Trans-Siberian Railway Research Articles

Formation of a transport hub with an air terminal of international and public airlines under adverse conditions of Irkutsk

The study is aimed at exploring the possibility of building a new airport in Irkutsk as part of a major transport hub on the territory equidistant from the cities of Irkutsk, Angarsk and Shelekhov, close to the East Siberian Railway, R255 Siberia Federal Highway and the bypass road of Irkutsk. This problem requires evaluating the advantages of locating a new airport on the proposed site compared to the location of the existing airport within the city. The analytical and theoretical studies of the transport hub and types of air terminals proved the formation of the airport as part of a transport hub with a railway station and a bus station to be the most appropriate solution for the development of the city. A comparative analysis of time necessary to get to the new air terminal and to the old one showed that passengers would save time if the airport is placed the outside the city due to its easy access for residents of three cities. The conducted analysis of current trends in the development of the transport interchange hub formed the basis for recommendations on the choice of a hub type appropriate for the conditions of the city. The proposed hub will increase passenger traffic, areas for servicing passengers and aircraft, and the length of runways. Placing the airport as part of a transport hub on a free territory between three large cities and modernization will ensure a high level of quality of flights and passenger service, increase the quality of life of citizens, and significantly improve the ecology of the city.

The epic of the Baikal-Amur Mainline is the fate of millions. On the 50th anniversary of the start of construction

The Baikal-Amur Mainline is one of the most ambitious and controversial Soviet projects on the sociopolitical and historical trail of perception. The proposal to build a new railway north of the Trans-Siberian Railway was put forward at the beginning of the 20th century. The idea was approached in the 1920s and 1930s. Surveys were conducted, and construction began on one of the sites, which was interrupted by the Great Patriotic War (World War II). Moreover, during the war years, the upper structure of the track and a number of engineering structures were dismantled on the constructed site, which were used for the construction of the extremely important rockade railway in the Stalingrad area, which played a significant role in supplying Soviet troops during the Battle of Stalingrad. The interest in the construction of the BAM of the Soviet leadership in the 1960s and 1970s arose again in the context of an aggravation of the political situation — the complication of relations between the USSR and the People’s Republic of China. However, already during this period, the question was reasonably raised not only about the political, but also the economic strategic significance of the project from the perspective of the country’s development prospects, the development of natural resources in this region, the development of transport links between the European, Siberian, and Far Eastern territories of the state. In the period after the collapse of the USSR, the BAM construction project, not without the influence of those who were under Western influence in the country’s leadership circles, was classified as erroneous, extremely costly, economically and socially unjustified. Today, in society, the state, under the influence of many factors of recent years, there is an understanding of the importance of completing and developing the BAM construction project. This project has played a big role in the lives of millions of people, many organizations and institutions. Among them is the Leningrad Institute of Railway Engineers — today the St. Petersburg State University of Railways of Emperor Alexander I, whose students, graduates, scientists and specialists have been involved in various forms in the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline for half a century.

Russia’s Participation in the Development of Transport and Logistics Highways of the EAEU Member States

Aim. An overview analysis of the prospects for trade and economic relations in the EAEU, the SCO countries and other interested states, coupled with interests in the geo-economic and geopolitical Eurasian space in the conditions of artificial escalation of local tensions by the collective West.Tasks. Search and evaluation of optimal routes for the development of traditional and new transport and logistics highways, their branched corridors from the perspective of strengthening economic integration agreements, security and interaction of the Eurasian Union with the SCO countries.Methods. The article uses methodological tools of spatial economics, economic, geographical and geopolitical analysis of the interests of states, analysis and synthesis of interests and synergy of interests of the participating states of global Eurasian projects.Conclusions. The study showed the possibilities of new and old transport magistral (the highway) systems (TMS), both through Kazakhstan and through the development of a unique alternative — the Northern Sea Route (NSR) with the construction of a completely new infrastructure and their maintenance. The issues of TMS on the BAM and Trans-Siberian railway were touched upon. An assessment of alternatives to TMS in terms of cost and time is given. The potential opportunities of the expanding TMS and cargo traffic along the Caspian-Caspian corridor, both overland from the east (Turkmenistan — Kazakhstan — Russia) and the western shore of the Caspian Sea (Iran — Azerbaijan — Russia), as well as along waterways along the same “North — South” corridor, are indicated.Results. An assessment of effective routes has been carried out; strategic objectives have been identified for newly opened transport and logistics highways, which are defined as “new lye routes” through the territories of the EAEU and neighboring interested states (China, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, etc.), which gradually plan to enter into closer relations from participating observers relations in the international division of labor.

“The Pearl of the Urals”: The Symbolic Capital, Social Infrastructure, and Development Prospects of Miass

Taking the city of Miass (Chelyabinsk region) as an example, this article examines the historical aspect of the formation of the symbolic capital of Russian secondtier industrial cities. The author demonstrates that the vision of the city in the twentieth century developed along with the growth of municipal infrastructure, which in turn followed the industrial growth of the city, resulting from a certain “historical luck” of Miass. This industrial growth was programmed by the arrival of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the “overflow” of heavy industry from the mountainous region of neighbouring Zlatoust and the evacuation during the Great Patriotic War. In the 1960s, Miass acquired the status of a ‘naukograd’ (scientific city), thanks to the emergence of a design bureau and a missile industrial complex. Since the end of the nineteenth century, one of the most important elements of the symbolic capital of Miass has been a stable representation of the specific beauty of the nearby mountainous region of the Urals and Lake Turgoyak. The growth of Miass during the Soviet era consolidated the discourse of the natural beauty of this “city in the Golden Valley”, and Lake Turgoyak acquired the reputation of the “Pearl of the Urals”, the importance of which was fully recognised after the environmental protection campaign of the 1970s and 1980s. The collapse of the Soviet planned economy and the transition to a post-industrial society led Miass along the path of inertial development, which contradicts the significant symbolic capital accumulated during the years of urban and industrial growth. The author concludes that the creative development of Miass is possible with the use of the accumulated symbolic capital along two lines, i. e. the rise of tourism or innovative development; however, both lines will require a shift from inertial development to novel and risky investments in social and communal infrastructure.

ECONOMIC JOURNALISM OF THE NOVOYE VREMYA OF THE 1880 S

The article represents the first attempt at a comprehensive analysis of the economic journalism in A.S. Suvorin’s newspaper Novoye Vremya in the 1880s. It was a period when after heated discussions about the role of private and state capital in the economy, the public sentiment and government policy increasingly shifted in favor of the necessity of state ownership in such strategically important areas of the national economy as railways, mining plants and forests. After A.S. Suvorin acquired ownership of the Novoye Vremya in 1876, the newspaper took on a noticeable national-democratic slant, which became increasingly more conspicuous over the years. Despite the editor’s allegiance to the authorities, his contemporaries deservedly saw him as an independent figure. The influence of Suvorin’s newspaper was so significant that the famous parlor general E.V. Bogdanovich tried (not always successfully) to use it to his advantage. Bogdanovich, who initially advocated the “concession” nature of the Siberian Railway, later supported its construction at the expense of the treasury. A.S. Suvorin himself, as well as such regular newspaper contributors as V.K. Petersen and K.A. Skalkovsky were also initially supporters of private capital, concerning it an active creative force. At the same time, Novoye Vremya assessed the German experience of “state socialism” quite positively, but pointed out its inapplicability to Russian conditions and the lack of a suffcient number of active and incorruptible officials in the country. In 1883 K.A. Skalkovsky engaged in polemics with M.N. Katkov, criticizing his project to create state-owned grain elevators. However, from the mid-1880s the editors of Novoye Vremya were forced to support “statist” tendencies in the economic life of the country. In general, the economic policy of that time was not as dogmatic as in the subsequent socialist era. Subject to political interests, it was rather instrumental, practical and situational in its orientation, and the ambiguity of the position of the publicists of Suvorin’s periodical largely resulted from the latter circumstance.

СЕВЕРО-СИБИРСКАЯ ЖЕЛЕЗНОДОРОЖНАЯ МАГИСТРАЛЬ: ИСТОКИ ЗАРОЖДЕНИЯ ИДЕИ

The paper, based on identified historical documents, presents aspects of the origin of the idea of building the North Siberian Railway. The purpose of the study is outlined - to reveal the features of the promotion of plans for the construction of new railway lines at the beginning of the 20th century. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the work presents unpublished materials, in particular, those stored in the archives of the city of Yeniseisk. Archival documents testify to the results of the meeting on communication routes (Irkutsk, 1906), which laid the foundation for the transformation of railway, river and land transport communications in Siberia. The activities of the authorities of Siberian provinces and cities aimed at developing a network of transport communications are shown. One of the large-scale plans was the idea of building the Northern Highway - Tomsk-Yeniseisk-Kirensk-Amur Road. It was supposed to solve the problems of introducing the entire Northern Region to the common cultural life - from the Ob to the Amur, as well as creating a strong and reliable connection with the Far East. The Russian government supported the idea of Siberian cities, allocating state funds for technical research on the planned Tomsk-Yeniseisk railway line. In 1913, a survey party examined the railway route and put it on the map. However, these plans were not destined to come true at the beginning of the last century, as the time of great upheavals was approaching, which significantly changed all of Russia. At the same time, the focused efforts of researchers of the last century became the basis for the process of accumulating scientific and practical experience, which was necessary for developing concepts for the development of the eastern regions of the country at the beginning of the 21st century.

Classics with a constructivist past

The article traces the change in the style approach during the Stalin era, taking as an example the building of the East Siberian Railway Administration (7 Karl Marx St., Irkutsk). The author considers the stages of construction and reconstruction of this object, from the initial project in the style of constructivism by K. V. Mital to the project by D. M. Goldstein in the style of Soviet neoclassicism.

Between Two Empires: Railway Construction in the Far East in the Late Imperial Period

Based on a wide range of archival sources, this article analyses the history of the creation and functioning of the Nikolskaya branch of the Ussuri Railway in the conditions of the Russian-Chinese transborder of the eastern approach to the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER). Designed to connect the CER with the Russian railway network, this branch was significant in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from the point of view of ensuring the connection of the Trans-Siberian Railway with Vladivostok before the construction of a bypass along the Amur. The concept of “transborder” makes it possible to fit this plot into the broader problem of the formation of contact sociocultural zones along the long land border between Russia and China. The unification of the roads of the two empires into a single railway network led to an increase in migration flows, the founding of new settlements, and the development of civil and military infrastructure, elements of which can be still seen today. At the same time, for a long time, researchers paid no attention to the construction of the connecting branches of the CER and the Trans-Siberian Railway, excluding the adjacent territories from the general narrative of transborder issues, which makes the study particularly relevant. At the same time, archival materials make it possible to characterise not only the difficulties that the Russian government encountered during the construction of the connecting branch but also the initial stage of the formation of a network of settlements along it, their development, as well as the specifics of existence in transborder conditions. The listed issues were raised not only in the Committee of the Siberian Railway, the Ministry of Railways, and the Ministry of Finance, which directly supervised the construction and determined the volume of financing, but also in the CER Society. From the financial point of view, turning to the method of joint road construction using private and state funds, previously tested on other railways in the country, would become one of the arguments for leasing the Ussuri Railway to the CER Society.

Empires’ Keif, or Opium Trade on the Tea Route in the Era of Late Empires

This paper offers an analysis of the process by which new borders appeared in Inner Asia during the late imperial period. The research focuses on the borders of Russia, Qing, and Mongolia at the time of the collapse of the Qing Empire and political crisis in Russia, which led to its demise in 1917. The author aims to reveal the influence of these processes on the region referring to transborder smuggling via the transformation of the control and power of central governments. In the author’s opinion, two key factors defined the increase in opium smuggling at the Russo-Mongolian border in 1900–1917. First, political destabilization on the outskirts of the Qing Empire. Second, Cossack regiments were sent from the border to Europe to take part in World War I, thus border control was greatly reduced. The research for this study is based upon the materials of the Russian Imperial customs in the town of Kyakhta, the long-time center of Russo-Chinese trade. Based on archival data, one can trace the volumes and routes of opium smuggling from Iran to Mongolia. The area under consideration is well researched as a cross-border smuggling point; however, the problem of the illicit opium trade is still insufficiently analyzed. This is due to both political obstacles and access to sources. This article is the first attempt at a systematic study of opium trafficking through Kyakhta. The destination of the routes was the town of Maimaicheng, located near Kyakhta and inhabited by Chinese merchants. Opium was also bought by the honghuzi – armed robbers operating near the border. However, when the Civil War broke out in Russia (1917–1922), and the Far Eastern Republic was established, opium supply via the Trans-Siberian Railway declined as this route was no longer safe. Therefore, the notion of regional order and disorder is an important category for this research. This framework offers a way of better understanding Trans-Eurasian relations in the twentieth century.

Crafts of Migrant Peasants in Siberia During the Period of Activity of the Siberian Railway Committee (Based on the Results of an Economic Survey in 1903)

Crafts of Migrant Peasants in Siberia During the Period of Activity of the Siberian Railway Committee (Based on the Results of an Economic Survey in 1903)

Taxonomic spectra of aboriginal and alien flora fractions in some sections of the Trans-siberian railway

Taxonomic spectra of aboriginal and alien flora fractions in some sections of the Trans-siberian railway

Simulation modelling of traffic flow of the east-west latitudinal corridor for socio-economic development of the Novosibirsk region

The article presents the study’s results to assess the degree of impact of different categories of objects on traffic flows in the city of Novosibirsk (Russia). The main feature of the area is its intersection with the Trans-Siberian Railway. The highway is a transport corridor linking states in the European part of the continent with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. Using structurization, analysis, synthesis, and simulation modeling allowed us to obtain a quantitative and qualitative description of the key objects whose behavior significantly affects the implementation of traffic flows in the study area. Formal rail, road, and pedestrian behavior models are studied and presented. Such models became the basis of simulation modeling, allowing us to estimate the degree of influence of modernization of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the objects of street road infrastructure of Novosibirsk adjacent to the relevant sections of the railway.

Становление Новониколаевска/Новосибирска как столицы Сибири в начале 1920-х гг.

The development of Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk) and its transformation into a city of all-Siberian importance is connected with the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the growth of the city’s economy due to its favorable geographical location. The decision about Novonikolayevsk as a residence of Siberia’s governing bodies was made in a hurry, with the resistance of various interested parties and was finally approved in the spring of 1921 in the conditions of acute crisis caused by the consequences of the civil war. In such an environment the mass transfer from Omsk and the organization of all-Siberian institutions in Novonikolaevsk began, with the simultaneous creation of provincial government bodies in the city as well. As a result, this led to enormous problems with the accommodation of numerous employees with their families and strenuous efforts to overcome the housing crisis. Radical measures were taken to solve the difficulties: emergency commissions were set up to search for and distribute premises, mass evictions outside the city of residents not connected with service in Soviet institutions were carried out. But these measures had only a minor effect — the housing crisis and the shortage of office space persisted for decades.

Сибирь в работе Пьера Леруа-Больё «Обновление Азии: Сибирь, Китай, Япония»

Introduction. The article discusses the representation of Siberia in the work of the French author Pierre LeroyBeaulieu “The Renewal of Asia: Siberia, China, Japan” (1900). Materials and Methods. “The Renewal of Asia: Siberia, China, Japan” has not been translated into Russian and is being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. It presents a positive image of Russia. Pierre Leroy-Beaulieu's paper is a serious work based on statistics, scientific research and personal observations that he made during his trips in Siberia. The work uses the methodological principles of the interdisciplinary scientific direction of imagology, as well as research approaches of spatial imperial history, which involves not only the study of the practices of space development, but also its representation. Analysis. With the reference to specific examples the article examines how Pierre Leroy-Beaulieu constructed the space of the “new” Siberia. He associated the renewal of Siberia with the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which he considered “the masterpiece of the century”. The author focused the reader’s attention on evidence of progress and urbanization, wrote about the potential of Siberia, but did not forget about the problems and obstacles to development. He destroyed the markers of mystery and danger of this territory and the image of Siberia with ”bad reputation” that existed in French discourse. The article examines how the author helped his readers to “imagine” the great spaces of Siberia. Comparing the space of Siberia with the space of North America, the author sought to make Siberia understandable to Europeans and mentally bring the space of Siberia closer. The image of Siberian cities in the work of Pierre Leroy-Beaulieu is studied. Attention is paid to the author's idea of the tolerance of Russians and their relationships with the native population. The article will also present facts from the biography of the author, who came from the well-known Leroy-Beaulieu family. Results. The analysis of the source showed that in place of the old image of Siberia with a «bad» reputation, which did not correspond to the new realities of the late 19th – early 20th centuries, the image of a “new” Siberia was constructed in French discourse.

Russian Joint-Stock Companies and Trading Houses in Manchuria From the Late 19th to the Early 20th Century

Russian trading firms had already been operating in southeastern China by the second half of the nineteenth century. The Russian government’s development policy for the Far East, which was strongly advocated by the then minister of finance Sergei Witte, prompted construction of the Siberian railway line, one trunk of which was the Chinese Eastern Railway (KVZD). This railroad was then instrumental in forming a free economic zone in Manchuria where Russia’s new economic model that supported entrepreneurship could be tested. However, the activities of the Russian colony in Manchuria were confined to the right of way of the KVZD and to certain cities of little commercial interest. As a result, the companies established to extract minerals and develop industry and trade remained relatively small in both their capitalization and financial results. However, economic development of this territory continued despite Russia’s defeat in the Russo-Japanese war and stopped only after the First World War began. The final blow came when Russian businessmen were forced to liquidate their businesses. The trading houses and companies owned by Russian entrepreneurs gradually became property of Chinese, Japanese and European owners. This article gives an account of the operations of Russian joint-stock companies and trading houses established in Manchuria at the end of the nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth and indicates the role those firms played in the development of the region. The research analyzed archival sources from the Russian State Historical Archive (RSHA) and statistical reference works along with preRevolutionary and modern scholarly literature.

Study of Scenarios for Forecasting Freight Turnover on the Railway Considering Account Expert Information

A scenario approach is considered, taking into account expert information for the development of forecast models using the example of operational indicators of the East Siberian Railway. When creating scenarios, statistical data, as well as point expert estimates, were used. Expert assessments are proposed for two options. The final model for forecasting the basic indicator, which is freight turnover, is a linear convolution of partial models. The number of private models is three. It is proposed to calculate weight coefficients using the hierarchy analysis method. A special feature of this method is the creation by experts of a matrix of judgments that can be checked for consistency. Three scenarios for the development of the transportation process were proposed, which were processed until results were obtained. It is shown that the scenario approach gives good results even under conditions of uncertainty in the transportation process.

Genotypic Variability of Acer negundo L. along the Trans-Siberian Railway

Genotypic Variability of Acer negundo L. along the Trans-Siberian Railway

Модернизация железнодорожного транспорта Южного Урала в конце XIX – начале XX вв.

The article reveals the problem of formation of the railway system of the Southern Urals in connection with its intensive industrial development in the late XIX – early XX centuries. New railway lines connected Ural metal-lurgical plants with coal and iron ore deposits, opening new exits from the Urals to Siberia, the Volga region and the western provinces of Russia. The author has revealed four main stages of development of the railway system of the Southern Urals: at the first stage lines were built to serve Zlatoust artillery factories, at the second stage the construction of approaches to the Siberian railroad through the Southern Urals was carried out, at the third stage the construction was connected with the resettlement policy of P.A. Stolypin, at the fourth stage long lines were built in a short period of time, connected with the strengthening of delivery of raw materials to de-fense factories in the conditions of the First World War. Conclusion dwells upon the fact that in the South Urals the struggle of two concepts of transport development of the region was most sharply manifested – the Urals as a transit corridor between European and eastern regions of the country and the Urals as a self-sufficient transport system, satisfying, first of all, the demands of the local economy and population.

Monitoring of Anthropogenic Impact on the Baikal Natural Territory: munisipal Level

The purpose of the presented study is to develop a methodology for assessing the anthropogenic impact on the environment in the municipalities of the Baikal Natural Territory (BNT) and applying the obtained methodology to the studied territory. The article analyzes the existing methodological approaches to the assessment of anthropogenic impact on the environment. To carry out a comprehensive integrated assessment, the authors proposed an algorithm for calculating the anthropogenic impact index based on 22 indicators integrated into 7 subindexes (impact on the atmosphere, water and forest resources, agricultural impact, solid waste, disturbed lands and objects of accumulated harm, as well as background impact).The weight of the indicators was determined by interviewing experts representing the scientific community (leading experts in the field of integrated assessments of certain types of impacts or specialists in the field of environmental problems of the BNT), the expert community (leading analytical agencies developing environmental ratings), as well as the environmental management system of the regions included in the BNT. The inertial nature of the anthropogenic impact characteristic of municipalities within the boundaries of the BNT, as well as the general tendency to reduce the impact, has been revealed. At the same time, the absence of positive changes in the environmental state was noted, especially characteristic of the largest impact centers with their inherent unfavorable environment, which suggests the need to take measures to reduce the impact. The advantage of the methodology proposed by the authors can be considered the possibility of extending monitoring in the future, which opens up the possibility of using this algorithm to assess the environmental situation and form environmental policy priorities. The analysis of the results confirmed the quality of the integrated assessment methodology and showed that the districts, cities and towns of the BNT are highly polarized in terms of the level of anthropogenic impact concentrated in certain areas, primarily in the zone of atmospheric influence. The main strengthening of the AI is characteristic of municipalities located along transport corridors, the axis of which is the Trans-Siberian Railway, The Baikal–Amur Mainline and the «Power of Siberia» gas pipeline.

GENOTYPIC VARIABILITY OF ACER NEGUNDO L. ALONG THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY

The study of intraspecific variability of alien plants is crucial for revealing the patterns of their microevolution in the secondary distribution range and predicting the possibility of further dispersal and the ability to invade natural plant communities. It is still unclear how a genetically impoverished initial invasive population forms a taxon with a range exceeding the natural range of the species and, therefore, adapted to more diverse ecological and climatic conditions. Boxelder, Acer negundo L., is a remarkable object of study in this respect. The secondary distribution range of this North American species covers all regions of our plane excluding Antarctica. In Russia it spread from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, formed invasive populations in all eight Federal Districts and was included in the TOP 100 of the most aggressive invasive species of the country. The intraspecific variability of its biomorphological characters was studied by us earlier, and the results of the study of genotypic variability are presented in this article. Invasive populations of A. negundo located along the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok (9288 km) were examined. We isolated DNA from 38 specimens collected along the Trans-Siberian railway in Vladimir and Kostroma Regions, Republic of Tatarstan, Perm Region, Novosibirsk Region, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Amur Region, and Primorskii Territory. By the ITS 1-2 nuclear DNA site, specimens of Acer negundo from the Russian part of the secondary distribution range showed very high similarity with each other, but with 100% bootstrap support separated from specimens from the natural distribution range. According to the chloroplast high-variable trnL-trnF site, the specimens were divided into two clades that weakly correlated with the geographical origin of the specimen. Separate subclades with high bootstrap support are formed by the plants: 1) from Tatarstan (Kazan and Nizhnekamsk), 2) from Perm and Novosibirsk, and 3) samples from Krasnoyarsk. The haplotype network constructed at the trnL-trnF site also demonstrated the genetic specificity of the samples from Tatarstan. We hypothesized that only a few genotypes of A. negundo with a high degree of invasive activity were dispersed along the Trans-Siberian Railway (and possibly throughout all Russia). Other genotypes, including those that entered the territory of the former Russian Empire earlier, have not shown the ability to invade natural plant communities and occur rather rarely.