The Trans-Siberian Railway, a Russian epic

With the Coronavirus crisis, train travel is subject to strict health regulations. In this new episode of "At the heart of history", produced by Europe 1 Studio, Jean des Cars offers you to virtually free yourself from these constraints and to travel freely on the Trans-Siberian Railway, a network of railways of over 10,000,000 km , which crosses from east to west all of Russia. 

We are in Russia, Sunday October 13, 1896, 4,000 km from Moscow. The Trans-Siberian has been under construction for 5 years. And here is a new and spectacular material advancing on a railroad which is connected to it. A wagon that does not look like construction equipment. And for good reason ! It's a chapel! Yes, a rolling chapel with stained glass windows and four bells on the roof! A curiosity unique in the world. 

In imperial Russia, so closely linked to the Orthodox religion, Tsar Nicholas II considered it unthinkable for the workers not to be able to attend the office at least once a week. However, despite the rotation of the teams, the workers are very long away from home because they come from far away. This is how he built this extraordinary chapel car. It goes from one site to another, according to a complex network of temporary tracks. 

The bells call the faithful of the villages, when there are any, so that they join the engineers, foremen, mechanics, installers of rails. Then, gathered around a pope, the crowd hurries for mass. Inside the chapel, chandeliers and lecterns surround the iconostasis, this sacred wall in front of which the celebrant officiates. As soon as the service ended with the blessing of the section, this extraordinary car, pulled by a locomotive assigned to it, sets off again for other parts of the work. 

It is worthy of the largest railway work ever undertaken: connecting Moscow to the Russian Far East and Siberia. This fabulous epic began because of a premonitory French book, Michel Strogoff , by Jules Verne, published in 1876. I'll tell you why!

Why a trans-Siberian railway?

In this book, which was a worldwide success, Tsar Alexander II is worried about the uprising of Feofar-Khan, the emir of Bukhara. He led a revolt that threatens the unity of the Russian Empire. The threat of the invader hangs over Siberia. The tsar must warn his brother. The telegraph lines are cut. Michel Strogoff's mission was then to reach Irkutsk south of Lake Baikal, in Eastern Siberia. For the Czar's mail, the train stops at the Urals. The line does not go any further and the comfort stops there too. From then on, horses in tarentass which are rustic four-wheeled carts, the adventure is perilous. To conquer and master Siberia, only a Trans-Siberian railway can do it. 

The Francophile Tsar was an attentive reader of Jules Verne. I would add that since 1869, the United States has been truly united thanks to the Transcontinental railway. Certainly ... except that in Russia, the distance to cover between the steppes and the forests is three times greater and that the climate of Siberia is much rougher than that of the American West. The summer is infested by billions of mosquitoes, it can be over 35 ° C and in winter, the temperature can drop to -60 degrees! For four months, human life is frozen. 

To build this railroad, the labor is largely provided by condemned and exiles. Nearly 15,000 Chinese, Japanese and Koreans will be recruited to supplement the contingents of Russian convicts and political deportees. For centuries, Siberia has been a sad human reservoir of deportees, in very harsh conditions. The railway works respond to civil (colonization of Siberia) and military (the possibility of rapidly dispatching reinforcements to the Russian Far East) necessities. 

They started in 1891 both from Chelyabinsk, in the Urals, towards the East and from Vladivostok, towards the West where the tsarevich, future Nicholas, II laid the first rail. The two yards will meet each other, as the Americans had done. 

French savings finance the Trans-Siberian railway 

For a company such as the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, a lot of money is needed ... Who can help the Tsar and the Russians? France ! Why and how? After the defeat of 1870, the Republic had been diplomatically isolated in Europe. She was trying to take her place. It was then that the idea of ​​the Franco-Russian Alliance was born with Alexander III in 1888. Republican France was to unite with the Romanov Empire. 

Oh, that was not easy: at the time, an agreement between a Republic and an imperial monarchy was daring. But on the one hand the two countries being geographically very distant from each other, one could not fear border incidents. On the other hand, diplomatically, the two allies took Germany in a vice, a definite advantage for the two countries. Revenge for France, political and economic calculation for Russia. 

Known and verified for a long time, the love of the Russians for the French was going to be rewarded by the investment prospects, the outlets and the markets that the Third Republic was sure to find in this immense country in full modernization. Admittedly, Alexander III was initially reluctant because of the memory of the Revolution of 1789 and the regicide. But he ended up being convinced. During a visit to a French squadron near Saint Petersburg, the Francophile and Francophone Tsar had agreed to discover himself by listening to La Marseillaise. A gesture of great diplomatic significance. And his son Nicolas II will amplify this understanding by a triumphant state visit to France, from October 5 to 9, 1896. On the Champs-Elysées, we hear almost everywhere this unusual cry: Long live the Emperor!

The French have confidence. They buy shares in the Trans-Siberian Railway. These titles are graphically superb, in bistre, green and blue color. In the middle of the Cyrillic characters, one reads, for example and in French: "Société pour la construction de wagons à Saint-Pétersbourg". This action, worth 100 Rubles, is reassuring. Indeed, a mention certifies that: "The statutes of the company were sanctioned by His Majesty the Emperor of Russia on July 3, 1893. The confidence of the lenders is the same as for bonds. Thus, for example, the tsar - even recognizes itself as debtor, in the name of the Russian Empire, of securities worth one hundred and eighty seven Rubles and fifty Kopecks issued by the Railway Company of West Ural, call for funds at 4.5%, issued in 1912. "

Before 1900, the Russian Loans enthused the French. They have the feeling of existing again in European life. The Trans-Siberian Railway is a colossal work which, by its size, recalls the construction of the Suez Canal. Besides, Gustave Eiffel and Ferdinand de Lesseps were consulted. Everywhere, we are pleased that Jules Verne has demonstrated the need for this railway. 

Two trains will exist

The curiosity and enthusiasm of the French is also heightened by the initiative of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons Lits. This Belgian company, which has already created the legendary Orient-Express, is organizing an "excursion" for the two winners of the General Competition for History and Geography, Marius Dujardin and Albert Thomas. They are invited, from August 5 to 24, 1898, to discover the first section put into service, from Moscow to Tomsk, in Western Siberia, that is 3,000 km. This promotion idea illustrates one of the original features of the Trans-Siberian Railway of this period: two trains will exist, one, public, of the Russian State, with Russian equipment, the other, private, with cars, vans and staff of the Compagnie des Wagons-Lits. 

Comfort on board will be more sophisticated than in the other with a bathroom-gym car, reserved at a fixed time by travelers who do not take jet lag into account. The cuisine is French-inspired; there is an abundant library and a nurse. In this incredible luxury train where there is even a kennel, the regulations require that we speak French. 

On the same line, which is a single track, these two trains are in competition, often acute. Each watches for the other's imperfections and improvements. The Trans-Siberian State is jealous of the Trans-Siberian Express which multiplies the advantages, in particular this one: from 1910, telegrams are posted in the dining car, giving, by dispatches from the New York Herald, important news. The device is also a transmitter: you can send messages from the train, a technical feat that would have deprived Michel Strogoff of his adventure!

In 1900, the Franco-Russian Alliance was again glorified by a new visit of the Russian imperial couple to France. The military parade demonstrates that the Alliance is also strategic.

The most daring train in the world

As work progresses, the Trans-Siberian Railway becomes the most daring train in the world. Thus, in winter, Lake Baikal being frozen, 40 km of rails are laid on frozen water. This crossing saves time but it is risky: in 1904, at the time of the Russo-Japanese war, several locomotives, wagons and soldiers will sink into the abyss of Baikal, the deepest lake in the world: 700 meters!

The number of stations from Moscow to Vladivostok is also impressive: 543! Some are simple wooden houses in the heart of the steppe. Others are veritable palaces, often in a more or less Byzantine style; architecture often gives them the profile of a locomotive! 

Before the First World War, the 9,303 km of the main line were covered in six days and twenty hours. The average speed is 56 km / h, which is a new record. Locomotives are often fueled with wood: it is a fuel that is not lacking in the Siberian forest. Among the curiosities of this train like no other, we can cite the regulation, very original: at the announcement of a train, recognizable by its plume of vapor, the or the gatekeeper must remain on duty as long as the smoke of the locomotive is visible if the relief or the profile of the track allows it! Another curiosity: in stations, the only time indicated is that of Moscow. But in the restaurant car, two clocks are one at local time, the other at Moscow time. A demonstration of time zones, now essential in long-distance travel.

In its first years, the Trans-Siberian runs only on Russian territory, to develop the Siberian economy. After laborious negotiations, a branch line was created so that certain trains, under the name of Transmandchourien, could reach Beijing. It's complicated: the difference in track gauge means that you have to change trains. Then a third branch, the Transmongolian, will also reach Beijing via Ulaanbaatar, in Mongolia. Like the Orient-Express, the Trans-Siberian becomes a network connecting Europe to Asia. By correspondence, in 1907, the Paris-Beijing trip lasted 16 days. The ticket includes thirty-seven coupons, another world record! An adventure worthy of Jules Verne!

The train, hostage to war and revolution 

In August 1914, the private Trans-Siberian Railway was abolished. This foreign presence, which had been desired in the name of loans, is now considered insulting. State train traffic will be like Russia, chaotic and dangerous. Over 2,500 km, two hundred convoys are blocked. The civil war took over from the world war, in total confusion, for control of the line. The White Armies and the Red Army often fight for the control of the way. It is sometimes congested by train sets in which contagious patients are locked up ... The ravages of the plague, cholera and the Spanish flu are added to those of the civil war. In 1919, the retreat of the Whites in Siberia was dramatic: their losses were estimated at at least 500,000 victims! 

After 1920 and the triumph of the Bolsheviks, the circulation of the Trans-Siberian, very dilapidated, remains vital. But the equipment is in very poor condition, numerous incidents and accidents. Rehabilitation is slow. Stalin, megalomaniac and bloodthirsty, particularly monitors the Soviet Trans-Siberian. He sees spies everywhere. In 1930, the track was finally doubled. When the purges and the rigged trials begin, the master of the USSR, who, like Hitler, does not like the plane, travels in a special Trans-Siberian from May 1, 1933. Fearing an attack, he places guards along the route. His luxurious dictator train is often parked next to dark, closed, disturbing trains. These are the Gulag trains. They deport thousands of so-called "mentally ill" to the horror archipelago, whose martyrdom no one will admit until the 1970s.

Hitler's trains cannot invade the USSR 

On June 22, 1941, at 3:15 am, the rupture of the German-Soviet pact gave the Trans-Siberian an essential and unforeseen place in the exodus and defense since Moscow was threatened and its population evacuated. But, and it's incredible, Hitler's staff forgot one detail: in Russia, the gauge of the tracks is 1.52m. In Germany, as in most European countries, it is 1.43m. Why this difference in Russia? Why a greater width? 

Because in 1837, when Tsar Nicolas I had commissioned an engineer to organize a first Russian line in the Urals, this technician had pointed out to him that if Napoleon had had the railroad, he could have invaded Russia. .. Careful, the sovereign chooses a wider gauge than the European standard, which will give Russian trains impressive dimensions. Everyone knows it. However, in Hitler's entourage, no one remembered this difference. For eleven centimeters more, Nazi Germany could not roll its armored trains and its cannons on rails in the USSR! This will be one of the causes of the failure of the brutal Hitlerian invasion, the famous "Operation Barbarossa"! We hope that Stalin was grateful to the memory of Tsar Nicolas I for his insight!

The Trans-Siberian is the unifier of Russia 

Today, a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway is unforgettable, especially if you are on board a comfortable cruise train with stops, a good program of visits, shows, discoveries of magnificent landscapes. I will advise the branch of the Transmongolian, Moscow-Beijing or Beijing-Moscow, with the obligatory and entertaining change of train at the Mongolian border. The crossing of the Gobi, this desert in altitude in Mongolia, is unforgettable, as much as the magical discovery of this jewel that is Lake Baikal. The various branches of this legendary train are part of the largest railway network in the world, with more than 85,000 km of tracks. The train is very present in Russian daily life. It is so linked to its history that in this country, as in India, there is a ministry of railways!

Want to listen to the other episodes of this podcast?

>> Find them on our Europe1.fr site and on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Dailymotion and YouTube, or your usual listening platforms.

>> Find here the user manual to listen to all the podcasts of Europe 1

"At the heart of history" is a Europe 1 Studio podcast

Author and presentation: Jean des Cars 

Project manager: Adèle Ponticelli

Realization: Laurent Sirguy

Diffusion and edition: Clémence Olivier

Graphics: Europe 1 Studio

 Bibliography: Jean des Cars Dictionary Amoureux des Trains (Plon, 2006, re-edition 2013)