Riding the Rails Across Siberia By Peter Kupfer

Few journeys have captured the imagination of travelers like the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Stretching from Moscow in western Russia to Vladivostok in the Far East, the Trans-Siberian is the longest railway line in the world. It runs nearly 6,000 miles — almost twice the width of the United States — and traverses seven time zones. Its vast scale was perhaps best summed up by English travel writer Eric Newby who wrote a book about the railroad titled The Big Red Train Ride: “There is no railway journey of comparable length anywhere in the world. The Trans-Siberian is the big train ride. All the rest are peanuts.” The Trans-Siberian traverses a wide range of landscapes, from great cities and remote hamlets to snow-capped mountains and rolling hills to verdant forests and barren plains. It bridges the mighty Volga River, the longest river in Europe, and loops around the southern edge of Lake Baikal, the oldest and deepest freshwater lake in the world. It passes smoke-belching factories, massive concrete apartment buildings, and small country houses called dachas. The people who live along the railway are just as diverse as the landscapes they inhabit. They include Russians and Ukrainians, ethnic Germans, and indigenous groups like the Buryats and Yakuts. While the majority of Siberians live in cities, many still live in remote areas and make their living by hunting, fishing, and farming. The Buryats, the largest indigenous group in Siberia, are nomads who live in yurts, portable structures made of wood and felt. Other indigenous groups, like the Yakuts, herd reindeer, horses, and cattle.

Many famous people have traveled on the railroad. Rudolf Nureyev, the celebrated Russian ballet dancer, was born on a Trans-Siberian train while his mother was traveling to Vladivostok to visit his father, who was in the army. The railroad has also been the subject of hundreds of newspaper and magazine stories and scores of books. One of the most popular is The Great Railway Bazaar, travel writer Paul Theroux’s account of his epic journey by rail through Asia.

The Trans-Siberian Railroad is actually a network of several connected rail lines. The main route begins in the Russian capital, Moscow, and ends in Vladivostok, on the Sea of Japan. The line traverses the Ural Mountains — the dividing line between Europe and Asia — and slices through southern Siberia. Along the way, it passes through hundreds of small and large cities, including Nizhny Novogorod, a major industrial city on the Volga; Yekaterinburg, best known as the city where Czar Nicholas II and his family were murdered by the Bolshoviks in 1918; Novosibirsk, Russia’s third-largest city (after Moscow and St. Petersburg); and Irkutsk, near Lake Baikal. The 5,753-mile journey takes eight days. An extension of the line continues to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, a total distance of 6,380 miles.

A second route branches off from the main line east of Lake Baikal and heads south through northeastern China to the capital of Beijing. A third line follows an ancient route used by tea and spice traders through Mongolia and across the Gobi Desert to Beijing.

In 1991, after more than five decades of sporadic work, a fourth route, known as the Baikal Amur Mainline (BAM), was finally completed. This extension departs from the main line west of Lake Baikal and passes the lake at its northernmost point before continuing on to the Pacific coast. The idea of building a railroad linking Moscow with resource-rich Siberia and the Pacific coast began to be discussed as early as the 1850s. But the financial and technical challenges of such a massive undertaking delayed the project for decades. Overseas investors expressed an interest in building the railway, but the Russian government was reluctant to allow outside interests to have a stake in such a strategic line. It wasn’t until the 1880s, under the reign of Czar Alexander III, who was driven by concern for "rich but neglected Siberia,” that the project finally started to take shape. Construction began in 1891 and was not completed until 1905, under the reign of Alexander’s son Czar Nicholas II. The cost of the 14-year project was roughly one billion gold rubles — the equivalent of more than thirty billion U.S. dollars! Nearly 100,0000 workers were involved in the project. Similar to the Transcontinental Railroad in the United States, Russian engineers started building the Trans-Siberian at both ends and worked towards the center. Few roads existed to transport heavy machinery or construction materials , so much of the railroad was built by men with nothing more than wooden shovels. Still, they managed to lay up to two-and-a-half miles of track on a good day.

Most of the workers came from European Russia, but others came from as far away as Italy, Turkey, and China. Prison gangs and soldiers were also recruited to work on the project. The prisoners were paid a few pennies a day and had their sentences reduced. The workers had to deal with nightmarish conditions. The route traversed some of the most inhospitable landscapes on earth, including swampy forests and iron-hard permafrost and rock that had to be blasted through. One of the most challenging sections was the loop around Lake Baikal, which required dozens of bridges and tunnels. The harsh Siberian climate only added to the workers’ misery. The winters were extremely long and bitterly cold. The short summers provided relief from the cold, but they brought other problems such as armies of black flies and mosquitos. The workers lived in remote cabins that were not much cleaner or more comfortable

than prison cells. There were numerous outbreaks of disease, including bubonic plague and cholera. In an effort to save money, the government cut corners on the original plan — a decision it would later come to regret. It used lighter rails, reduced the number of ties per mile, and built the smaller bridges out of wood rather than iron or steel. The folly of building the railway on the cheap became apparent later on, when the government was forced to rebuild large sections of the line at even greater expense. The Trans-Siberian Railroad has been luring travelers for decades, but its importance to Russia is far greater than just being a popular tourist attraction. The railroad plays a vital role in the Russian economy. Before it was built, the development of Siberia was held back by poor transport links within the region as well as with the rest of the country. During the warmer months, rivers were the main means of transport. During the cold half of the year, cargo and passengers traveled by horse-drawn sleds over ice-covered roads and frozen rivers. The railroad opened the doors to Siberia’s enormous wealth of natural resources. The region has some of the world's largest deposits of nickel, gold, lead, coal, diamonds, silver and zinc, as well as large deposits of oil and natural gas. It also has the world’s largest forests and some of the world’s most abundant fisheries. And it produces large quantities of wheat, barley, rye, and potatoes. With the introduction of the railroad, these valuable goods and resources could be shipped in less time and at a lower cost to Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world. Today, the line remains the most vital transportation link in Russia. The railroad also paved the way for millions of Europeans to move east and settle in Siberia and the Far East. Even so, Siberia remains a sparsely populated place. Only about 40 million people inhabit the region’s five million square miles — an average of just eight people per square mile. The Trans-Siberian has also played a vital role in Russia's military history. During World War II, the railroad was a vital supply line for Soviet and Allied troops fighting Nazi Germany. It was also used to relocate entire industries from European Russia to Siberia ahead of Hitler's advancing army. And it served as an escape route for German Jews and other people fleeing the Nazis. So what’s it like to travel on the Trans-Siberian Railroad today? That depends on which train and which class of service one travels in. First-class compartments are well appointed with wood paneling, carpets, a pair of beds, a comfortable armchair, and a small table for eating or writing. Attached to each cabin is a small room with a washbasin and a showerhead. Second-class compartments are less comfortable and more crowded. They contain four beds — two on each side, with a small table in between — and they don’t have

a washbasin or shower. Third-class cars are even more basic and have even less privacy. They are not divided into compartments, so passengers sleep in what amounts to a rolling open dormitory. None of the cabins are single sex, so female travelers may find themselves bunking with men. Passengers are generally provided with two sheets, a pillow, and a small towel — but little else. Toilets are located on both ends of each car, but be warned: even first-class passengers must bring your own toilet paper! Ticket prices vary widely depending on the class of service, the route, and where the tickets are purchased. A ticket from Moscow to Vladivostok, for example, can range from $250 for third class to more than $1,000 for first class. Each car is staffed by an attendant called a provodnitsa (or a provodnik if it’s a man) who occupies a compartment at the end of the carriage. Their duties include collecting your tickets, letting down the steps at stations, vacuuming the corridor, and cleaning the bathrooms. Another important duty — especially in the cold winter months — is maintaining the coal-fired samovar, a large metal container holding boiling water that passengers can use to make tea, coffee, and instant noodles and soups. Most trains are equipped with a dining car, but the food is generally not very good and is quite expensive. So many passengers bring their own food or buy it along the way. At many stops, local women called babushkas (the word refers to the headscarves that Russian women typically tie under their chins) are waiting on the platform to sell home-cooked foods and other items. The babushkas sell a wide variety of foods, including smoked fish, fried chicken, freshly boiled potatoes with dill, dumplings filled with potatoes or cheese, fresh fruits and vegetables, cucumber and beet salads, freshly baked bread, pastries, and chocolate bars. Many larger stations also have kiosks on the platform that sell a wide assortment of other goods, including milk, beer, packages of instant soup and noodles, and aspirin and other non-prescription medicines. But passengers had better be quick. The Trans-Siberian stops for only a few minutes at most stations — just enough time to let passengers on and off and to resupply food and fuel. Passengers who wander too far from the train risk getting left behind. In The Great Railway Bazaar, Theroux describes a passenger named Dufill who suffered just such a fate — an event the author humorously describes as “getting duffiled.” For those who wish to travel in style, there is also the option to take a privately operated train called the Golden Eagle. This train offers comfort and services comparable to a luxury hotel, but it doesn’t come cheaply — tickets start at $15,000 per person!

Although many tourists make the entire eight-day journey from Moscow to Vladivostok without stopping, others break up the trip and explore various places along the way. One of the most popular stops is Irkutsk, the only large city near Lake Baikal. Known as the “Blue Eye of Siberia,” the lake is surrounded by majestic mountain chains and a rugged coastline, offering many opportunities for camping, hiking, fishing, swimming, and other outdoor activities. Another popular stop is Ulan Bator in Mongolia, the world’s coldest capital. The city itself is an unappealing jumble of concrete apartment buildings, ancient temples and palaces, and modern skyscrapers. But it’s a good jumping-off point to explore Mongolia’s countryside and culture. Some travelers spend a few days living with a family in a ger — a round, portable dwelling similar to a Russian yurt. They may also watch horseracing, a popular Mongolian pastime, and sample traditional foods, such as mutton stew, yak milk, and — for the more adventurous — kazy (salted horsemeat sausages).

Given the difficulty and expense involved in building it, the Trans-Siberian Railroad is one of the great achievements in human history. In the eyes of some, it is the glue that holds Russia — the largest country on Earth — together. While some passengers may find the long journey tiresome, others take delight in the awesome landscapes, the solitude, and the chance to meet other travelers from around the world. "Sitting here day after day watching the mile markers go by you get a sense of the vast distances between places ,” one passenger noted. “That’s something you would never get being on an airplane."