1 Similar ideas for a railway north of the existing alignment had long been mooted, with the first proposal having being made in tsarist times.
2 It has subsequently been shortened as a result of tunnels and cut-offs.
3 Athol Yates and Nicholas Zvegintzov, Siberian BAM Guide (Trailblazer, 2001), p. 308.
4 Ibid., p. 297.
5 Christopher J. Ward, Brezhnev’s Folly (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009), p. 9.
6 Quoted in Yates and Zvegintzov, Siberian BAM Guide, p. 306.
7 Ward, Brezhnev’s Folly, p. 9.
8 Ibid., p. 7.
9 Quoted in Yates and Zvegintzov, Siberian BAM Guide, p. 310.
10 Ibid., p. 313.
11 Ibid.
12 Quoted in Yates and Zvegintzov, Siberian BAM Guide, p. 314.
13 Ibid., p. 106.
14 Ibid.
15 Dervla Murphy, Through Siberia by Accident (John Murray, 2005), p. 72.
16 Ward, Brezhnev’s Folly, p. 13.
17 Murphy, Through Siberia by Accident, p. 64.
18 Ward, Brezhnev’s Folly, p. 19.
19 A tradition carried on with many other major rail projects.
20 Murphy, Through Siberia by Accident, p. 25.
21 Russian Railways website http://eng.rzd.ru
22 Yates and Zvegintzov, Siberian BAM Guide, p. 308.
23 Ward, Brezhnev’s Folly, p. 152.
24 Quoted in Ward, Brezhnev’s Folly, p. 152.
25 Ward, Brezhnev’s Folly, p. 153.
TWELVE: The Greatest Railway
1 Tupper, To the Great Ocean, p. 456.
2 Ibid., p. 459.
3 Newby, The Big Red Train Ride, p. 114.
4 Manley (ed.), The Trans-Siberian Railway, p. 200.
5 See my previous book, Engines of War, p. 274.
6 Tupper, To the Great Ocean, p. 468.
7 Michael Binyon, ‘Keeping the dream on track’, The World Today (February and March 2013), p. 11.
INDEX
accidents and derailments, 101, 103–5, 120, 151, 223, 239–40
Achinsk, 105–6
Afghanistan, 37, 45
Alaska, 8, 33, 249
alcohol, 18, 57, 78, 155, 166, 252
Aleksandrovsk, 20, 31
Alexander I, Tsar, 2, 10, 38
Alexander II, Tsar, 25–6, 35, 51
Alexander III, Tsar, 28, 35, 40–1, 58–62
Alexander III memorial fund, 157
American Civil War, 34
Amur, river, 30–3, 38–9, 41, 68–9, 129, 165, 167–8, 200, 209, 212
Amur Railway, 65–6, 69, 98, 139, 180, 209, 216, 231, 255
construction, 165, 167–71
costs, 170–1
Angara, river, 66, 84–5, 89, 102, 199, 229, 231, 234
Angara, 91
Angola, 238
Annenkov, General Boris, 185
Annenkov, General Mikhail, 39, 45–6
anthrax, 87, 89
Archangelsk, 174, 195
Arkhipov, Peter, 151
Armstrong, Mitchell & Co., 90
Australia, 35
Austro-Hungarian Empire, 15–16, 172, 176–7
Baedeker, 120
Baikal, 90–1, 95
Baikal Amur Railway (BAM), xv–xvi, 230–50, 258–9
and collapse of communism, 247–8, 259
completion, 244
costs, 240, 246, 249
environmental damage, 242–5, 249
subsidence problems, 239–40
Baikal Station, 132
Baker, Newton, 181
Baku, 174, 195
Barabinskaya steppe, 82
Baranov Commission, 40
Baring, Maurice, 140
Beijing, 102, 111, 230
panorama, 110
Peking–Paris road, race, 162–3
Belebubsky, Nikolai, 84
Belozerskoe, 39
Bering Strait, 7–8, 33, 249
Bezobrazov, General Pyotr, 130
birch trees, 104
Bismarck, Otto von, 144
Black Sea, 24–5, 86
Blagoveshchensk, 128
Bloch, Jan, 50
Bobrinski, Count Vladimir, 49
brakemen, 119
braking systems, 94
Bratsk, 231, 233–4
Brezhnev, Leonid, 235–7, 244, 246, 248
bridges, 27, 64–5, 69, 74, 87, 89, 101, 103, 156, 161
on Amur Railway, 168–70
on Baikal line, 134–5
construction of, 76–7, 81–2, 94
damaged in civil war, 198, 201, 208–9, 212
improvements to, 84, 112
on Manchurian line, 125–7, 129, 132
road bridges, 4
Britain
expansionist policies, 123
export market, 158
railway construction costs, 88
railway network, 41
relations with Russia, 36–7
and Russian civil war, 173–5, 181–2, 186–8, 191, 193, 195, 199
British Columbia, 33, 38, 64
British Rail, 49
Bruce Lockhart, R. H., 176
bubonic plague, 76, 126
bulldozers, 239
Bunge, Nikolai, 26, 62
Burr, Malcolm, 209–10
Buryats, 166
Canada, and Russian civil war, 188
Canadian Pacific railroad, 37, 116, 136
Canadian transcontinental railroad, 1, 38, 94
canals, 13, 82
Cape–Cairo railway, 75
carriages
all-metal, 222
church carriages, 111, 133, 158, 170
decoration of, 206
numbers of, 118
Pullman, 116
Stalin’s, 212, 252
carters, 14
Central Pacific Railroad, 79
Changchun, 164, 214
Chelyabinsk, 64, 72–4, 82, 84, 101, 150–1
Czech incident, 176–9
industrialization, 217–18, 225
Chelyabinsk–Omsk line, 65
Chelyabinsk tariff break, 159
Cherepanov, Yefim and Miron, 12
Chevkin, Constantine V., 29–31, 33–4
Chicago Daily News, 209
China
Boxer Rising, 72, 127–30
communist revolution, 229
and Manchuria, 213–15, 229–30
railway construction, 68–72, 122–30, 233
and Russian foreign policy, 36–8, 145, 165–9
Chinese Eastern Railway, xv, 94, 98, 121, 134, 165
construction, 68–72, 122–9
costs, 127, 135
fares, 164
improvement programme, 129, 132
and Russian civil war, 175, 181–2, 191–2, 209, 213–14
and Russo-Japanese War, 131–2, 139, 166–7
struggle for control, 212–16, 229–30
Chita, 33, 71, 79, 88, 122, 155, 161, 200, 257
station architecture, 92
cholera, 54, 76, 126, 150
Chulim, river, 105
churches, building of, 157–8, 170
Circum-Baikal Railway, 65, 78, 90, 96, 121, 161, 228, 234
completion, 131, 134–7, 161
costs, 135
and Peking–Paris road race, 162–3
Cixi, Dowager Empress, 128
Clark, Rev. Dr Francis, 108, 115–17
coal, 27, 31, 159, 173, 207
thefts of, 119–20
wartime supplies, 217–18, 225
Collins, Perry McDonough, 31–2
communism, collapse of, 247–8, 257, 259
Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, 163–4, 209, 212
Constantine, Grand Duke, 32
containerization, 255–6
convicts, runaway, 6–7
copper deposits, 235
Cossacks, 127, 133, 182–6
cotton production, 218
Crimea, 199
Crimean War, 24–5, 31, 34, 37, 41
, 73
Crossrail, 44
Cuba, 238
Czech Legion, 176–83, 187–9, 191–2, 198–9
Czechoslovakia, 176
dacha traffic, 27–8
Dalny (Dalian), 123, 164
de Windt, Harry, 5, 114–15, 117
death penalty, 8–9
Decembrists, 14, 35
Denmark, 158
diligences, 3
Doctor Zhivago, 193
Donbas (Donets Basin), 27, 217, 225
Dostoevsky, Fyodor, 15
Duff, Thomas, 29–30
Duma, 139–40
dysentery, 17
earthquakes, 233, 241
East China Sea, 123
Egypt, 59
Eiffel Tower, 109–10, 194
Ekaterinadar (Krasnodar), 184
Elizabeth Petrovna, Empress, 8–9
Engineer, The, 94
engineers, Russian, 19–20
Erie Railroad, 17
étapes, 10
exile system, 8–11, 220
factories, wire-making, 254
famine, 146, 205, 210, 222
Far East Fleet, Russian, 126
ferries, 4, 90–1, 101, 103, 106, 121
Figes, Orlando, 177, 183, 189, 192
films, Soviet, 204–5
Finland, 174
First American Transcontinental Railroad, 2, 64, 67, 79, 244
First World War, xvi, 9, 137, 154, 158, 161, 172, 218, 225
Fleming, Peter, 180, 182, 186, 190, 195, 201
France
expansionist policies, 123
and Russian civil war, 173–4, 181, 183, 191
freight tariff, national, 52
Frolov, Pyotr, 12
garden cities, 155–6
gas fields, 235, 246
Geneva Convention, 234
Germany
expansionist policies, 123–3
export market, 158
invasion of Russia, 224–5, 232, 258
Gerstner, Franz von, 14–17
global warming, 247
gold, tsar’s, 196, 199
Golden Horn, 79
Gorbachev, Mikhail, 226, 244, 248
grain, 27, 54–5, 159, 218, 222
Graves, Major General William S., 181–3, 185–8, 190, 193
Great Khingan Range, 125–6
Greece, 59
Greener, William Oliver, 100–1, 107, 157
Guide to the Great Siberian Railway, 102, 112–13, 159
Guizzardi, Ettore, 162–3
Gulags, 220–2, 226, 259
and BAM, 231–2, 234–5, 244, 246
Hampshire Regiment, 188, 199
Harbin, 123, 125–6, 138, 164, 191, 209, 214, 230
Russification, 165–6
Hartman (conspirator), 51
Hartmann, Mr, 38
Haywood, Richard, 24
Helsinki, 25
Hiroshima atomic bomb, 229
Hitler, Adolf, 194
Holy Druzhina, 51
Hong Kong, 186
Horn, Mr, 31
Howard, Ebenezer, 155–6
Hubbenet, Adolf von, 44, 53–4, 59
Hungary, 16
hunghutzes (‘redbeards’), 127–8
ice floes, 4, 106
Ignatiev, Count Alexei, 40–1
Iman, river, 87
Imperator Alexander II bridge, 42, 73
Imperial School of Engineering, 20
India, 37, 59
Ingoda, river, 88
Inter-Allied Railway Agreement, 191–2, 214
Intourist, 253
Irkutsk
and civil war, 180, 182, 198–9
connection to Lake Baikal, 66, 89, 101
and early railway schemes, 30, 38–41
and electrification of line, 218, 228–9, 251
governor-general of, 162
panorama, 110
population increase, 155, 219
prison, 78
and railway route, 65–6, 84–6, 102
and railway timetable, 103
and Russo-Japanese War, 133–4
station architecture, 92
travellers and, 8, 32, 103, 106, 115, 140, 164
Irkutsk county, fires in, 243
iron and steel industry, 13, 20, 52, 217
Irtysh, river, 81–2
Italy, and Russian civil war, 181
Izvestiya, 238
Japan
and containerization, 255
and First World War, 175, 181, 201
and Manchuria, 213–16, 223–4
and railway construction, 70–2
and Russian civil war, 173–5, 181–4, 187, 191–2, 199–201
and Russian foreign policy, 36–7, 145
and Second World War, 224, 229–30
Tsarevich’s visit, 59–60
war with China, 70–1
war with Soviet Union, 229, 234
see also Russo-Japanese War
Jefferson, Richard, 105–8
Jews, 51, 54, 141, 185, 190
Kaganovich, Lazar, 221–3
Kalmykov, Ivan, 182–5, 192, 200
Kama, river, 42
Kamchatka, 8, 254
Kankrin, Count Yegor, 14, 16
Karaganda, 218, 225
Kazakhs, 147
Kazakhstan, 7, 12, 42, 218, 225
Kazan, 29, 39, 203
Kemorovo, 156
Kerbedz, Stanislav, 125
Kerensky Provisional Government, 174–6, 188, 194
Khabarovsk, 66, 69, 79, 87, 101, 121, 168, 216, 257
and civil war, 183–4, 187, 209, 212
damaged bridge, 209, 212
population increase, 219
and railway administration, 120
Khabarovski Krai, 245
Khalkhin Gol, Battle of, 224
Khilkov, Prince Mikhail, 89–91, 102, 108–9, 111–12, 151
inspects completed line, 135–6
Khor, river, 87
Khrushchev, Nikita, 234, 255
Kiev, 25, 222
Kirghiz horses, 112
Kleinmichel, Count, 21
Knox, General Alfred, 187–8, 193
Kolchak, Admiral Aleksandr, 184–90, 192, 194–9, 203, 205
Komsomol, 236–7, 247
Komsomolsk-na-Amure, 231, 233, 242
Korea, 7, 130, 137–8, 214
Korff, Baron Andrei, 41
Kotlin island, 90
Kougoulsky, Boris, 184
Krasnoyarsk, 84–6, 102–3, 106, 155, 255
station architecture, 92
Kronstadt, 90
Kuibyshev, 226
see also Samara
Kulomzin, Anatoly, 144–5, 147, 149, 151, 153, 157–8
Kultuk, 135
Kuropatkin, General Aleksey, 140
Kuznets Basin, 217–19, 225
Kuznetsk, 156
Kuznetsovsk Tunnel, 248
Kwantung Army, 224
Ladrintsev, Nikolai, 35
Lake Baikal
and civil war, 187
and early railway schemes, 30, 33, 36, 40–1
environmental damage, 243–5, 249
ferry service, 84, 90–1, 101, 121, 129
and railway route, 65–6, 69
replacement of lakeside route, 228–8
Russo-Japanese War, 132–3
storms on, 135
temporary tracks across, 90–1, 132–3
travellers and, 108, 162, 164
see also Baikal Amur Railway (BAM); Circum-Baikal Railway; Transbaikal Railway
Lake Khasan, 224
Laue, Theodore von, 43
Le Matin, 162
League of Nations, 216
Lee, Mrs John Clarence, 164–5
Legras, Jules, 151, 155
Lenin, V. I., 179–80, 205, 211
Li Hongzhang, 70–2, 123–4, 127
Liandong peninsula, 122–3, 126, 130–1
Liaotung peninsula, 109
Lissanevich
, Matilda Ivanovna, 50–1
Listvyanka, 89–90
Liverpool & Manchester Railway, 13–14
Livitsky, Colonel, 184
loading gauge, 257
locomotives
fuelling of, 173
numbers of, 118
Russian-manufactured, 12, 20–1
withdrawal of steam, 251
Zaamurets, 179
Lodian, L., 76, 78, 119
London Underground, 92
Maby, Deborah, 256
Magnitnaya Mountain, 217
Magnitogorsk, 217
Main Company of Russian Railways, 25
Main Line (Pennsylvania), 45
Manchouli, 122, 182
Manchukuo, 215, 224
Manchuria, 31, 37
and construction of BAM, 231, 259
local hostility to Russians, 124–5
railway construction, 68–72, 121–30
Russian atrocities, 128–9
and Russian foreign policy, 165–9
and Russo-Japanese War, 131–42
struggle for control, 213–15, 223–4, 229–30
Manley, Deborah, 254
Maria Feodorovna, Empress, 150
Mariinsk, 198
Marks, Steven, 5, 34, 37, 59, 67, 96, 120, 145, 171
Martinsk, 105
Meakin, Annette, 107–8, 116, 252
Menocal, Daniel de, 166
Mezheninov, Nicholas, 78, 83–5
Middlesex Regiment, 186–7
Mid-Siberian line, 65–6, 74, 103, 105
construction, 78–9, 83–6
costs, 86, 88
Mikhailovsky, Eugenia, 81
Mikhailovsky, Konstantin Yakovlevich, 73–4, 81–4, 86
mines, 10, 172, 207
missile systems, rail-based, 254–5
missionaries, 123
Mitchell, Elsie, 208, 211
Mogot, 240
Mongolia, 7, 182, 223–3, 230
Montefiore, Simon Sebag, 224
Morison, Mr, 31
Morning Star, 253
Morse, Samuel, 33
Moscow
meat deliveries to, 158
panorama, 110
Stalin’s escape route from, 226
Moscow–Chelyabinsk line, 64
Moscow Metro, 221
Moscow time, 115, 258
mosquitoes, 76, 87
Mukden, 128, 138–9, 214
Murarev, Count Mikhail, 123
Murayev, Nicholas, 30–3, 36, 69
Murmansk, 174
Murphy, Dervla, 242–3, 245
Mysovsk, 88, 101
Nagelmackers, Georges, 109, 114, 117, 163
Nakhodka, 255
Nansen, Fridtjof, 170
Napoleon Bonaparte, 194
Nauen, 194
New York Air Brake Co., 94
Newby, Eric, xix, 30, 253–4
Nicholas I, Tsar, 2–3, 5, 11
and railways, 13–21, 24
Nicholas II, Tsar, 58, 70, 249
foreign tour, 59–60
and railways, 59–62
and Russo-Japanese War, 139–41