The Great Siberian Way. The Beginning (1857-1891). The Tsar approves.

In the 1860s-70s the government suddenly expressed interest in adding the existent North Siberian railway to the European part of the Russian railway net.

The first road, which was supposed to send a positive impulse to the development of the Russian trade and industry, was the Ural mining line. Its plan was stated in 1861 by an engineer Reshet. His knowledge made it firm to say that the country needed stable railway connection between its most formidable Ural factories. According to the Reshet’s plans, the new road would be started from Perm continuously to Tyumen. It would be passing through all the major ore deposits and increase greatly the general turnover Siberia was able to afford that time. The costs of its building would come up to 25 million rubles. Its estimated good’s load came up to 10-12 million poods; its estimated passengers’s loead was approximately 250 000 per year.

The next project on the Ural’s line belonged to the colonel Bogdanovich, who was sent in 1866 straight to the district to figure out the needs of people of Perm’s and Vyatka’s regions who suffered from bad harvest of 1864. The colonel was practically the first one whose projects were supported both by the government and traders.

So in 1868 Bogdanovich announced his plans to the Minister of Communication lines Melnikov, who, by his turn, stated this idea to the tsar Alexander the Second. The tsar approved the plan and launched a research on necessary monetary funds.

In 1869 a new project of the Perm city head Lubimov appeared. He personally made a sufficient research on how the line should be developed. His way was passing through Kungur, Yekaterinburg and Shadrinks cities up to Belozerskaya village. This way was 50 milestones shorter that the Reshetov’s one, it was then 123 milestones shorter that the Bogdanovich’s plan also.

All these projects became a part of social property and were highly discussed by the society. The `committees on railway issue` (composed of the best citizens) were arranged in Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Vyatka, Kostroma and Perm.