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The railroad was built to protect Russian Pacific ocean territories. General governor of Eastern Siberia N.N Muravyov- first had the idea to have the Trans built. -
Tsar Alexander III announced this project. -
The Trans is the longest railway in the world stretching 5,772 miles (9289 km) across Siberia Russia connecting three countries.
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Count Sergei Witte was a Georgian of Dutch descent who had worked his way up by way of the railways.
Appointed finance minister in 1892, Witte paid for the railway by raising loans, increasing taxes, and simply printing roubles. -
The Zarengold private train is the name of the train that travels on the Trans- Siberian Railroad. The original train had marble-tiled bathrooms, a grand piano in the music room, a library, and a gym, also, caviar and sturgeon in the first-class dining room. It proceeded at a stately 20mph or so and took nearly four weeks for the journey. The third-class carriages with their cargoes of peasants were crammed and uncomfortable. 30,000 guests can fit on the Zarengold. -
There are no records about the real death toll of the railway project, but estimates say 300,000 gulag prisoners were made to work on Stalin's railway, with nearly a third dying in the process.
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Yaroslavl Station in Moscow was opened in 1902 and the first passenger trains ran from the summer of 1903. -
The Trans unintentionally caused the Russo-Japanese War. (Japan took victory of this war). The war started on 1904 and ended with a peace treaty in 1905. -
Four carriages were derailed, with two of them seriously damaged.
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Because of war, the Amur line was built to provide a route entirely through Russian territory. It was finished in 1916.