The
Trans-Siberian Railway or
Trans-Siberian Railroad (?????????????? ??????????, ???????? in
Russian, or Transsibirskaya magistral', Transsib) is a network of
railways connecting
Moscow and
European Russia with the
Russian Far East provinces,
Mongolia,
China and the
Sea of Japan.
The original plans and funding for construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway to connect the capital, St. Petersburg, with the Pacific Ocean port of Vladivostok were approved by the Tsar Alexander II in St. Petersburg. His son, the Tsar Alexander III supervised the construction; the Tsar personally appointed Sergei Witte Director of Railway Affairs in 1889. The Imperial State Budget spent 1.455 billion rubles from 1891 to 1913 on the railway's construction, an expenditure record which was surpassed only by the military budget in World War I.
In March 1891, the future Tsar Nicholas II personally opened and blessed the construction of the Far East segment of the Trans-Siberian Railway on their stop in Vladivostok, after visiting Japan at the end of his journey around the world. Nicholas II made notes in his diary about his anticipation of travelling in the comfort of The Tsar's Train across the unspoiled wilderness of Siberia. The Tsar's Train was designed and built in St. Petersburg to serve as the main mobile office of the Tsar and his staff for travelling across Russia.
The main route of the Trans-Siberian originates in St. Petersburg at Moskovsky Vokzal, runs through Moscow, Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude, Chita, Blagoveshchensk and Khabarovsk to Vladivostok via southern Siberia and was built from 1891 to 1916 under the supervision of government ministers of Russia who were personally appointed by the Tsar Alexander III and by his son, Tsar Nicholas II. The additional Chinese Eastern Railway was constructed as the Russo-Chinese part of the Trans-Siberian Railway, connecting Russia with China and providing a shorter route to Vladivostok and it was operated by a Russian staff and administration based in Harbin.
