History of the Trans Siberian raiload. Transsib.
TRANS SIBERIAN RAILROAD
HISTORY OF THE TRANS SIBERIAN
Some people think that Transsib means the way that connects Ural with Far East
and goes through Siberia (Trans-Siberian). But in reality it's different the
contradiction comes from the name that English travelers gave to it -
"Trans-Siberian Railway" instead of "Great Siberian Way"
(this would be the literal translation from Russian) but then this name have
rooted in Russian language.
And now the term Transsib means the way, that connects Center and Pacific
Ocean, Moscow and Vladivostok and in broader meaning - ports of West with
Russian capital and ways to Europe (Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Brest,
Kaliningrad) with ports of the East and ways to Asia. Transsib - is the road
that gave an impulse to the settling and developing of eastern areas of Russia
and involvement of them into economy of the other part of great country.
Nowadays Jaroslavskiy train station in Moscow is Transsib's starting point
and a final point of the way is Vladivostok train station. But not always it
was so. Before the middle of 20s the main gate to Siberia and Far East was
Kazanskiy train station and at very beginning of Transsib (beginning of 20th
century) Kursko-Nizhegorodskiy (nowadays Kurskiy) train station of Moscow. It's
also important to mention that before the October revolution Moscow train
station of Saint Petersburg, which was a capital of Russian Empire in that
time was considered to be the starting of the Great Siberian Way. Also
Vladivostok not always was considered to be the final point, for some time
(from 90's of 19th century till the crucial land battles of Russian-Japanese
war in 1904-1905), contemporaries considered naval fortress and town of Port
Arthur, which is located on on the shore of East-Chinese Sea on the Lao Dun
peninnsula, rented by Russian Empire from China to be the end of the Great
Road.
Grand laying took place at 19th of May 1891 near Vladivostok and was
attended by prince Nikolay Aleksandrovitch (Emperor Nikolay The Second in a
future).
But actually construction started a little bit earlier in the beginning of
March 1891 with building of the railway from Miass to Chelyabinsk.
The regular communications between the Empire's capital - Saint-Petersburg
and Pacific ports - Vladivostok and Dalniy by the railroad was established in
July 1903 when East Chinese railway that comes through Manchuria was pu to
operation and began to function routinely. But still there was a break in a
railway. Trains were transported through the Baikal Like by the special ferry
boat.
The continued railway between Saint Petersburg and Vladivostok appeared
after the finishing of Circum-Baikal railway construction (18th September of
1904). A year after it was put in regular operation as a part of The Great
Siberian Way. And regular passenger trains for a first time in history have go
an ability to follow rails from Atlantic (Western Europe) to Pacific ocean
(Vladivostok) without using of any ferry crossings.
The final step in history of Transsib's construction was putting in the
operation the bridge over Amur river near Khabarovsk and beginning of train
communication over the Amur.
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