The Presidential Library’s webinar to spotlight the history of Russian railways

Online webinar "Development of Railway Transport in Russia" will be held on the Presidential Library’s portal on August 20, 2020 at 10:00.

For many years, on the first Sunday of August, Russia has celebrated the Day of the Railway Worker. This tradition dates back to the summer of 1896, when an annual celebration was established by all central and local institutions in charge of the railways of the Russian Empire, the birthday of Nicholas I as the founder of the railway business in Russia. The active development of railway communication changed the idea of ​​the speed of movement, space and borders of the Russian Empire, becoming an indisputable symbol of that time.

A general view of the history of the development of the railway business in Russia is given in the book by V. M. Verkhovsky “Historical Sketch of the Development of Railways in Russia from their Foundation to 1897 Inclusive: issues 1-2" (1898-1899). A large amount of data on the state of railways and their relationship to industry and trade was collected in the 1880s by representatives of various ministries that were members of the imperial Commission for the study of the railway business in Russia. This work is devoted to the "Historical sketch of the institution, chaired by Adjutant General Count E. T. Baranov, Commission for the study of the railway business in Russia" (1909).

The webinar will present archival documents about the first passenger railway in Russia, which connected St. Petersburg with Tsarskoye Selo: "The Case on the Project of the Austrian citizen Gerstner on the Construction of Railways in Russia" (1835), "List of employees on the Tsarskoye Selo railway" (1847 ), as well as the historical and economic essay by I. B. Rosenfeld “The first railway in Russia” (1925). 

The construction on the Nikolaev railway, the first two-track state-owned railway in the Russian Empire, began in 1843. The opening of the St. Petersburg - Moscow railway took place on November 1, 1851. On this day, at 11 hours 15 minutes, the first train departed from St. Petersburg. It arrived in Moscow in 21 hours 45 minutes. The publication "Statistical description of the St. Petersburg-Moscow railway and the assumption of the production of work for its device" (1843) contains a detailed description of the area on which it was supposed to lay the railroad tracks, and the distribution of the order of different types of work from 1843 to 1847.

The webinar will focus on the construction of one of the most important railways in Russia - the Great Siberian Railway. Thanks to its creation, the richest regions of Siberia and the Far East began to develop at a rapid pace. Among the materials of the collections are “The Siberian Railway. A guide to the Great Siberian Railway (1900), a photo album “The Great Siberian Railway” (between 1896 and 1918), reports on the construction of individual sections of the railway, etc.

The way Russia appears to be traveling by rail is shown in the series of documentaries "Russia through the train window".

These and many other materials are presented in more than 1000 remote access centers open in all constituent entities of the Russian Federation and 30 foreign countries. In them, the electronic fund of the Presidential Library, numbering about one million items, is available in full.

Webinars on various topics are regularly held in the Presidential Library in the form of video conferencing mode. With their help, one can discover the unique collections of the national electronic repository, learn about rare historical documents, publications and other materials little-known to a wide audience.

The webinar "Development of Railway Transport in Russia" will be broadcasted live on August 20 from 10:00 (Moscow time) online in Live broadcasts section of the Presidential Library’s portal in accordance with the program of live event broadcasts. Please note that just before watching the webinar in Live broadcasts section it is necessary to update the portal’s page.

The Presidential Library's portal provides all the information about past and upcoming webinars in Webinars section. The information about remote access centers is available in Remote Access Centers section.