On August 6, Russia celebrates the Day of the Railway Troops (ZhDV).

On this day, 171 years ago, by his decree, Emperor Nicholas I approved the Regulations on the composition of the management of the St. Petersburg-Moscow Railway.

According to this document, the first special military formations were created for the protection and operation of the railway: 14 separate military workers, two conductors and one telegraph company.

In 1870, the ZhDV became part of the engineering troops.

The railroad soldiers received their first baptism of fire during the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878.

The servicemen ensured the continuous movement of army echelons along the Bendery-Galati section.

The railways played a significant role in the First World War, during which the railway workers built about 300 km of broad gauge and up to 4 thousand km of narrow gauge roads.

In addition, they restored more than 4.6 thousand km of tracks and laid almost 5 thousand km of telephone and telegraph lines.

Before the Great Patriotic War, the ZhDV took part in the battles near Lake Khasan (1938) and on the Khalkhin-Gol River (1939) with Japanese militarists.

Thanks to the victory in these two conflicts, the Red Army was able to secure the Far Eastern borders of the USSR.

The railway workers accomplished a real feat during the Soviet-Finnish war (1939-1940).

In severe winter conditions, in the swampy terrain, parts of the Railway Forces were able to lay the Petrozavodsk-Suoyarvi artery, which was important for supplying Soviet groups, with a length of 132 km.

It is difficult to overestimate the contribution of railroad soldiers to the liberation of the USSR and the subsequent defeat of Nazi Germany.

During the most difficult years of the Great Patriotic War, they restored and rebuilt over 120,000 km of tracks and erected about 3,000 bridges.

Together with the people

In the post-war period, the railway troops helped the Soviet people to restore damaged lines and build new railway arteries.

From 1974 to 1989, the Railways took an active part in the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline.

The personnel of military formations laid about 1.5 thousand km of the main route, built 1227 bridges and other structures.

Courage and professionalism were shown by the ZhDV in the aftermath of natural disasters, accidents, catastrophes, including at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

  • Warriors-railroad workers who worked on laying the last link of the eastern section of the BAM

  • RIA News

  • © Igor Mikhalev

A little-known feat of the Soviet railroad soldiers is the restoration of the Sakhalin railway, destroyed by the powerful typhoon Phyllis in 1981.

Then the elements damaged several dozen large bridges and hundreds of kilometers of railroad tracks, some of the buildings were swept into the sea.

The ZhDV units were transferred to the island from Ussuriysk and Vladivostok.

With their help, in a short time, it was possible to complete a huge amount of work to restore the infrastructure destroyed by the typhoon.

Efficiency, professionalism and selflessness of the railway troops were also clearly manifested in the elimination of the consequences of the emergency at the entrance to the Arzamas-1 station (Nizhny Novgorod region) in June 1988.

In this place, over 100 tons of explosives intended for geologists, builders and miners detonated in three wagons of a freight train.

According to the Ministry of Defense, 91 people, including 17 children, became victims of the tragedy, more than 800 people were injured.

Despite the massive destruction, railroad warriors quickly cleared 15,000 cubic meters of rubble, laid 850 meters of the main track, and replaced 500 meters of deformed rails.

Traffic on the highway was fully restored on the fourth day.

Another similar incident occurred on October 4, 1988 at the Sverdlovsk-Sortirovochny station (now Ekaterinburg-Sortirovochny).

The train, carrying 46.8 tons of TNT and 40 tons of RDX, rolled down the slope and crashed into a freight train with coal standing on the tracks.

The explosion was so strong that a funnel with a diameter of 40 m and a depth of 8 m was formed. For the immediate restoration of the destroyed railroad, the formations of the ZhDV were thrown, which restored the movement of passenger trains already four hours after the detonation.

After the collapse of the USSR, railroad soldiers took part in two counter-terrorist operations in the North Caucasus.

In 1994-1996, the Russian Railways restored more than 24 km of the upper structure of the track, 77 km of communication lines, 67 km of power supply lines and 11 artificial structures.

In August 1999, formations of the railway troops were involved in the transport support of the federal forces during the second Chechen campaign.

The Railway Troops restored more than 18 km of the track structure, laid tens of kilometers of a contact network, communication and power supply lines, and reconstructed bridges across the Aksai, Bolshoi Shaudon, Sunzha, Prorva, Terek, Belka and Dzhalka rivers.

  • Military personnel of the Railway Troops of the Russian Federation on mine clearing

  • © Ministry of Defense of Russia

The development of the railway troops is inextricably linked with the history of Russia, the armed forces and the country's railway transport.

“All these years, military railway workers have made and are making a significant contribution to strengthening the country’s defense capability and developing its transport infrastructure,” the materials of the Russian Defense Ministry say.

Special Troops

At present, the ZhDV is a branch of special troops as part of the logistic support forces of the RF Armed Forces.

Their main purpose remains unchanged: technical cover, restoration, barrier and demining of railway tracks.

In recent years, military railway workers have put into operation 1.5 thousand km of tracks.

In 2021, ten brigades of the Railway Troops began the modernization of the northeastern chord of the Baikal-Amur Mainline.

Work is underway on the Ulak-Fevralsk section, 340 km long, and should be completed in 2025.

The project is of great importance for increasing the transport potential of Eastern Siberia and will allow the Russian Federation to expand its access to the markets of the Asia-Pacific region (APR).

To date, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, more than 2.5 million cubic meters of earthworks have been completed.

Also, one of the main tasks of the railway troops is the construction of floating bridges and other structures across large water barriers, including wide deep rivers.

In the summer of 2020, the military personnel of the Western Military District restored the bridge over the Kola River in a short time.

In early June, the structure collapsed at the moment when, during the flood period, they hastily tried to strengthen it.

The work of the railroad soldiers made it possible to prevent the transport isolation of Murmansk from the rest of Russia.

On August 5, in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, the head of the Main Directorate of the Railway Forces, Lieutenant-General Oleg Kosenkov, said that the priorities of the railway troops are further optimization of their composition and the transition to new types of weapons and equipment.

“At the present stage, the railway troops have a well-thought-out, effective organizational and staff structure, consisting of command and control bodies, formations, military units and organizations.

All formations and parts of the troops are parts of constant readiness, ”Kosenkov noted.

  • Railway echelon with military equipment

  • RIA News

  • © Sergey Pivovarov

At the moment, as the lieutenant general stated, the railroad soldiers are directly involved in a special military operation (SVO).

“Showing determination and courage, the personnel of the railway troops are engaged in demining and restoring the destroyed railway infrastructure, ensuring the uninterrupted movement of military echelons along the railways,” Kosenkov emphasized.

In June, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that during the NWO, railroad soldiers use a special Volga armored train designed for technical reconnaissance, demining, as well as restoring tracks and small artificial structures.

“This is a real armored train, armed, as they say, to the teeth.

The fighters have small arms - from machine guns to heavy machine guns.

There is also an anti-aircraft gun in service, ”the military department said in a comment.

In an interview with RT, the founder of the Military Russia portal, Dmitry Kornev, called it justifiable to revive the practice of using armored trains in certain areas of combat zones where there are railway lines.

“The main function of an armored train is to protect the railway track and ensure the normal movement of army echelons.

This need has not disappeared, and now the railroad soldiers have a vehicle that seems to be a thing of the past,” said Kornev.

In turn, Dmitry Litovkin, editor of the Nezavisimoe Voennoye Obozreniye newspaper, speaking about the special operation carried out by the RF Armed Forces on the territory of Ukraine, noted in a RT commentary that over more than a century and a half, the functionality of the railway has not changed.

“Not a single major military operation can do without the participation of railroad soldiers.

Their professionalism and dedication make it possible to establish a normal supply of armed forces groups in a short time, which, in fact, manifested itself in the special operation, ”concluded Litovkin.