THE GREAT SIBEEIAN RAILWAY. 241 



remaining open for some time. The surveys afterwards carried out in 1872—1874 ty the 

 (iovcrnment established three principal routes: 1. Kineshma, Viatka, Perm, Ekaterinburg, 

 933 versts; 2. Xizhni, Kazan, Krasnoufimsk, Ekaterinburg, 1,172 versts; 3. Alatyr, Ufa, 

 Cheliabinsk, 1,173 versts. Thus, the first route proves to be a development of Mr. Rashefs 

 scheme, that is, of the northern; the second, the altered scheme of Mr. Bogdanovich, or the 

 southern; and finally the third, a compromise for the simultaneous satisfaction of the re- 

 quirements of the Siberian and Central Asiatic transit traffic. The Committee of Ministers on 

 examining these routes had its attention an'ested mainly by the first two, and in 1875 it was 

 decided to carry the Siberian railway by the route from Nizhni-Xovgorod along the hilly 

 bank of the Volga to Kazan, Ekaterinburg and Tinmen. 



It will be appropriate to observe here that the choice of the direction for the Siberian 

 railway between north and south everywhere called forth very lively discussions. Various 

 pamphlets appeared arguing for and against the said routes, the constant subject of dispute 

 being not the direction of the railway in the Siberian territory, but its direction within the 

 limits of European Russia. From the above quoted enumeration of the routes it is clear that 

 all the proposals agreed in this, that whencesoever the line of railway begin, it must 

 necessarily pass through Tiumen. Further than this point few went, and few interested them 

 selves whether the line led through the southern steppes and traversed cultivated centres 

 or extended through the thickets of the north, while only passing through the most im- 

 portant places. 



In consequence of such being the situation of a matter so deeply interesting to 

 Siberia, the higher administrative authorities of the country more than once raised the 

 question of the immediate laying down of railway communication between different very 

 important points of the country. Thus already in 1875, a petition was started to build 

 a railway from Vladivostok to lake Khanko. which was followed by a lively correspondence 

 in higher Government spheres upon the construction of railways by preference in Eastern 

 Siberia within the territory of the Littoral and the Ussuri region, especially in view of the 

 development in all directions of China and Japan. However the then difficult position of the 

 Imperial finances did not permit of immediately proceeding to the realization of such 

 desirable propositions. 



Continuing to discuss the most advantageous route for the Siberian line, the Government 

 at the same time did not cease to occupy itself with the enlargement of the general system 

 of railways, which in 1877 already reached Orenburg. In the following year, 1878, the Ural 

 railway was opened, and in 1880 was completed the imposing structure of the Emperor 

 Alexander II bridge across the Volga, while finally in the same year, ensued an Imperial 

 command for the immediate building of the section of railway between Ekaterinburg and 

 Tiumen. The accomplishment of the above named constructions in connexion with the results 

 of new surveys showed that the southern route for the Siberian railway, sanctioned in 1875, 

 on account of altered circumstances, could no longer answer to its destination. Accordingly 

 in 1882 the discussion of the Siberian main line was begun afresh, which demanded the 

 carrying out of supplementary surveys in several new directions, so that in 1884 the possibility 

 appeared of presenting the three following routes instead of the southern. Of these, the first 



10 



