The Great Siberian Way. The Beginning (1857-1891). The first projects.

The story of the Great Siberian Way starts its roots in the middle of XIX century. During the Crimean war of 1853-1856 the English and the French squadrons attacked Russian ports, located at the seashore of the Pacific Ocean. Russians made, thus, a decision of creation of stable and strong Siberian flotilla with its sea-base in Nikolayevsk-on-Amur.

In 1857 N. Muravyev, a young and keen statesman of the epoch, sent one of his military engineers, the staff capital D. Romanov, to the district between the Amur river and the seashore of the Japanese sea to make a research on the grounds, good for building of an ordinary road, which could be consequently converted into a rail one. Muravyev was also conscious about creating a new railway government of the country as well as of development of Russian locomotive and rail-rolling base, which would be of great use in the future. He was the first one to offer a map of the Russian railway net, long 21 000 milestones with its center in Moscow. Basically, his plan was realized in the 70s of the XIX century only.

After a thorough research on the location, Romanov came up with a project of the road-to-be, which started from the Amur river with its famous city of Sofiysk, founded in 1858, to the very comfortable mooring of the De Castri port. Taking into consideration the severe local climate, Romanov concluded that the best realization of the project would be in using services of some joint-stock company that would have a right to use the road for the next 99 years from the moment of its building. Apart from that many other privileges would also be offered. As for the staff, 5000 workers would be sent to the place to start building the road.

Muravyev sent his research and conclusions to the great prince Konstantin. He reasoned the need of this road and its urgency. Just in the same time lots of other foreign dealers directed same projects to the Russian government, but their plans were all rejected.

In 1858 another project on creation of a railway net was sent to the Russian cabinet. This time A. Sofronov was offering building of a road from Saratov to Semipalatinsk, and then to Minusinsk and, finally, Beijing. This project clearly reflected the costs of building and reasoned greatly its necessity: Russian transportation would never be dependent on ANY maritime nation. But his project was also rejected, because it had already been a historical fact, that the Siberian way would pass through the Urals.