How the Trans-Siberian Railway Was Built

The Trans-Siberian Railway was one of Russia's most consequential feats of engineering, and yet was also one of the most difficult to build, and might have even played a part in the collapse of the Russian Empire itself.

MUSIC:
State Anthem of Ingushetia (Instrumental)
"Working It" by Jingle Punks

👕 MERCH!

📖 SOURCES:
*Just because I have sources doesn't mean my research is infallible. Though I aim for as much accuracy as I can manage, there are likely some facts I have gotten wrong.

THANK YOU, BRONZE AGE+ PATRONS!
Adri Cortesia, Anonymous Freak, Mikkel R P Wilson, Rebanics, The Smart & The Dumb, Nif Lindsay, Tobi Burch-Rates, Up and Atom

[powerLien]

2:57 This picture is over 100 years old. It was taken in 1910, in full color, mind you, by a man named Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, who did a lot of early color photography. His stuff is surreal to look at, since you don't often see full color photography like this from even the 60s, let alone the 1910s.

[rius]

I like the refrence to "history of japan" at 5:00. 👍

[anne.andromeda]

7:31 Yeah, it is the weather that keeps me indoors right now. Definitely not some other major global breakout.

[mfaizsyahmi]

Interesting to note is that the photo at 3:00 is not taken in modern era, but taken in 1910 using colour filters. It's one of the pioneering works in colour photography, which didn't become mainstream until half a century later.

[johnkeepin]

An interesting overview. The last journey I made via the Trans Siberian route was over 20 years ago, joining it at Ulan Ude (on a train from Beijing to Moscow via Mongolia). One of the odd things having travelled north from China at that time was how European everything looked so far east once into Russia.

The footage obviously shows the mode of traction power, with no comment, but this trans-continental route is actually all electric. It is actually possible to travel between the Pacific and the Atlantic this way under the wires - which you can’t in America or Canada (yet).

[mdctt]

My grandpa used to do the trans siberian railway. He was a train conductor. He used to go to mongolia and vladivostock and he was at home for 1 week per month.

[SantaFe]

I like the way you can do accents so well! Even though Russia has the longest single stretch of railway track, the USA has the most overall milage of rails.

[adamhenrywalker]

Rode this railway once. Had a close run-in with some mafia-men...

[libyanmapping]

0:05 I like how he had to say literally to make it so it didn't seem like he was referencing the meme.

[hedgehog]

The weather isn't why I'm staying inside rn lol

[glowmobile]

There’s a spelling mistake at 3:05 with “rather though river” instead of “rather tough river” ?

[Elitist]

5:20 - In the White forces were the Czechoslovak Legion, who commandeered the Railway because the only way they could get out of Russia and back home was via Vladivostok. But because Vladivostok was in Red hands, they gave the White leader Admiral Kolchak up to the Red Army in return for safe passage. As one of the few well-organised and disciplined forces in Russia, both the Reds and Whites wanted them on their side, but they just wanted to get out.

[taco_god]

When you were discussing reasons to use Curiosity I was waiting for you to mention Covid-19 as a reason to stay indoors.

[jasminemohandes-barg]

It is on the top of my bucket list to go in this train ride once 😍

[hanuchopra]

The best of all the videos, I am interested in this topic too bro thanks

[Ma_ksi]

6:30 actually Japan didn't want a war with the USSR because of how hard they defeated their forces in border skirmishes

[sandyjohnson]

Population wise Russia is actually a very long and narrow nation stretching from St.Petersburgh to Vladivostok. 90% of the people live near the course of the "Transsib" or south of it. The north - over half the land area - is very sparsely populated except for a few cities like Yakutsk.
The Railway stations along the Trans Siberian are very interesting. Each town & city seems to have it's very own design. The larger stations such as Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Chita, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok are very impressive.

[Cjnw]

#Владивосток (Vladivostok) means " Rule the East "; if Russia controlled Königsburg/Калининград a century ago, it would have been called «Владизапад/Vladizapad», the " Rule the West " city.

[sohopedeco]

8:00 Khanubis: "... or anything else nature can throw at you!"
Nature: *throws a pandemic*

[vcrsalesman]

“... inaugurated in 1916”

I hope the Tsar had time to make use of it