The Russian Railway Construction And Its Influence Between 1836 And 1917

The railway transport revolution which began in England in the early 19 th century had a significant influence on the European capitalist countries.Large-scale construction of the railway led to the gradual loss of the dominant position of water transport,and the railway quickly became the most important mode of transport.Russian railway construction began in the mid-1930 s,and in the second half of the 19 th century there were two railway construction booms.In 1900 the total length of the railway network reached nearly 50,000 versts in Russia,and ranked the second in the world.Before the First World War,the total length reached nearly 64,000 versts,ranking the third in the world.Railways linked various industrial areas,expanded the merchandise sales market,and promoted the industrialization process in Russia.In this article the author mainly illustrated the process and the size of the Russian railway construction between 1836 and 1917,and explored the railway construction modes in different periods.With detailed data the author analyzed the important issues of the sources of railway funds,technical equipment supply,labor security and management,and so on,and revealed the strategic and economic significance of railway construction.The thesis consists of three parts: the introduction,the body,and the conclusion.The introduction introduces the main tasks of the research,the significance of the topic,the research status,literature review and the innovation and limitations of the research.There are seven chapters in the body:Chapter One discusses the process of the Russian railway construction and scales in the period studied.Based on the analysis of much historical literature,the author divided the Russian railway process into several important development stages: embryonic stage,beginning stage,the first railway heat and the second railway heat.The author analyzed the railway construction background at the various stages and explained the scales of railway construction.It is noteworthy that,this chapter also covered the disputes arising from the introduction of the railway between the Russian conservatives and advanced.Chapter Two studies the construction modes of Russian railways between 1836 and 1917.The early Russian railways were almost entirely constructed by state finances.For the lack of funds,official-financing railway construction could be described as difficult.The defeat of Crimean War made the Russian government really aware of the important strategic and economic significance of railways.In the case of tight finances,the government implemented the railway construction mode — “lease system”.In the 1880 s the government mainly took the railway construction mode of the official capital.In the 1890 s,Russian industry made striking achievements,the foreign capital began to pour into Russia and the public-private-joint mode of construction was established.This chapter also illustrates the controversy of the government circles surrounding the problems of railway construction modes.Chapter Three analyzes the funding sources of Russian railway construction.From a macro perspective,the Russian railway construction funds mainly came from domestic and foreign capital.The former mainly included the direct budget allocations from the government,as well as the capital raised by issuing bonds to railway companies at home.The latter included the debts that the government borrowed abroad,the railway comprehensive national debts and the capital raised from the bonds of railway companies.This chapter chiefly makes research and statistics of the Russian railway scale of foreign and domestic capital.It also analyzes capital proportion of the two kinds of capital in the railway industry,and then answers which was the dominant capital in railway construction.In this chapter the author chiefly made research and statistics of the Russian railway scale of foreign and domestic capital and also analyzed capital proportion of the two kinds of capital in the railway industry,and then answered the issue which was the dominant capital in railway construction,which has always been one of the important subjects of Russian economic history.Through a specific elaboration of the funding sources of several representative railways,the author intuitively proved the Russian railway funding sources.Chapter Four describes the issues of technology,equipment and labor protection in the Russian railway construction process.This chapter mainly deals with the problems of the supply conditions of the equipment such as railway survey,design,roadbed and pavement engineering,railway tracks,locomotives and carriages,the establishment of stations,garages and repair shops as well as the railway workers.The Russian industry started late.Before the 1870 s,both the quantity and the quality of the domestic tracks,locomotives,carriages and other equipment could not meet the requirements,so the government had to rely on imports.With the rapid development of domestic industries,the government began to strengthen the protection of domestic industries,and the most effective means of protecting industrial was undoubtedly tariff policy.Therefore,the tariff policy adjustment of railway equipment import is also a focus of the research in this chapter.Chapter Five focuses on the formation of the Russian railway networks at the beginning of the 20 th century and the construction of several important railways,such as the Moscow-Lower Rhodo,Tashkent,Siberian,Northern Railway and the Moscow-Kazan Railway.Through analyzing the construction of the railways,firstly,the author made the readers understand the size of the Russian railway construction;secondly,the author explored the railway construction modes;thirdly,the author foreshadowed for exploring the Russian railway transport organization and management,and then laid the foundation for the following meaning of the Russian railway construction.Chapter Six deals with the organization,management and influence of Russian railway transportation.It focuses on the security measures such as railway operation table,signal,centralized interlocking and communication,the government's financial supervision of private railway companies;analyzes the government's railway freight reform;and makes a detailed discussion on the process of nationalization of railway.This chapter also covers the issues of state-owned railway organization and management.The problem study of Russian railway operation and management is relatively weak.The author would like to study the issues of Russian railway experience and management to explore the development of the Russian railway,thereby to highlight the important role of the Russian railway.Chapter Seven deals with the economic significance of the Russian railway.The railways can strengthen inter-regional links,speed up the flow of goods,and have a revolutionary impact on improving the Russian capitalist market.At the same time,the railways drive transport machinery manufacturing industry,metallurgical industry and energy industry grow rapidly,and can be an important guarantee for Russia's industrialization.This study also draws the following specific conclusions:Firstly,the foreign capital plays a leading role in the railway construction.Secondly,the national railway construction is divided into several important stages: the embryonic stage(the late 18 th century—the early 19 century),the beginning stage(1930s—1940s),the first railway heat(mid-1960s—mid-1970s),the second railway heat(in the 1890s).Third,Russia's establishment of different railway construction modes mainly depends on the economic situation and financial situation of the country.Fourthly,the railways promote the development of Russian national industry.Fifthly,the establishment of the railway networks speeds up the development of commodity agriculture,and has an important impact on agricultural commercialization,agricultural production growth and the development of commodity circulation.