks.
The construction was supposed to be carried out mainly at the expense of the state.
With the development of the railway network, the need for the development of railway legislation was increasingly revealed.
In 1875, the rules and conditions for the carriage of goods on Russian railways were prepared, as well as the Temporary Rules for the Carriage of Passengers were approved by the Ministry of Railways.
According to them, passengers were financially responsible for traveling without a ticket, namely, they were subject to a double charge for all the distances from the station where the last ticket viewing was performed to the one where the absence of a ticket would be detected.
The rules allowed, with the permission of the station managers, the transportation of indoor birds and animals (including dogs) in common passenger cars.
A list of dangerous items was compiled, the transportation of which should be carried out with special precautions (gunpowder, phosphorus, fatty oils, etc.).
At the end of the 1880s the need for construction became obvious The Trans Siberian Railway is a railway across the country.
On February 12, 1891, the members of the Cabinet of Ministers unanimously spoke in favor of the need to build the Trans Siberian Railway.
The first stone of the great Siberian railway was laid on May 19, 1891 in Vladivostok.
It was decided to build the highway in three stages — and complete the construction within 10 years.
The construction was supervised by experienced engineers A. I. Ursati, O. P. Vyazemsky, K. Ya.
Mikhailovsky, A. I. Mezheninov and others.
At the same time, more than 100 thousand workers were involved in the construction; the preliminary cost of the project was determined at 350 million rubles in gold — or 44 thousand rubles per verst.
The work was done manually: the tools were shovels, axes, crowbars, saws.
Despite the numerous difficulties (the taiga massif, mountains, rivers, and lakes, floods and floods), the road was built with amazing speed.
About 9100 versts (taking into account the adjacent branches built at the same time) were laid with an average construction rate of 740 km per year.
This is a high figure even for modern construction.
Many technical solutions found by domestic engineers during the construction of the highway and implemented by the heroic work of our people had no analogues in world practice.
One of the most striking achievements of Russian engineering thought was the construction of bridges across large Siberian rivers.
The bridge crossing over the Amur was called the Amur miracle by contemporaries.
This structure, 64 meters high and 2.6 km long, was built in 1913-1916 according to the project of engineers L. D. Proskuryakov and G. P. Perederia.
The bridge included 18 spans of 127 meters with a 200 meter left bank overpass.
17,800 tons of metal were spent on the construction of the bridge, it cost the treasury 13.5 million rubles.
With manual work in difficult geological conditions, a nine hundred meter bridge across the Yenisei was built in 2.5 years.
In 1904, the only station in the world built entirely of marble was opened at the Slyudyanka 1 station near Lake Baikal.
The station was conceived as a monument crowning the grandiose work of the builders and completing the construction of the unique Circum Baikal railway.
The station has been preserved to this day almost in its original form.
S. Y. Witte pointed out that the construction of the Siberian Railway does honor to Russian railway construction, and the foreign press noted that after the discovery of America and the construction of the Suez Canal, there was no event in history richer in consequences.
The Trans Siberian Railway passes through the territory of two parts of the world — Europe (1777 km) and Asia (almost 7512 km) — and crosses the continent of Eurasia from West to East.
Europe accounts for 19.1% of the length of the Trans Siberian Railway, Asia 80.9%.
The 1778th km of the Trans Siberian Railway is accepted as the conditional border of Europe and Asia.
The economic efficiency of the Trans Siberian Railway exceeded the wildest expectations.
But the weak points of the highway were also revealed: the road was single track with a capacity of only three pairs of trains per day; more than 80% of the bridges were wooden; light rails were laid in the way, which often burst under the pressure of steam locomotives, which created a serious danger when moving.
Based on this, the Ministry of Transport has taken a number of major measures to increase the capacity of the Trans Siberian Railway.
The significance of the built road was huge.
In fact, the economic revival of Siberia began with it: the influx of population increased to the settlements located along the highway, at the same time the demand for agricultural and industrial products increased, and the cultural ties of Siberia with European Russia revived.
The total cost of laying the road in 1892-1905 was about 936 million gold rubles allocated from the treasury of the Russian Empire.
In the future, before the outbreak of the First World War, about 519 million rubles were spent on the construction of the Amur Line, the laying of second tracks — etc.
Simultaneously with the construction of the Trans Siberian Railway, railways were built on the outskirts of the country with state funds.
In many respects, the positive changes in the development of railway transport in the 1880s and 1890s were associated with the activities of S. Y. Witte.
Despite the fact that his service in the Ministry of Railways was short, he managed to achieve the implementation of many productive ideas.
In particular, the tariff case was put under the control of the state (transferred to the Ministry of Finance); the local railway inspection was abolished and a national service was approved, which was entrusted with monitoring the implementation of laws, instructions and rules.
While continuing his work as finance minister, Witte pursued a policy of concentrating railways in the hands of the state — by buying out private roads and building new ones at the expense of the treasury.
As a result of the state's purchase of the main private lines, the railways began to make a profit in 1894.
Witte's merit in making the decision on the construction of the Trans Siberian Railway is undeniable.
Subsequently, S. Y. Witte wrote : "I will not exaggerate if I say that this great enterprise was accomplished thanks to my energy, of course, supported by the emperor."
Emphasizing the strategic importance of the Trans Siberian Railway, P. A. Stolypin noted in his speech in the Duma that " no fortresses will replace the means of communication."
Russian Russian Army During the Russo Japanese War, the Trans Siberian Railway became a highway that provided Russian troops.
2 million servicemen were transported along the road, along with artillery, wagons and other cargo.
The activity of the railway department was highly appreciated on the pages of the foreign press.
Thus, the English newspaper "Times" wrote very flattering words about the Trans Siberian Railway and the Minister of Railways: "The railway has proved its efficiency from the very beginning, and its employees have proven their competence...
If there was a person in Russia who was more able than anyone else to help his country avoid a military catastrophe, it was Prince Khilkov."
After the Russian Japanese War, financial allocations for transport were sharply reduced.
Despite the fact that in 1913 the length of the railways was 58,500 km (in 1891 — 27,200 km, in 1900-44,900 km), this was not enough.
On the eve of the First World War, the transport situation was not in favor of Russia.
There were 13 railway lines approaching our western border, of which only five were double track.
At the same time, Germany, Austria, and Romania had 32 railway lines laid to the Russian territory, of which 14 were double track.
Russian railways could bring 211 trains a day to the western borders, and the enemy's roads — 530.
On the eve of the war, an action plan was drawn up for the development of the railway network, which was not implemented due to lack of finances, as well as due to military operations.
However, during the First World War, the construction of a railway to the shores of the Barents Sea was carried out.
In 20 months, the work was completed, and on November 30, 1916, the opening of through traffic on the Murmansk highway took place.
The construction of this highway ended the formation of the main railway network in the pre revolutionary period.
The total length of the railway network by 1917 was 70,260 km.
70% of the railways were owned by the state.
Literature
Fadeev G. M., Amelin S. V., Bernhard F.K et al.
The history of railway transport in Russia.
Vol. 1: 1836-1917.
St. Petersburg.; M., 1994.
Aksenenko N. E., Lapidus B. M., Misharin A. S. Railways of Russia.
From reform to reform.
Moscow, 2001.
Witte S. Y. Selected memoirs.
1849-1911, Moscow, 1991.
Virginsky V. S. Essays on the history of science and technology of the XVI XIX centuries.
Moscow, 1984.
Kirillin V. A. Pages of the History of Science and Technology.
Moscow, 1986.
* Marina Nikolaevna Chernova is a teacher of the Moscow Lyceum school No. 1560.
