Siberian Transit. The Great Tea Route and Railway Construction in Eastern Russia in the Second Half of the 19th Century

Abstract. The scientific work is devoted to the problem of the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway as the implementation of the Great Tea Road (Great Silk Road of the 17th–20th centuries) in the second half of the 19th century. The first railway construction project in Siberia was a proposal to build a railway from Kyakhta to Ust-Kyakhta. For half a century, the direction of the future road was discussed based on two fundamental positions – transit between the ports of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans or the development of transport communications for the further development of Russian Siberia. The Trans-Siberian Railway was planned along the historically established general direction of Siberian freight traffic. The direction chosen reflected a compromise between these two positions. The Trans-Siberian Railway preserved, strengthened, and gave new life to the Great Tea Route. The chosen direction of the railway corrected the roads of the Great Tea Route, which was a reflection of the transport, logistics and geopolitical realities of the second half of the 19th century. Even the authors of the project to build a road from Vladivostok were based on the need to develop the tea trade. Trans-Siberian railway by the beginning of the twentieth century. connected the Trans-Baikal section of the Russian-Chinese border with European Russia, i.e. walked along the route of the Great Tea Route, slightly adjusting it, or rather, carried out taking into account the emerging adjustment of this route. From the first years of construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, this road became the main means of delivering tea from China to Russia for several decades. The Trans-Siberian Railway was the main road of the Great Tea Route, and therefore the Great Silk Road in the 20th century.

Keywords: Trans-Siberian Railway, Great Silk Road, Great Tea Road, railway construction projects in Siberia.