Geopolitical challenges and modernisation responses: railway transport in the east of Russia under the conditions of the Russian Civil War

The article deals with the peculiarities of railway management in the Asian part of Russia in the days of anti-Bolshevist governments. The material is presented within the broad context of railroad construction history. The main railway lines constructed by the state before the revolution of 1917 in the Asian part of Russia led to the territory development. Private funds were invested in the warrantable projects. The Civil War mostly went along the railroads situated in the East of Russia. It is not unexpected that railway economy incurred substantial costs and, at the same time, railroads became a guide to the source of almost all the goods for the army and citizens. The state of the railway transport in the East of Russia was researched fragmentarily or formally and on the basis of fragmentary data. The author introduces documents of the Railway Department of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Government and materials of periodical press into scientific use. The author considers it necessary to point out that laying train tracks in the Asian part of Russia was enhanced by private companies before the revolution. At the same time, the state recognized the importance of creation of a single plan of train tracks development, prioritizing and investments in laying train tracks. But the Civil War temporarily disorganized the unity of administration, and transfer of the railroads to railway committees made them unprofitable. Since the autumn of 1918, the Ministry of Railways of the Provisional Siberian Government and All-Russian Government managed to reconstruct the unity of administration and financing of all the state-owned and private railroads of the Urals, Siberia, the Steppe and the Far East. As shown in some sources researched by the author the Ministry used the sources of rail materials effectively, organized manufacturing of new carriages and spare parts in the Urals, which helped restore the damaged communications and build about 505 miles of new railway lines. The Ministry had to abandon the ambitious prerevolutionary plans of railway lines construction in the taiga zone of Siberia, but it continued construction of short railway lines that connected Siberian extractive industries with the Trans-Siberian Railway and the lines that delivered grain from Siberia. Construction of new railway lines and exploitation costs of private railway companies were paid from the funds of the Provisional Siberian and All-Russian Governments. The companies applied for a loan upon the security of the enterprises to the State bank, and it resulted in the transfer of private railroads of the eastern regions of Russia to the state. New railway construction continued within the frame of prerevolutionary directions and priorities. But the authorities had to put an end to the projects of the taiga and subarctic territories.

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