Siberian Highway: history, description, length

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

The Siberian Highway is a land route stretching from the European territory of Russia to the borders of China through Siberia. It has many names. Among them:

- Moscow-Siberian tract.

- Big tract.

- Moscow-Irkutinsky tract.- Main Siberian postal tract.

The end of this path is marked by branches to Kyakhta and Nerchinsk. The length of the Siberian tract, according to some estimates, was 11 thousand kilometers. This is a quarter of the distance of the circumference of the Earth at its equator.

Need to create

For quite a long period, communication between the European part of Russia and Siberia was carried out only along separate river routes. This was due to the lack of roads.

In 1689, Russia and China signed the Treaty of Nerchinsk, thanks to which official relations became possible between the countries for the first time. In addition, the agreement paved the way for a variety of trade relations, which caused the need to create a transport corridor between states.

Startconstruction

12 (22). On 11. 1689, a royal decree was issued, which ordered the construction of a route connecting Moscow with Siberia. However, the construction of the tract was delayed. No action was taken for another forty years. The decree remained on paper.

Even under Peter the Great, it was possible to get from Moscow to China only with the help of many overland routes, waterways and portages. Only in 1725 a delegation was sent to China, headed by Count Savva Raguzinsky Vladislavovich. As a result of her negotiations in 1727, the Burin Treaty was signed. This agreement established the borders of states near the future settlement of Kakhty. The Treaty of Kakhta was also signed, which determined trade and political relations between the countries. And finally, in 1730, Russia undertook the construction of a new road, which was called the Siberian tract. The work was completed by the middle of the 19th century.

Geography

Siberian Highway - the longest road of that time, which linked together two different parts of the world. But at the same time, the overland route from Moscow to China became the shortest route connecting the central part of the Russian state with its eastern outskirts.

Where is the built Siberian Highway located on the map of Russia? Its thread originates from Moscow itself, then goes to Murom, passes through Kozmodemyansk and Kazan, Osa and Perm, Kungur and Yekaterinburg, Tyumen and Tobolsk, Tara and Kainsk, Kolyvan and Yeniseisk, Irkutsk and Verneudinsk, as well as Nerchinsk. Its end point isKyakhty. Thus, the Siberian Highway stretches through Siberia to the borders of China.

In the early 20th century, this overland route changed somewhat. If you take a map of that time, then on it the Siberian Highway is located somewhat south of Tyumen. It runs through Yalutorovsk and Ishim, Omsk and Tomsk, Achinsk, and Krasnoyarsk. Then it stretches to Irkutsk and coincides with the previous route.

However, by the end of the 19th century. The Siberian tract - one of the longest roads in the world - has become unable to meet the ever-increasing transport needs of the Russian state. That is why the government decided to build the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Construction of settlements

The newly created Siberian tract required a certain arrangement. For this, settlements were built along its entire length. Moreover, the villages and villages located on the highway had a large length and were located on both sides of the road. The outskirts of the tract settlements were located at a distance of one or two kilometers from the center.

In order for the streets to be more compact, the houses were placed on the narrowest side of the road. The central part of such a settlement, located near the church, as a rule, expanded due to the streets that ran parallel to the land route.

Development of the territory

The Siberian Highway has become the main reason for the settlement of previously sparsely populated areas. The government built the road by forced colonization. The Siberian tract is the area where coachmen were resettled from the European regions of Russia. In addition, exiled peasants were driven here, whom the landowners passed as recruits. Settled in these territories and free settlers. They came from different parts of Siberia and Russia.

As the overland route developed, so did the influx of settlers into these places. Gradually, these territories became the most inhabited in Siberia. The people who moved here had government benefits. For two years they were exempted from all duties that existed at that time, except for the head tax.

When the Siberian Highway was finally built, the government assigned additional duties to the peasants from the tract villages and villages for the maintenance of crossings and bridges, transportation of military personnel, etc. Such duties were 40 times higher than the Russian provinces.

Mail message

In addition to establishing ties with China, Russia needed the Siberian Highway for one more purpose. Without this overland route, it was impossible to organize a state postal service. The construction of the road soon justified all the expectations of the government. So, if in 1724 postal items from Moscow to Tobolsk were transported only once a month, then already in 1734 - weekly, and two decades later - every three to four days.

In order to ensure uninterrupted delivery, a lot of postal stations were built throughout the Siberian Highway. Parcel deliveryat the same time, it was carried out by coachmen or peasants.

Shackles

The Siberian Highway is a land route, where, in addition to many postal stations, there were stages every 25-40 miles. The first of them were built in the twenties of the 19th century. According to the administrative reform, the prison parties followed their own path, divided into 61 stages. The order of movement of prisoners along the Siberian Highway was regulated by a special document. It was the "Statute of the Stages." It outlined the basic rules for arranging prisons, the procedure for moving exiled parties, etc.

The Siberian Highway is where the prisoners, after two days of travel along the route, could rest in a transit prison. The stage huts, which were located at almost all postal stations, also served for these purposes. A distance of 25-30 versts was covered in two days by prison carts, which sometimes included carts carrying household property. Sometimes a prisoner could get sick or die along the way. Then his corpse was put on a cart and continued to follow until the next stage. It was from here that the saying was born: "Deliver dead or alive."

For the period from 1783 to 1883. Approximately 1.5 million prisoners passed along the route of the Siberian Highway. There were also political rebels among them. For example, in the 90s of the 18th century. A. N. was delivered twice along this road. Radishchev, who was the founder of the domestic samizdat.

Trade route

The highway built from Moscow to China revived not only international, but also domesticeconomic relations. Throughout this land route there were large fairs - Makarievskaya and Irbitskaya. Also, thanks to the route, constant exchanges of goods between different regions were carried out. For example, rich bais appeared in the Kazan province, who opened their factories not far from the road.

Thanks to the Siberian Highway, economic ties between Russia and China have expanded. Leather and furs, silver and oil, pine nuts and rare fish, goose meat and much more were delivered abroad along this road. The Netherlands, England and France also used the Siberian Highway. They transported their goods to China along this route. It is worth mentioning that the carts were pulled along the Siberian Highway in a continuous chain throughout the year.

The emergence of a transport corridor contributed to the creation of three large arms factories in the country. Their list includes Perm Cannon, Izhevsk Armory and Kazan Powder. They transported their products along the highway to the center of the Russian state.

The eastern part of the land route, located in Siberia, is called the "Great Tea Road". It was followed by caravans delivering tea from China. in Russia at the end of the 18th century. even a new company "Perlov with sons" appeared. She traded tea, delivering it to all regions of the empire.

Road condition

Traveling along the Siberian Highway was extremely difficult. The fact is that the condition of the entire road was in an extremely unsatisfactory condition. Description of the areaThe Siberian tract is found in the memoirs of some travelers. According to their stories, this path in places looked like arable land, cut into longitudinal furrows. This significantly slowed down the movement, and therefore a distance of thirty miles could be covered only in 7-8 hours.

East of Tomsk, the tract passed through hilly terrain, but was also in extremely poor condition. It also caused criticism from travelers, whose number was constantly increasing. Nevertheless, despite this state of affairs, the road for thousands of kilometers was a means of reliable and cheap communication. At first, it was distinguished only by milestones, crossings passing through mountains and rivers, gati and copses. Then Catherine II ordered to plant birches along the tract. Trees were located at a distance of 2 m 84 cm (four arshins) from each other, protecting the road from snow drifts and not allowing travelers to go astray in bad weather.

Tract today

The Moscow-Siberian overland route has been of great national importance for almost a century and a half. However, after the opening of steamboat river traffic in 1840, as well as the laying of a railway in these parts in 1890, its use began to be carried out on a smaller scale. Russia's economic growth has increased the country's transportation needs. This led to the decision to start construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. After its completion in 1903, the slow caravan trade took on new tracks.

Today, the former southern branch of the Siberian route is almost completely superimposed by the road from Kazan to Malmyzh, and then to Perm and Yekaterinburg. At the same time, the former Siberian Highway has been almost completely reconstructed and today it is a highway of the highest category. For example, a section from Zur to the village of Debesy remained outside the modern highway, the degree of preservation of which is different. Only one of its segments is actively used for local needs. This is the route from Surnogut to Debesy.

On the Kazan-Perm road, there are other sections of the Siberian tract, which turned out to be outside the boundaries of the new highway. Their condition is different. Some of the previously laid tracks are maintained in good condition and used for local transportation, while others are completely withdrawn from circulation and are currently being overgrown.

Museum

In 1991, a unique complex was opened in the village of Debesy. This is a museum of the history of the Siberian tract. Its main goal is to preserve the memory of the main road between Moscow and China, which in the 18-19 centuries. was the main postal, trade and shackle way of Russia.

The museum is located in a building built in 1911 by a merchant of the second guild Murtaza by Mulyukov. In former times, it was a barracks for the lower ranks, located not far from the prison-stage, where prisoners were kept between transfers. The museum building is under state protection.

The staff of the complex consists of fifteen employees and four scientists. They protect and increase the funds of the museum, which todayMore than 3,000 rare books, ethnographic items and other exhibits have been stored every day.

Expositions of this unique complex are open in three halls. Their theme:

- "The Sovereign's Road".

- "The Village on the Siberian Highway".- "Forest Meetings".

On the second floor of the building there are such expositions as "The history of the school in the village of Karaduvan" and "The history of the Siberian tract". Their exhibits tell about the development of the postal service from 1790 to the present day. At the same time, visitors can get acquainted with the clothes of coachmen, as well as bells, harnesses, etc. used during transportation. Pre-revolutionary documents are of great interest to the guests of the complex, including letters and maps of the postal-geographical district, which depict the Kazan district. Among the exhibits you can see a telephone set made at the beginning of the 20th century, a Morse device, branded clothes of postal employees from the period of the 40s of the 20th century, as well as the first Soviet TV set.

The section on the history of the village of Karaduvan is equipped with local history materials, including a handwritten Koran, personal belongings of the former owners of the merchant's house, etc.

Employees conduct excursions not only in the museum, but also in the village of Debesy, as well as in its environs. The main activity of this unique historical complex is not at all commercial, but research and cultural-mass.