The railway that changed the course of history
The railway that changed the course of history
The Trans-Siberian RailwayThe Trans-Siberian Railway is considered as a geostrategic success evenly matched to the building of the Panama channel. The railway is featured in the Guinness Book of Records for its total length, the number of stations and for the fastest pace of construction, taking only 26 years to complete. By its main route, passengers can travel 9,289 km from Moscow to Vladivostok in just seven days. Its secondary branch, known as the Trans-Mongolian, follows an ancient tea-caravan route from Russia’s capital to Beijing.
Before the railway was established, Russia had nothing to connect itself with East Asia or with the rich natural resources within Siberia. Sergei Witte, an ambitious minister of Imperial Russia, suggested that building a railroad would solve the problem. In his opinion, harvesting the natural resources treasured in Siberia was the quickest way to transform Russia into a rich industrial power. Witte’s idea was well-received by Czar Alexander III, who believed expanding the Russian population in Siberia would secure the country’s eastern border. But the railroad project was deemed impossible by many. The line would have to cross three of the world's greatest rivers, the world's largest lake, one of the world’s biggest forests and the Siberian permafrost through the world's harshest climate. When Russia's Committee of Communication pleaded that the idea was unreasonable, the emperor immediately dissolved the committee. In 1891, with Czar’s approval, Russia began the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. About 90,000 workers, made up of peasants, soldiers, and convicts, were transferred to commence construction. This massive deportation created a series of new towns and settlements in the uninhabited areas of Siberia.
Although the war was a mortifying defeat for Russians, Japan’s victory had come at a severe cost. The country’s treasuries were almost empty. Hence, Japan did not have the power to negotiate, allowing Roosevelt to side with Czar Nicholas in his refusal to pay war reparations in the Treaty of Portsmouth. While Russia turned over Port Arthur and Manchuria altogether to the Japanese, they successfully kept the northern half of Sakhalin Island in the Pacific Ocean. The Japanese felt cheated by the Americans. For days, anti-American riot, swelling up to 30,000 individuals, ensued in Tokyo. Even during the lead-up to World War II, the Japanese kept criticizing America’s role in Asian affairs. Still, as Russians had left Manchuria and recognized the Japanese control of the Korean peninsula, Japan managed to emerge as a superpower in East Asia. Within just five years, the Empire of Japan annexed Korea, an event that had far-reaching impacts during and after World War II and all the way to our very days. Japanese imperial growth, of course, created intense tensions with the US, who saw the new Asian power as a threat to its own ambitions. Meanwhile, the humiliating defeat in the Russo-Japanese War left the Russian Empire demoralized and fueled the growing anger at the disastrous policies of Czar Nicholas II, giving rise to the political opposition which then resulted in the abolishment of the monarchy during the October revolution of 1917. The Trans-Siberian railroad, which was supposed to start a new era of Russia, gave rise to a completely different empire while aiding in the downfall of the Russian Empire.
