The road of discoveries

Photo by Alexey Belyuk, the participant of the first photo competition «The most beautiful country»
Photo by Alexey Belyuk, the participant of the first photo competition «The most beautiful country»

The 14th of December, at the main train station in Novosibirsk there took place the lecture, dedicated to the longest railroad in Russia – the Trans-Siberian Railway. The Senior Researcher of Novosibirsk State Museum of Local Lore Natalia Minina spoke to the audience, she made a presentation about the history of building the Transsib. The event was held within the frames of the «Road of discoveries» project.

«The Road of discoveries» - is a joint history and geography project of the Russian Geographical Society and Russian Railways, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Within the frames of the project there are being organized lectures, film screenings and master classes of explorers, scientists, travelers, photographers and the members of the Russian Geographical Society at the railway stations of major cities of Transsib (Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Vladivostok) for the passengers.

Natalia Alekseevna presented the photo materials from the funds of the museum, told about the history of the construction of the Central Siberian highway section, railway bridge over the Ob River as well, and about the impact of these events on the development of the Novonikolaevsk city (that way was Novosibirsk named before the year of 1925) as well. The separate part of his presentation was dedicated to the engineers Gregory Budagov and Nikolai Tikhomirov, overseeing the construction of the bridge.

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Natalia Minina. The photo is provided by the organizers of the event
Natalia Minina. The photo is provided by the organizers of the event

The Trans-Siberian Railway (Transsib) was built in 1891-1916. This railroad for the first time in the history of Russia provided secure year-round communication of the capital with the Far East.  The crown prince Nikolay Aleksandrovich, the future imperator Nikolay II, poured the first wheelbarrow with soil to the ditch at the laying of the railway.

In the subsequent years Transsib was repeatedly upgraded, this process has been continued to this day.

The history of the passenger traffic on the route Moscow - Vladivostok goes back more than 100 years. After the construction of a large bridge across the Amur River in 1916, there started the direct passenger traffic from Moscow to Vladivostok on the Russian territory only.  Before that the direct trains from Moscow to Vladivostok had been following by Trans-Siberian Railway and by the Chinese Eastern Railway then. The way took 16 days in one direction.

We would like to remind you that the first lecture within the frames of the project «On the road of discoveries» took place at the Yaroslavl railway station in Moscow the 11th of October, 2016. Presentation of Sergey Tarkhov, the leading researcher of the Institute of Geography of the  Russian Academy of Sciences, was dedicated to the history and geography of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

There was held the second lecture in October as well, «The History of Trans-Siberian Railway». Irina Parshakova, the Head of the National Museum of revolutionary, military and labor glory of Omsk Railway presented her lecture to the passengers of the Omsk railway station.

Besides, there was organized a lecture-tour for the students in Vladivostok, dedicated to the foundation of Ussuri section of Transsib and through passage from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok on Russian territory in 1916. The event was held by Nelly Miz, seaside local historian, a member of the Russian Geographical Society.

An entertaining quiz named «Whether you know the Krasnoyarsk region», lecture «The Krasnoyarsk region on the map of Russia» and the film lecture «The Krasnoyarsk region with the eyes of the traveler» took place in Krasnoyarsk within the frames of the project.

The next events within the frames of the «On the road of discoveries» project will take place in Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk and Tyumen.