Until 1861, Vyatka grain exports were carried out only through Arkhangelsk. By horse-drawn transport alone, up to 7 million poods of bread were sent from the Vyatka province to the piers of the Northern Dvina, Luza and Vychegda rivers in the 1850s. In 1869, grain began to be exported from the province along the Vyatka River on steamships; the amount of cargo sent to Arkhangelsk fell sharply. Meanwhile, if the railway was built, the northern route for the export of Vyatka grain could become more profitable than the southern river route (cheaper and much faster) and would contribute to the development of not only the southern districts of the province, but also the northern ones. It should be noted that the Vyatka merchants had previously petitioned the government to build a railway from the Vyatka province to the Northern Dvina. In 1872, by order of the Ministry of Railways, surveys were carried out for the future line planned from Vyatka to the Kotlas churchyard. Two years later, the ministry notified the Vyatka governor that the construction of the Vyatka-Dvina road with treasury funds would not take place, but there was no private capital for the construction of the road. Trade between Vyatka and Arkhangelsk continued to weaken.

Things got off the ground only in the 1890s, when the interests of Vyatka traders coincided with the interests of the government. In 1891 in Russian Empire Construction of the Siberian Railway began. In 1894, with the completion of the construction of the Omsk-Chelyabinsk section, it became clear that the only rail track connecting Siberia with central Russia (Chelyabinsk-Syzran) was not able to satisfy the growing demands on it. Widening the route seemed extremely difficult due to the highly mountainous terrain. In addition, purely commercial fears arose that Siberian grain would flood the Baltic ports and lower the price of central Russian grain already going there. The solution was found in the construction of a new road from Perm to Kotlas and the connecting branch Ekaterinburg-Chelyabinsk.

Perm-Kotlasskaya Railway. The main railway workshops in the city of Vyatka (now Kirovsky
machine-building plant named after May 1), turning, machine, boiler and battery departments.

In 1893, the Vyatka governor Anisin submitted an all-subtle report to Emperor Alexander III on the need to build a railway in the Vyatka province. The report stated that the inclusion of the Vyatka region in the railway network is an urgent need for the development of export grain trade in the province and, consequently, the development of the entire Agriculture. Representatives of the Vyatka zemstvo, the governor reported, believe that the construction of a railway in the direction of Arkhangelsk would have the most beneficial consequences for the province. Against these words in the report Alexander III made a note: "That's right, pay attention to this". The note from the Vyatka governor, on the tsar's instructions, was submitted to the Committee of Ministers.

Perm-Kotlas railway. Vyatka station (now Kirov-Kotlassky).
View from the west, from the tracks. 1901

At a meeting on January 31, 1894, the Committee of Ministers examined the report and decided to report it to the Minister of Railways for proper execution. Minister of Finance S.Yu. Witte expressed the opinion that the construction of the railway in the Vyatka province should be carried out using treasury funds, and the management of the work should be entrusted to Directorate for the Construction of the Siberian Railway. The line should be laid from the city of Perm to the pier near the village of Kotlas, which lies at the confluence of the Vychegda River with the Northern Dvina. On April 24, 1894, Witte presented to the Siberian Railway Committee in a special note his thoughts on why the construction of a railway line from Perm to Kotlas was necessary.

Perm-Kotlas railway. Construction of a bridge across the Vyatka River(?). 1901

The note stated that the purpose of the construction was: 1) to open a cheap and fast route for grain cargo from Siberia and the Vyatka province to Arkhangelsk, thereby protecting the ports of the Baltic Sea from excessive congestion with Siberian grain, 2) to have a beneficial effect on the economy of both Vyatka and adjacent with it the Perm and Vologda provinces. The note further stated that Western Siberia in good years could produce several tens of millions of poods of grain for export. The appearance of such a quantity of grain in the Baltic ports may cause a decrease in world prices. These unfavorable consequences for Russian trade could be eliminated if Siberian grain went to the world market not through the Baltic ports, but through Arkhangelsk, where the supply of grain at this time is completely negligible. The Northern Dvina north of Kotlas is full of water, and near Arkhangelsk it is an excellent harbor. After the construction of the Perm-Kotlas line, delivery of bread from Siberia to London, according to Witte, would cost no more through Arkhangelsk than through St. Petersburg. Trade in Arkhangelsk will pick up significantly, and the port will begin to develop. In addition, the new railway will give a significant impetus to the prosperity of the huge Vyatka province, from where not only bread, but also other goods, for example, the products of local factories and plants will be exported.

Perm-Kotlas railway. Starovercheskaya station. 1901

To discuss the issue of construction of the Perm-Kotlas railway, a special meeting was drawn up from representatives of the Committee of the Siberian Railway, the Department of State Economy and the State Council presence, which decided to carry out economic studies and technical reconnaissance of the Perm-Kotlas line. This work was carried out in the summer and autumn of 1894 and led to the following conclusions. Grain surpluses in Siberia based on experience recent years can be determined at 9-12 million poods, and these surpluses will only grow due to the resettlement of peasants and the plowing of new lands. Existing freight rates along the Northern Dvina and from Arkhangelsk to London are currently too high, but should decrease with increasing turnover. Even with the high cost of freight, delivery of Siberian bread to London via Arkhangelsk after the construction of the railway line to Kotlas will be more profitable than via St. Petersburg. As for Vyatka grain, its delivery to London will be much cheaper. In addition, the supply of bread to Arkhangelsk itself will improve. The total amount of surplus grain in the area of ​​the road can be determined at 4-6 million poods, then you need to add bread delivered to Vyatka and Perm by waterways (2-3 million poods) and Siberian bread (16-20 million poods). In total, up to 27 million poods of cargo were planned for the new railway. Under such conditions, the expected gross income could be approximately 3.5-4.2 million rubles. The cost of building the road was determined to be 37.5 million rubles. Therefore, the net return on capital employed could be 3%.

Perm-Kotlas railway. Depot at Murashi station. 1901

Unfortunately, the government's expectations turned out to be too optimistic. Later, the main shortage of cargo fell mainly on Siberian bread and other transit cargo. Subsequently, the poor results of the export of Siberian bread through Arkhangelsk forced the government to adopt a special protective tariff, which significantly reduced the freight charge for bread to Kotlas from the busiest stations on the Siberian Railway for its dispatch. From the very beginning, the road fully met the estimated expectations for the transportation of goods in its area, although in the Vyatka province a lot of goods continued to be moved by water and horse-drawn transport even after the construction of the road.

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History of the construction of the Perm-Kotlas railway. Part 2.

When choosing the direction of the road, it was kept in mind that in addition to its transit value (transportation of goods from Siberia), the highway should also satisfy the economic interests of those provinces where it was planned to be laid, primarily the Vyatka province, where most of the road was located. Consequently, the railway had to be built with such a deviation from the shortest route that would take into account local interests without significantly increasing costs. It was decided that the road should pass through the provincial center - the city of Vyatka, and then in the northern section - to Kotlas - along the shortest route. On the southern section, two directions of the road were initially chosen: 1) along the watershed of the Cheptsy and Kilmezi rivers, 2) along the valley of the Cheptsy River through the city of Glazov. As a result, preference was given to the second direction, since here the road was 72 miles shorter and cheaper by 2.2 million rubles.

In the spring of 1895, final surveys were carried out, and on August 19, the first work on the construction of the highway began. The road construction department was located in the city of Vyatka, and the titular councilor Ignatiy Nikolaevich Bykhovets, a railway engineer, was appointed its head.

The line of the proposed road was divided into nine sections:

1) the city of Perm (including the construction of a bridge across the Kama River),

2) Ochara station, Perm province,

3) the city of Glazov, Vyatka province,

4) Kosinsky factory of the Ryazantsevs in Slobodsky district,

5) the city of Vyatka - southern direction,

6) Vyatka - northern direction (including the construction of the Zagarsky bridge across the Vyatka river),

7) Murashi station, Oryol district,

8) the village of Skryabino, Pikolsky district, Vologda province,

9) Kotlas station in the Vologda province (including the construction of a bridge across the Luza River).

There were three main engineering structures on the railway - bridges over the Kama, Vyatka and Luza rivers. The caissons for constructing the supports of the Zagarsky Bridge across Vyatka and the metal structures of the span were manufactured by the Perm railway workshops. Some of the orders were fulfilled by the Votkinsk plant. The construction system was contracting. Track engineers who managed the construction of a particular section found contractors for individual works. A sanitary unit was created under the road management (headed by A.Yu. Levitsky, later - director of the railway hospital in Vyatka).

The construction of railway stations and depots was immediately planned. On June 1, 1897, the laying of the building for the railway station in Vyatka took place, and on June 3, the laying of the first caisson of the Zagarsky railway bridge took place. Unfortunately, already during the construction of the road, the first major accident occurred - on July 22, 1897, a freight train derailed near the village of Posevy.

On June 20 and 21, 1898, the Minister of Railways, Prince M.I., visited the Vyatka province on the construction of a road. Khilkov. On June 21, the Vyatka City Duma elected Prince Khilkov an honorary citizen of the city of Vyatka. On October 21, 1898, passenger and freight traffic was opened on the section between the Vyatka and Glazov stations (199 versts), on November 25 of the same year - from the city of Glazov to the Kama River (253 versts) and from the city of Vyatka to the Zagarsky Bridge (17 versts). On December 22, 1898, traffic on the Zagarsky Bridge was opened, on January 1, 1899 - from the Vyatsky Bridge to Kotlas (340 versts). On January 1, 1899, Vyatka Governor Nikolai Mikhailovich Klingenberg, in a speech at a festive congress in a public meeting, noted that the past year gave the city of Vyatka the completion of the construction of the railway, and in the coming year the city water supply system will be built; then the head of the province proposed a toast to the prosperity and well-being of Vyatka. In February 1899, the construction of the Kama Bridge and the last section of the road in the city of Perm was completed; On March 1, through traffic was opened from Perm to Kotlas. Despite the difficult terrain conditions (especially on the northern section of the route) and the predominance of manual labor, all work was completed within three years.

Although the picture is dedicated to the Ural railway, it is also for the Perm-Kotlas railway. this landscape was quite typical.

On August 26, 1899, inspection of the constructed road began admissions committee. Engineers and road builders begin to disperse. In the city of Vyatka, advertisements about vacant apartments appear on the gates and windows of houses, which has not happened for 3 years even on the outskirts of the city, and prices for apartments have long remained 50-100% higher than usual. On October 27, an exhibition of models of buildings and bridges of the Perm-Kotlas Railway prepared for the Paris World Exhibition was opened in Vyatka.

According to the estimates of the management of the Perm-Kotlas Railway in 1899, it was expected to transport 166 thousand passengers and 14 million pounds of commercial cargo. In reality, from January 1 to October 1, 138 thousand passengers and 2.2 million poods of cargo were transported. The expected amount of cargo did not materialize. This was partly due to the fact that businessmen had not yet had time to understand the advantages of the new route. Many companies, after the opening of the road, sent inquiries whether the road was really operational. Many of the businessmen directly stated that in 1899 they would hardly have time to send anything along the Perm-Kotlas railway. In addition, the lack of cargo was influenced by: too high initial tariffs, a complex procedure for transferring cargo, deficiencies on the road and the crop failure of 1898 in the Vyatka province.

The handing over of the road to a special commission followed on November 1, 1899, and from that day on the road was open to constant traffic. The line was connected to the Perm-Tyumen railway. road and at this merger received the name Perm Railway. On January 1, 1900, the Perm-Kotlas line was included in direct passenger service with the introduction of a general passenger tariff. In total, 32 stations and 2 passenger platforms were built on the new road from Perm to Kotlas: 6 stations and 1 platform in the Perm province (139 versts), 16 stations and 1 platform in Vyatskaya (424 versts), 10 stations in Vologda province (255 versts) .

Subsequently, the Perm-Kotlas road also did not live up to the overly optimistic initial transportation plans. As for Siberian bread, here is the data on its export for 1900: “In 1900, a total of 5,475,282 poods of grain cargoes were sent to the northern and southern ports by continuous railway from the stations of the Siberian Road. This amount of grain was distributed among the ports in such form: to Arkhangelsk via Kotlas - 1,073,447 p., to Arkhangelsk via Moscow - 106,365 p., to the Baltic ports (Riga, Libava, Revel, St. Petersburg) - 2,241,540 p., to the southern ports (Odessa, Nikolaev , Rostov-on-Don, Novorossiysk) - 940,400 p. Total - 4,363,752 p. In addition, 1,111,530 p. were sent to the Baltic ports in the Siberian-Kama-Baltic message through Perm and Levshino, to Arkhangelsk via Kotlas with waterways of Siberia - 157,056 items Total - 5,632,338 items (Ergin A. The importance of the Perm-Kotlas railway. Memorable book of the Vyatka province. 1902. P. 144). Such far from brilliant results of the export of Siberian bread through the Arkhangelsk port forced the government to create a special protective tariff for this direction, which significantly reduced the fee for transporting bread from the busiest stations on the Siberian Railway to Kotlas.

However, the construction of the road cannot be called a failure. Later, in 1905-1906, the Perm railway was connected to the Northern railway. - from Vyatka to Vologda and St. Petersburg, and the Vyatka-Perm section of the road has received outstanding importance for the transit transportation of goods and passengers. At the same time, a railway was built in the city of Vyatka. branch connecting the station with the steamship pier. In 1910-1912 The Perm-Vyatka section was reconstructed: wooden bridges were replaced with iron bridges and embankments with stone pipes, lower and higher parts of the road were leveled. We must not forget about the local significance of the road. For example, immediately after its opening, it became easier to provide grain to those areas of the province where there was a crop failure - both through local movements of grain and through its supply from other provinces. Accordingly, bread prices increased less during crop failures. In the northern part (Vyatka-Kotlas), the road passed through uninhabited wilderness areas - and villages began to appear along the road. The first large industrial enterprise appeared in the city of Vyatka - railway workshops. In general, the road greatly influenced the revival of industry and trade in the province.

The railway from Kotlas to Perm is still in operation along its entire length, although it is not electrified on the Kirov-Kotlas line. Since 1953, parts of the former Perm-Kotlas railway. included in the Gorky, Sverdlovsk and Northern railways. By the way, the northwestern regions (Luzsky, Podosinovsky and Oparinsky) were annexed to the Kirov region precisely because of the connection of these regions via railway with the city of Kirov and the region.

Dmitry Zelenin in the book “Kama and Vyatka. Guide” (1904), in the chapter dedicated to the Perm-Kotlas railway, gives two characteristic anecdotes. “When the question arose about building a railway within the Vyatka province, one Kazan newspaper joked that in Vyatka they don’t even know how to drive carts, but spend the whole year traveling on sleighs. The newspaper was partly right... Due to the lack of wheeled roads, the people of Zyuzda do not maintain carts. Strangely enough, they know how to do without them. In the entire Afanasyevskaya volost, numbering up to 10 thousand of both sexes, according to the census there were only 20 carts, including the road carts of the zemstvo station and the carriages owned by the clergy and merchants. There is not a single forge in the Afanasyevskaya and Biserovskaya volosts. Since in some cases it is impossible to do without any summer transportation device, for example, when transporting sheaves from the fields, hay from the mowing, etc., the people of Zyuzda invented something very simple, but at the same time time is expedient. This is the so-called "drag". It is made from two long poles with highly curved ends, between which two crossbars are nailed..." Another anecdote: "What an impression it made on local residents railway, the following correspondence from the Pinyuzhansky volost of the Oryol district tells us about this: “One peasant, wanting to look out for a locomotive and a “cast iron” in general, headed for this purpose to the nearest railway station. As soon as he arrived at the station, a whole train rolled by. Seeing how incredibly fast the car was flying, in his opinion, and admitting that it could crush him, the man started running home out of fear... He comes and tells the first fellow villager he meets: fantastic story: “I just went to look at the car. I come to the post (station), and she comes: her eyes are green, big. When she saw me, she began to puff, puff!.. I ran - yes into the forest, she snorted, snorted - yes me; I'm away from her through the forest, along the stump; she follows me, and keeps snoring. I ran, ran, and into the bush, she looked at me, snorted, and back again" (pp. 112-113).

To conclude this note, I invite readers to take a trip along the Perm-Kotlas road in 1899. This short essay about the railway was published in the Memorial Book of the Vyatka Province in 1901. I will only note that this is a description of the road immediately after its opening, when there were still many troubles on it, which were later corrected.

“Kotlas, the end point of the Perm-Kotlas railway, is a small village, like most of us, with a small and poor church, which comprised the entire population of Kotlas before the construction of the railway. The place cannot be called beautiful, it really looks like a hollow, the vegetation is very poor . The bank of the Dvina River is very steep, steep and is not destroyed by the action of water. All cargo received from the railway is unloaded directly from the cars into barges. The station building and other railway services are located a mile from the barns and half a mile from the river in a straight line direction. Just opposite the station are the steamship piers.

Kotlas in 1899, at the height of navigation time, could not be called lively. There are few people and little cargo. There was no movement of significant cargo, and those millions of pounds of Siberian bread, which the newspapers reported at one time, did not reach Kotlas. By June 12, cargo delivered through the shipping company of the joint-stock company (other shipping companies received very little railway cargo) of rye flour up to 100 thousand, wheat up to 30 thousand, seed up to 46 thousand, tow 9 thousand, matting 13 thousand, grains 25 thousand, total 230-250 thousand poods. And this is just the experience of the enterprising Arkhangelsk exporter Lindes. Other companies did almost nothing.

There were also few passengers in 1899, but most of them were railway employees or workers traveling on free tickets. In classes I, II and III it is completely empty and only busier in class IV, where the entire so-called black public travels: pilgrims who went to worship the Solovetsky saints, and unskilled workers. In class III, there is a whole compartment for each passenger and rarely two people per compartment.

From Kotlas, the areas cut through by the railway are forest, swamp, forest and forest, but the forest is bad, as usually happens in damp places. The population is nowhere to be seen - it remains far from the line along the right hand. Spruce is replaced by birch, birch by spruce and rarely by pine; the vegetation is poor, bad and monotonous. Only after driving a hundred versts from Kotlas, having crossed the Luza River, we encounter a larger number of pine forests, and between them young birch thickets flicker here and there, indicating that there were new trees in this place not so long ago. But the old and good forests are still nowhere to be seen. This monotony of flora continues to the Murashi station in the Vyatka province, 250 versts from Kotlas. At this entire distance there are no more than half a dozen repairs, but even those are far from the stations. Therefore, you will not find any milk, eggs, or bread at the stations, except in the buffets. The fourth graders are very unhappy with this deprivation. Buying from a buffet is expensive, beyond your means, and those who did not know this and did not stock up on provisions in Kotlas are forced to subsist on dry food.

Pinyug station is located among a forest and a swamp, the nearest village is 3-6 versts from it. There is no place to stay, no horses to ride; either wait for a fellow traveler, or walk to the nearest village and pay exorbitant prices. There were cases when travelers unfamiliar with these conditions sat here for days or more waiting for horses. The district authorities set up a zemstvo station 8 miles from the station, and only for themselves. They come and go on horseback from this station, but the average layman can even walk. The road from Pinyug station goes through the forest, and the nearest path, where the zemstvo highway is located, is impassable. Pinyug station is the only one near populated areas of Nikolsky district, and its purpose is to serve the entire district.

From Murashi station the railway goes through a populated area. The forests and swamps have disappeared, and you have to drive through fields, pastures, and villages can be seen nearby. The places are hilly, there are no mountains, but there is no steppe either. Having traveled 250 miles through forest and swamp and tired of the monotony of the views, here you begin to relax. Here and there you can see fields covered with manure, fields with rye give an interesting sight when a wave passes over them from the wind.

Vyatka is a provincial city, located like the entire province on the hills, on the banks of the Vyatka River. From Vyatka the railway goes through an even more populated area. There are no longer huge uninhabited areas here, and forests are not found so often. The closer to the border with the Perm province, the more mountainous the area and again the population is sparse, the more forested. Finally, in the Perm province there are both mountains and ravines, which is almost not noticeable in the Vyatka province. In general, it seems that the Perm province is more reminiscent of our northeastern counties than the Vyatka province. There are significantly more passengers from Vyatka to Perm than there were from Kotlas.

Near Perm, the right bank of the high-water Kama is uninhabited, low-lying, covered over a considerable area with small forest. You have to drive to the Kama along a huge embankment, and in the distance you can see a giant railway bridge (it seems more than 400 fathoms long). From the embankment there is an excellent panorama of the city, located on the slope of a decent mountain, on the left bank of the Kama. Below, on the very bank of the Kama, you can see the railway station, and opposite it is a whole flotilla of steamships and barges. Almost right next to the railway bridge, on the Perm side, here, where the city begins, is Zaimka station. From Zaimka station the road goes along the bank of the Kama, to the upstream of the river, and, in fact, to the city. 5 versts from Zaimka, almost at the end of the city, is the Kama (or Perm) station.

tornado_84Part 1 - History of the construction of the Perm-Kotlas railway.
When choosing the direction of the road, it was kept in mind that in addition to its transit value (transportation of goods from Siberia), the highway should also satisfy the economic interests of those provinces where it was planned to be laid, primarily the Vyatka province, where most of the road was located. Consequently, the railway had to be built with such a deviation from the shortest route that would take into account local interests without significantly increasing costs. It was decided that the road should pass through the provincial center - the city of Vyatka, and then in the northern section - to Kotlas - along the shortest route. On the Perm-Vyatka section, two directions of the road were initially chosen: 1) southern - along the watershed of the Cheptsy and Kilmezi rivers, 2) northern - along the valley of the Cheptsy River through the city of Glazov. As a result, preference was given to the second direction, since here the road was 72 miles shorter and cheaper by 2.2 million rubles.

In the spring of 1895, final surveys were carried out, and on August 19, the first work on the construction of the highway began. The road construction department was located in the city of Vyatka, and the titular councilor Ignatiy Nikolaevich Bykhovets, a railway engineer, was appointed its head.
The line of the proposed road was divided into nine sections:
1) the city of Perm (including the construction of a bridge across the Kama River),
2) Ochara station, Perm province,
3) the city of Glazov, Vyatka province,
4) Kosinsky factory of the Ryazantsevs in Slobodsky district,
5) the city of Vyatka - southern direction,
6) Vyatka - northern direction (including the construction of the Zagarsky bridge across the Vyatka river),
7) Murashi station, Oryol district,
8) the village of Skryabino, Pikolsky district, Vologda province,
9) Kotlas station in the Vologda province (including the construction of a bridge across the Luza River).
Perm-Kotlas railway according to surveys in 1894.
The dotted line indicates the road option that will later be preferred.
From here - Encyclopedia "Perm Region"
There were three main engineering structures on the railway - bridges over the Kama, Vyatka and Luza rivers. The caissons for constructing the supports of the Zagarsky Bridge across Vyatka and the metal structures of the span were manufactured by the Perm railway workshops. Some of the orders were fulfilled by the Votkinsk plant. The construction system was contracting. Track engineers, who managed the construction of a particular section, found contractors for individual works. A sanitary unit was created under the road management (headed by A.Yu. Levitsky, later - director of the railway hospital in Vyatka).
The construction of railway stations and depots was immediately planned. On June 1, 1897, the laying of the building for the railway station in Vyatka took place, and on June 3, the laying of the first caisson of the Zagarsky railway bridge took place. Unfortunately, already during the construction of the road, the first major accident occurred - on July 22, 1897, a freight train derailed near the village of Posevy.
Railway bridge over the Kama River near Perm. 1909 Photo by S.M. Prokudin-Gorsky.
On June 20 and 21, 1898, the Minister of Railways, Prince M.I., visited the Vyatka province on the construction of a road. Khilkov. On June 21, the Vyatka City Duma elected Prince Khilkov an honorary citizen of the city of Vyatka. On October 21, 1898, passenger and freight traffic was opened on the section between the Vyatka and Glazov stations (199 versts), on November 25 of the same year - from the city of Glazov to the Kama River (253 versts) and from the city of Vyatka to the Zagarsky Bridge (17 versts). On December 22, 1898, traffic on the Zagarsky Bridge was opened, on January 1, 1899 - from the Vyatsky Bridge to Kotlas (340 versts). On January 1, 1899, Vyatka Governor Nikolai Mikhailovich Klingenberg, in a speech at a festive congress in a public meeting, noted that the past year gave the city of Vyatka the completion of the construction of the railway, and in the coming year the city water supply system will be built; then the head of the province proposed a toast to the prosperity and well-being of Vyatka. In February 1899, the construction of the Kama Bridge and the last section of the road in the city of Perm was completed; On March 1, through traffic was opened from Perm to Kotlas. Despite the difficult terrain conditions (especially on the northern section of the route) and the predominance of manual labor, all work was completed within three years.
V.G. Kazantsev. At the stop. Winter morning on the Ural Railway. 1891
Although the picture is dedicated to the Ural railway, it is also for the Perm-Kotlas railway. this landscape was quite typical.
On August 26, 1899, the inspection committee of the constructed road began. Engineers and road builders begin to disperse. In the city of Vyatka, advertisements about vacant apartments appear on the gates and windows of houses, which has not happened for 3 years even on the outskirts of the city, and prices for apartments have long remained 50-100% higher than usual. On October 27, an exhibition of models of buildings and bridges of the Perm-Kotlas Railway prepared for the Paris World Exhibition was opened in Vyatka.
According to the estimates of the management of the Perm-Kotlas Railway in 1899, it was expected to transport 166 thousand passengers and 14 million pounds of commercial cargo. In reality, from January 1 to October 1, 138 thousand passengers and 2.2 million poods of cargo were transported. The expected amount of cargo did not materialize. This was partly due to the fact that businessmen had not yet had time to understand the advantages of the new route. Many companies, after the opening of the road, sent inquiries whether the road was really operational. Many of the businessmen directly stated that in 1899 they would hardly have time to send anything along the Perm-Kotlas railway. In addition, the lack of cargo was influenced by: too high initial tariffs, a complex procedure for transferring cargo, deficiencies on the road and the crop failure of 1898 in the Vyatka province.
Vyatka station. Railway station. 1900s
The handing over of the road to a special commission followed on November 1, 1899, and from that day on the road was open to constant traffic. The line was connected to the Perm-Tyumen railway. road and at this merger received the name Perm Railway. On January 1, 1900, the Perm-Kotlas line was included in direct passenger service with the introduction of a general passenger tariff. In total, 32 stations and 2 passenger platforms were built on the new road from Perm to Kotlas: 6 stations and 1 platform in the Perm province (139 versts), 16 stations and 1 platform in Vyatskaya (424 versts), 10 stations in Vologda province (255 versts) .
Subsequently, the Perm-Kotlas road also did not live up to the overly optimistic initial transportation plans. As for Siberian bread, here is the data on its export for 1900: “In 1900, a total of 5,475,282 poods of grain cargoes were sent to the northern and southern ports by continuous railway from the stations of the Siberian Road. This amount of grain was distributed among the ports in such form: to Arkhangelsk via Kotlas - 1,073,447 p., to Arkhangelsk via Moscow - 106,365 p., to the Baltic ports (Riga, Libava, Revel, St. Petersburg) - 2,241,540 p., to the southern ports (Odessa, Nikolaev , Rostov-on-Don, Novorossiysk) - 940,400 p. Total - 4,363,752 p. In addition, 1,111,530 p. were sent to the Baltic ports in the Siberian-Kama-Baltic message through Perm and Levshino, to Arkhangelsk via Kotlas with waterways of Siberia - 157,056 items Total - 5,632,338 items (Ergin A. The importance of the Perm-Kotlas railway. Memorable book of the Vyatka province. 1902. P. 144). Such far from brilliant results of the export of Siberian bread through the Arkhangelsk port forced the government to create a special protective tariff for this direction, which significantly reduced the fee for transporting bread from the busiest stations on the Siberian Railway to Kotlas.
Protective tariff for transporting Siberian bread to Kotlas.
However, the construction of the road cannot be called a failure. Later, in 1905-1906, the Perm railway was connected to the Northern railway. - from Vyatka to Vologda and St. Petersburg, and the Vyatka-Perm section of the road has received outstanding importance for the transit transportation of goods and passengers. At the same time, a railway was built in the city of Vyatka. branch connecting the station with the steamship pier. In 1910-1912 The Perm-Vyatka section was reconstructed: wooden bridges were replaced with iron bridges and embankments with stone pipes, lower and higher parts of the road were leveled. We must not forget about the local significance of the road. For example, immediately after its opening, it became easier to provide grain to those areas of the province where there was a crop failure - both through local movements of grain and through its supply from other provinces. Accordingly, bread prices increased less during crop failures. In the northern part (Vyatka-Kotlas), the road passed through uninhabited wilderness areas - and villages began to appear along the road. The first large industrial enterprise appeared in the city of Vyatka - railway workshops. In general, the road greatly influenced the revival of industry and trade in the province.
The railway from Kotlas to Perm is still in operation along its entire length, although it is not electrified on the Kirov-Kotlas line. Since 1953, parts of the former Perm-Kotlas railway. included in the Gorky, Sverdlovsk and Northern railways. By the way, the northwestern regions (Luzsky, Podosinovsky and Oparinsky) were annexed to the Kirov region precisely because of the connection of these regions via railway with the city of Kirov and the region.
Perm-Kotlas railway Velikaya station. 1899
Dmitry Zelenin in the book “Kama and Vyatka. Guide” (1904), in the chapter dedicated to the Perm-Kotlas railway, gives two characteristic anecdotes. “When the question arose about building a railway within the Vyatka province, one Kazan newspaper joked that in Vyatka they don’t even know how to drive carts, but spend the whole year traveling on sleighs. The newspaper was partly right... Due to the lack of wheeled roads, the people of Zyuzda do not maintain carts. Strangely enough, they know how to do without them. In the entire Afanasyevskaya volost, numbering up to 10 thousand of both sexes, according to the census there were only 20 carts, including the road carts of the zemstvo station and the carriages owned by the clergy and merchants. There is not a single forge in the Afanasyevskaya and Biserovskaya volosts. Since in some cases it is impossible to do without any summer transportation device, for example, when transporting sheaves from the fields, hay from the mowing, etc., the people of Zyuzda invented something very simple, but at the same time time is expedient. This is the so-called “drag”. It is made from two long poles with highly curved ends, between which two crossbars are nailed..." Another anecdote: “What an impression the railway made on the local residents, the following correspondence from Pinyuzhansky volost of Oryol district: “One peasant, wanting to look out for a locomotive and a cast iron engine in general, headed for this purpose to the nearest railway station. As soon as he arrived at the station, a whole train rolled by. Seeing how incredibly fast the car was flying, in his opinion, and assuming that it could crush him, the man started running home out of fear... He comes and tells the first fellow villager he meets this fantastic story: “I just went to look at the car. to the post (station), she goes: her eyes are green, big. When she saw me, she began to puff, puff! stump; she followed me, and kept snoring. I ran, ran, and into the bush, she looked at me, snorted, and back again" (p. 112-113).
To conclude this note, I invite readers to take a trip along the Perm-Kotlas road in 1899. This short essay about the railway was published in the Memorial Book of the Vyatka Province in 1901. I will only note that this is a description of the road immediately after its opening, when there were still many troubles on it, which were later corrected.
“Kotlas, the end point of the Perm-Kotlas railway, is a small village, like most of us, with a small and poor church, which comprised the entire population of Kotlas before the construction of the railway. The place cannot be called beautiful, it really looks like a hollow, the vegetation is very poor . The bank of the Dvina River is very steep, steep and is not destroyed by the action of water. All cargo received from the railway is unloaded directly from the cars into barges. The station building and other railway services are located a mile from the barns and half a mile from the river in a straight line direction. Just opposite the station are the steamship piers.
Kotlas in 1899, at the height of navigation time, could not be called lively. There are few people and little cargo. There was no movement of significant cargo, and those millions of pounds of Siberian bread, which the newspapers reported at one time, did not reach Kotlas. By June 12, cargo delivered through the shipping company of the joint-stock company (other shipping companies received very little railway cargo) of rye flour up to 100 thousand, wheat up to 30 thousand, seed up to 46 thousand, tow 9 thousand, matting 13 thousand, grains 25 thousand, total 230-250 thousand poods. And this is just the experience of the enterprising Arkhangelsk exporter Lindes. Other companies did almost nothing.
There were also few passengers in 1899, but most of them were railway employees or workers traveling on free tickets. In classes I, II and III it is completely empty and only busier in class IV, where the entire so-called black public travels: pilgrims who went to worship the Solovetsky saints, and unskilled workers. In class III, there is a whole compartment for each passenger and rarely two people per compartment.
Perm-Kotlas railway Zaimki station. 1899
From Kotlas, the areas cut through by the railway are forest, swamp, forest and forest, but the forest is bad, as usually happens in damp places. The population is nowhere to be seen - it remains far from the line along the right hand. Spruce is replaced by birch, birch by spruce and rarely by pine; the vegetation is poor, bad and monotonous. Only after driving a hundred versts from Kotlas, having crossed the Luza River, we encounter a larger number of pine forests, and between them young birch thickets flicker here and there, indicating that there were new trees in this place not so long ago. But the old and good forests are still nowhere to be seen. This monotony of flora continues to the Murashi station in the Vyatka province, 250 versts from Kotlas. At this entire distance there are no more than half a dozen repairs, but even those are far from the stations. Therefore, you will not find any milk, eggs, or bread at the stations, except in the buffets. The fourth graders are very unhappy with this deprivation. Buying from a buffet is expensive, beyond your means, and those who did not know this and did not stock up on provisions in Kotlas are forced to subsist on dry food.
Pinyug station is located among a forest and a swamp, the nearest village is 3-6 versts from it. There is no place to stay, no horses to ride; either wait for a fellow traveler, or walk to the nearest village and pay exorbitant prices. There were cases when travelers unfamiliar with these conditions sat here for days or more waiting for horses. The district authorities set up a zemstvo station 8 miles from the station, and only for themselves. They come and go on horseback from this station, but the average layman can even walk. The road from Pinyug station goes through the forest, and the nearest path, where the zemstvo highway is located, is impassable. Pinyug station is the only one near populated areas of Nikolsky district, and its purpose is to serve the entire district.
List of stations of the Perm-Kotlas railway. Memorial book of the Vyatka province, 1901.
From Murashi station the railway goes through a populated area. The forests and swamps have disappeared, and you have to drive through fields, pastures, and villages can be seen nearby. The places are hilly, there are no mountains, but there is no steppe either. Having traveled 250 miles through forest and swamp and tired of the monotony of the views, here you begin to relax. Here and there you can see fields covered with manure, fields with rye give an interesting sight when a wave passes over them from the wind.
Vyatka is a provincial city, located like the entire province on the hills, on the banks of the Vyatka River. From Vyatka the railway goes through an even more populated area. There are no longer huge uninhabited areas here, and forests are not found so often. The closer to the border with the Perm province, the more mountainous the area and again the population is sparse, the more forested. Finally, in the Perm province there are both mountains and ravines, which is almost not noticeable in the Vyatka province. In general, it seems that the Perm province is more reminiscent of our northeastern counties than the Vyatka province. There are significantly more passengers from Vyatka to Perm than there were from Kotlas.
Near Perm, the right bank of the high-water Kama is uninhabited, low-lying, covered over a considerable area with small forest. You have to drive to the Kama along a huge embankment, and in the distance you can see a giant railway bridge (it seems more than 400 fathoms long). From the embankment there is an excellent panorama of the city, located on the slope of a decent mountain, on the left bank of the Kama. Below, on the very bank of the Kama, you can see the railway station, and opposite it is a whole flotilla of steamships and barges. Almost right next to the railway bridge, on the Perm side, here, where the city begins, is Zaimka station. From Zaimka station the road goes along the bank of the Kama, to the upstream of the river, and, in fact, to the city. 5 versts from Zaimka, almost at the end of the city, is the Kama (or Perm) station..."
Train on the Pinyug-Novy section. Line Kotlas-Kirov Gorkovskaya railway. Kirov region. 2010

Tags: Perm, what kind of railway

Russia's first high-speed railway Moscow - Kazan - Perm

Formed in 1900 with the merger of the Perm-Tyumen (until 1897 - the Ural Railway) and the Perm-Kotlas roads. Main lines...‎ Background - ‎ History - ‎ Notes - ‎ Archival sources

History of the construction of the Perm-Kotlas railway.

tornado_84 Until 1861, Vyatka grain exports were carried out only through Arkhangelsk. By horse-drawn transport alone, up to 7 million poods of bread were sent from the Vyatka province to the piers of the Northern Dvina, Luza and Vychegda rivers in the 1850s. In 1869, grain began to be exported from the province along the Vyatka River on steamships; the amount of cargo sent to Arkhangelsk fell sharply. Meanwhile, if the railway was built, the northern route for the export of Vyatka grain could become more profitable than the southern river route (cheaper and much faster) and would contribute to the development of not only the southern districts of the province, but also the northern ones. It should be noted that the Vyatka merchants had previously petitioned the government to build a railway from the Vyatka province to the Northern Dvina. In 1872, by order of the Ministry of Railways, surveys were carried out for the future line planned from Vyatka to the Kotlas churchyard. Two years later, the ministry notified the Vyatka governor that the construction of the Vyatka-Dvina road with treasury funds would not take place, but there was no private capital for the construction of the road. Trade between Vyatka and Arkhangelsk continued to weaken.

Perm-Kotlas railway. Bridge over the Bolshaya Kordyaga River, verst 360 (Zuevka-Kordyaga section). 1901
Things got off the ground only in the 1890s, when the interests of Vyatka traders coincided with the interests of the government. In 1891, construction of the Siberian Railway began in the Russian Empire. In 1894, with the completion of the construction of the Omsk-Chelyabinsk section, it became clear that the only rail track connecting Siberia with central Russia (Chelyabinsk-Syzran) was not able to satisfy the growing demands on it. Widening the route seemed extremely difficult due to the highly mountainous terrain. In addition, purely commercial fears arose that Siberian grain would flood the Baltic ports and lower the price of central Russian grain already going there. In Western Siberia, wheat harvests grew year after year, and it cost 40-45 kopecks per pood, while in the center of Russia its price was 60-70 kopecks per pood. Something had to be done to protect the central agricultural regions of the country and protect them from competition with suppliers of cheap Siberian grain. A solution was found in the construction of a new road from Perm to Kotlas (to deliver grain to Arkhangelsk) and a connecting branch from Yekaterinburg to Chelyabinsk.
Perm-Kotlas railway. The main railway workshops in the city of Vyatka (now Kirovsky
machine-building plant named after May 1), turning, machine, boiler and battery departments.

In 1893, the Vyatka governor Anisin submitted an all-subtle report to Emperor Alexander III on the need to build a railway in the Vyatka province. The report stated that the inclusion of the Vyatka region in the railway network is an urgent need for the development of export grain trade in the province and, consequently, the development of all agriculture. Representatives of the Vyatka zemstvo, the governor reported, believe that the construction of a railway in the direction of Arkhangelsk would have the most beneficial consequences for the province. Against these words in the report, Alexander III made a note: “Exactly right, pay attention to this.” The note from the Vyatka governor, on the tsar's instructions, was submitted to the Committee of Ministers. The chairman of the provincial zemstvo government, Avksentiy Petrovich Batuev, provided great services to the implementation of the railway project in the Vyatka province.
Perm-Kotlas railway. Vyatka station (now Kirov-Kotlassky).
View from the west, from the tracks. 1901
At a meeting on January 31, 1894, the Committee of Ministers examined the report and decided to report it to the Minister of Railways for proper execution. Minister of Finance S.Yu. Witte expressed the opinion that the construction of the railway in the Vyatka province should be carried out with funds from the treasury, and the management of the work should be entrusted to the Directorate for the Construction of the Siberian Railway. The line should be laid from the city of Perm to the pier near the village of Kotlas, which lies at the confluence of the Vychegda River with the Northern Dvina. On April 24, 1894, Witte presented to the Siberian Railway Committee in a special note his thoughts on why the construction of a railway line from Perm to Kotlas was necessary.
Perm-Kotlas railway. Construction of a bridge across the Vyatka River(?). 1901
The note stated that the purpose of the construction was: 1) to open a cheap and fast route for grain cargo from Siberia and the Vyatka province to Arkhangelsk, thereby protecting the ports of the Baltic Sea from excessive expected congestion with Siberian grain, 2) to have a beneficial effect on the economy of both Vyatka and adjacent Perm and Vologda provinces. The note further stated that Western Siberia in good years could produce several tens of millions of poods of grain for export. The appearance of such a quantity of grain in the Baltic ports may cause a decrease in world prices. These unfavorable consequences for Russian agriculture and trade could be eliminated if Siberian grain went to the world market not through the Baltic ports, but through Arkhangelsk, where the supply of grain at this time is completely negligible. The Northern Dvina north of Kotlas is quite full of water, and near Arkhangelsk it is an excellent harbor. After the construction of the Perm-Kotlas line, delivery of bread from Siberia to London, according to Witte, would cost no more through Arkhangelsk than through St. Petersburg. Trade in Arkhangelsk will pick up significantly, and the port will begin to develop. In addition, the new railway will give a significant impetus to the prosperity of the huge Vyatka province, from where not only bread, but also other goods, for example, the products of local factories and plants will be exported.
Perm-Kotlas railway. Starovercheskaya station. 1901
Thus, the main purpose of the Chelyabinsk-Perm-Vyatka-Kotlas railway line, according to the government, was to divert Siberian grain cargo from domestic markets and Baltic ports and to protect domestic grain producers from a dangerous competitor, which was Siberian bread. The interests of the Vyatka, Perm and Vologda provinces in this case were given a secondary place, and their benefits from the railway were supposed to be incidental, so to speak.
But the construction of the Perm-Kotlas road alone was hardly able to divert Siberian grain from moving in an undesirable direction. To achieve the same goal, the Chelyabinsk tariff break was established.
Perm-Kotlas railway. Depot at Murashi station. 1901
To discuss the issue of construction of the Perm-Kotlas railway, a special presence was formed from representatives of the Siberian Railway Committee, the Department of State Economy and the State Council, which decided to carry out economic studies and technical reconnaissance of the Perm-Kotlas line. This work was carried out in the summer and autumn of 1894 and led to the following conclusions. Based on the experience of recent years, grain surpluses in Siberia can be estimated at 9-12 million poods, and these surpluses will only grow due to the resettlement of peasants and the plowing of new lands. Existing freight rates along the Northern Dvina and from Arkhangelsk to London are currently too high, but should decrease with increasing turnover. Even with the high cost of freight, delivery of Siberian bread to London via Arkhangelsk after the construction of the railway line to Kotlas will be more profitable than via St. Petersburg. As for Vyatka grain, its delivery to London will be much cheaper. In addition, the supply of bread to Arkhangelsk itself will improve. The total amount of surplus grain in the area of ​​the road can be determined at 4-6 million poods, then you need to add bread delivered to Vyatka and Perm by waterways (2-3 million poods) and Siberian bread (16 million poods). In total, up to 27 million poods of cargo were planned for the new railway. Under such conditions, the expected gross income could be approximately 3.5-4.2 million rubles. The cost of building the road was determined to be 37.5 million rubles. Therefore, the net return on capital employed could be 3%.
Unfortunately, the government's expectations turned out to be too optimistic. Later, the main shortage of cargo fell mainly on Siberian bread and other transit cargo. Subsequently, the poor results of the export of Siberian bread through Arkhangelsk forced the government to adopt a special protective tariff, which significantly reduced the freight charge for bread to Kotlas from the busiest stations on the Siberian Railway for its dispatch. From the very beginning, the road fully met the estimated expectations for the transportation of goods in its area, although in the Vyatka province a lot of goods continued to be moved by water and horse-drawn transport even after the construction of the road.
Perov V.G. Scene by the railway. 1868
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Photos - Along the Perm-Kotlas railway. 1901
Literature:
Ergin A.A. The importance of the Perm-Kotlas railway for the Vyatka region. Memorial book of the Vyatka province for 1900, 1901, 1902.
Naumov P.I. Railway projects in the interests of the Vyatka province. Memorial book of the Vyatka province for 1909.

Schemes of railways and routes - Perm 2

Transport portal of Perm - schedules, ticket booking, information... Scheme of the Sverdlovsk railway in resolution 3096x2055, 1.2 MB

135 years of the Sverdlovsk railway | OUR URAL

Opened in October 1878, the new transport route Ekaterinburg - Nizhny Tagil - Kamasino (now the city of Chusovoy) - Perm - became...

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On the initiative of the administrations of the Komi Republic, as well as the Arkhangelsk and Perm regions, the interregional joint-stock company Belkomur was created 15 years ago to implement a railway project from the Kama region to the White Sea. But the history of the tedious struggle of Perm residents for the railway “northern transit” started much earlier. 130 years ago, Cherdyn businessman Suslov submitted the first petition for a railway project between the Perm province and the Pechora region. Thus began a story that, taking on new shapes, is still unknown when and how it will end.

Road of Ancient Legends

“Belkomur” is an abbreviation for the territories through which this railway should pass: Belomorye (Arkhangelsk region), Komi, Ural (Western). About a thousand years ago, this entire territory belonged to tribes known under the collective name Chud. This is the legendary Biarmia, a wonderful country glorified in the ancient Scandinavian sagas. Rich in silver jewelry, walrus ivory and furs, that is, all types of luxury known to the Vikings.

Walrus tusks came from the Arctic region, fur-bearing animals were obtained in Siberia, and elegant silver items were received from the Volga-Kama state of Bulgaria. Trade routes then went, of course, along rivers. There was the only place where the upper reaches and sources of three main river systems were connected - the Pechora, leading to the northern ocean, the Ob (via the Tavda tributary), leading to the Siberian expanses, and the Kama, the route to the Volga goods. This is a unique place - the northeast of the former Cherdyn district of the Perm province.

It is not surprising that the main shopping center of Biarmia became Velikaya Cherdyn, located at the entrance to this transport hub of Perm. Here, in Verkhnekamye, a large trade route began through all the Chud lands to the ancient White Sea marinas.

The first historical and geographical description of the Perm province, published in 1801, said: “Even before the Varangian princes came to Russia, Biarmia, or Great Permia, was the most glorious of all the lands lying in the north, especially in terms of trade... Cherdyn in Great Perm was considered a leading city, comparable to which could only be the capital of this ancient state, nicknamed Kholmogory.” Kholmogory is a suburb of Arkhangelsk.

Along with Perm the Great, there was another Perm - Old, or Vychegda. It was its inhabitants who inhabited the banks of the Vychegda, Sysola and Vym who were called Zyryans (Komi). It was they who were baptized 700 years ago by Stefan Velikopermsky. The main city of Perm Vychegda was Ust-Vym, the residence of the Moscow-installed Zyryan prince Vasily Ermolaevich (and his brother Mikhail Ermolaevich reigned in Perm the Great). Ust-Vym is very close (on a northern scale) from another Vychegda city, Ust-Sysolsk, now known as Syktyvkar.

Arkhangelsk. Syktyvkar. Cherdyn. Three ancient miracle centers. And - the Belkomur route!

But Cherdyn was unlucky - it turned out to be on the side of the route adopted today (to Solikamsk). But it was the Cherdyns who did the most to create a transport route from the Kama region to the Pechora region.

"Attics" and "eccentrics"

In the summer of 1888, the Arkhangelsk governor, Prince N.D. Golitsyn, decided to inspect the eastern outskirts of his province - the Pechora region. Why did he undertake a long journey, so filled with travel impressions that in the same year one of the members of the governor’s motorcade - doctor Ermilov - published the book “A Trip to Pechora,” describing the entire governor’s route. Already in the preface it was written: “This path is overcome with such difficulties and even, one might say, agony, that this road can be considered closed to any private person who wants to get to Pechora for commercial and industrial purposes.”

The governor’s route, laid out to move from one part of the Arkhangelsk province to another, is interesting: Arkhangelsk - Vologda - Yaroslavl - Nizhny Novgorod - Kazan - Perm - Cherdyn. This route (with the exception of the Yaroslavl - Kazan section) continued to remain relevant for another half a century, until the construction of the 1500-verst Konosha - Vorkuta railway by GULAG forces.

There was another reason for the Arkhangelsk governor’s visit to Cherdyn. The entire supply of goods to Pechora came only from here, by local merchants, whom the Pechora residents, and even the envious Solikamsk residents, called “attics.” They, in turn, called the descendants of the ancient miracle, and at the same time their envious people, “eccentrics.”

From generation to generation, “attics,” like ants along a centuries-old path, led kayaks and barges loaded with Volga grain and other goods along Kolva to Visherka and Chusovskoye Lake, dragged them along shallow Vogulka, transported them through the 10-verst Pechora portage to the Volosnitsa River and from there - to the Yakshinskaya pier on Pechora. With the money of Cherdyn merchants, horses, large “bear carts” for transportation through portages, extensive warehouses and barns were kept in this mosquito kingdom.

“Attics” transported 1 million poods a year along a practically unequipped, hardly traveled route! For comparison, at the newest railway station Perm II in 1914, about 2 million pounds of cargo were shipped. Cherdyn merchants even dragged several small steamships along the Pechora portage, opening regular flights to Pechora.

In other words, Cherdyn merchants were the founding fathers of what would later be called “northern delivery.”

Thanks to the Pechora trade, Cherdyn, being half the size of industrial Solikamsk in terms of population, in 1910 had a larger city budget and collected one and a half times more zemstvo taxes.

The privilege of the Cherdyns to be suppliers of the northern territories was confirmed by Empress Catherine II herself, approving the northern border of the Perm province. Until 1923, it ran 80-100 kilometers higher than the modern one, and the upper reaches of the Pechora belonged to the Cherdyn district. Both the district zemstvo and local entrepreneurs regularly came up with projects to create a “high road” to Pechora. They became especially active at the end of the 19th century, when the monopoly prosperity of the “attics” was threatened from the east, because of the Stone. This time not from the Vogul warlike tribes, but from the Russian grain growers of Siberia.

Siberian invasion

The first to sense the danger were Central Russia. With the advent of the Trans-Siberian Railway, cheap Siberian bread could quickly flow into European part country and bring down the existing market, leading to the ruin of both landowners and peasants. The government did not spare 40 million rubles. for the construction and hasty launch in 1899 of the Perm-Kotlas railway, carrying Siberian grain to Arkhangelsk, and from there abroad.

In Perm, with the construction of the Vyatka-Kotlas line, a railway bridge appeared, and the Cherdyn merchants had a big problem: from Kotlas, millions of pounds of Siberian grain could end up not only on the Northern Dvina on the road to Astrakhan, but also on Vychegda, and then on Pechora. The Siberians persistently made their way to the Pechora region for their bread and other goods (the most important of which was vodka) and through the Ural ridge.

To the north of Vishera there were three passes along which communication with Siberia has been carried out since ancient times. In the Subpolar Urals there is a convenient Yeletsky (Sobsky) pass, the ancient “way to Ugra”. To the south there are two mountain passes, Shchekuryinsky and Ilychsky. The route was laid through the first by the Siberian millionaire and pioneer of the Northern Sea Route A. M. Sibiryakov in the 1880s. And the second led directly to Troitsko-Pechorsk, the main fair for Cherdyn trade.

In the 20th century, through all three named passes, options were proposed for laying a railway to Pechora (and even a water canal project), and a branch line from Vorkuta to Yamal was even laid through Yeletsky. In the 21st century, the Ural passes again appeared on the map of the development of Russian railways and influenced the fate of Belkomur.

The above-mentioned Arkhangelsk resident Ermilov reported in his book: “In 1886, Sibiryakov delivered up to 30 thousand pounds of bread from Siberia to Pechora along the winter route, this bread was sold for 7 rubles. 20 k.
per bag for cash. Already this single fact of competition prompted the Cherdyn merchants, in turn, to reduce the value of their bread to 7 rubles. 70 k. on credit.”

The price reduction could only be sustained by minimizing overhead costs. And the Cherdyns made a lot of them. The “Northern delivery” was slow; during the season it was possible to make only two trips along the Kama for bread, and the cargo of the second trip did not have time to sail to the north. The turnover of trading capital was a huge amount of 22 months. Solving the bottleneck problem - the Pechora portage - has become a matter of survival for all local businesses.

Not just salmon

The abundance of rivers and the proximity of their watersheds made the idea of ​​laying a water canal tempting. There were many projects, but the construction of the canal was expensive, and northern navigation was short. There was the sad example of the Catherine Canal between the Kama and Vychegda, which took almost 50 years to build, but did not last long.

The horse-drawn route was eliminated as it did not correspond to the volume of transportation. Although the Cherdyn zemstvo built a road to the Yakshinskaya pier, it mainly transported only the especially valuable Pechora cargo - salmon.

The railway remained. “Only a railway track can serve to merge and properly pulsate the economic life of these two richest regions - Kama and Pechora,” Perm newspapers wrote.

The enterprising Cherdyn resident I. A. Suslov is famous for launching the first steamship on Pechora in 1881. That same year, he accomplished another remarkable thing - he submitted a petition to the Perm governor to build a narrow-gauge railway. She would bypass the “impossibly painful” non-navigable sections on the way to the Yaksha pier. The road was short - 30 versts. The cost of the construction, according to calculations, was 300 thousand rubles. (the zemstvo horse-drawn road from Nyrob to Yaksha, almost 300 versts, cost 190 thousand rubles). After the approval of the Suslov project and its recommendation to the Ministry of Railways, the matter died out. One can only guess about the reasons.

The northern supply continued to be carried out in the old fashioned way. True, the highway built by the Cherdyn zemstvo made it possible to attract hundreds of peasant cab drivers to the “northern delivery”, who reduced the delivery price by two to three times (that is, destroying the excess profits of the “attics”). But since 1909, the Cherdyn zemstvo people, who spent so much on the construction of the highway, unanimously began to call it “less than half a measure.”

Their new project decisively went beyond the borders of the Cherdyn district: a railway from Usolye (Solikamsk district) to Troitsko-Pechorsk (Vologda province) about 400 miles long, at the second stage - a continuation to Ukhta (Arkhangelsk province).

The Cherdyns themselves explained this: to solve the transport problem, a factor stronger than Pechora trade is needed. Now it has appeared: Ukhta oil and mountain riches.

Oil magnet

In those years, many people lived with expectations of the imminent discovery of huge oil reserves in Ukhta. Prikamye, with its access to Pechora, was closest to the oil fields in the north. In 1907-1909, the Perm Exchange Committee became known throughout Russia for its project to create a waterway from the Kama to Ukhta. The government has conducted studies of rivers in the region. They were entrusted to lead the energetic Perm water engineer Nikolai Popov (he is also the author of the project for the trans-Ural water channel Chusovaya - Iren). The press vying with each other printed articles about the Pechora wealth, which was enough even without oil.

At the end of 1909, Governor Bolotov, who supported Popov, resigned. Obviously, the Cherdyn railway plan was already ready, but ended up shelved, since work on the water canal was already in full swing. The provincial official Pesochensky, who diligently informed his former boss about the state of affairs, confirmed this in one of his letters: “At one time you did not listen, but now the Cherdyns have sent me their project about the railway road to Pechora; If we hadn’t contacted Popov at one time, we would now have traveled along your railway. road."

The waterway for transporting oil and ore was much more productive than the railway that was planned in Cherdyn. In relation to the close and large river systems of the Pechora and Kama, it could well justify itself with the corresponding flow of cargo. But Pechora oil was only talked about for now (real production would begin in the late 1930s), and in the meantime the Siberian invasion of Pechora took on a new shape.

In 1909, a project for the Rybinsk - Obdorsk (now Salekhard) railway, 1900 miles long, appeared. The route was supposed to cross the Urals along the Yeletsky Pass. The cost of the road with all the equipment and a parallel horse-drawn road was determined at 60 thousand rubles. a mile away. Through the discussions about the need for the shortest and fastest exit from the center to Siberia, the main goal was easily guessed - Ukhta, which was on the list of proposed stations.

The government commission rejected this project as having no economic significance. However, in Soviet years exactly along the route that appeared royal ministers strange, the main highway of Komi passed - to Vorkuta and further to Yamal.

The project of another railway, with the long name East-Urals-Ob-Belomorskaya, met with full approval in the ministerial offices. His route was diametrically opposite. In the east, it began approximately in the place where the Priobye station is now located. Then the line stretched to the Ilychsky pass, went to Troitsko-Pechorsk, Ukhta, Pinega and Arkhangelsk. That is, it determined the export destination of future northern oil, which was what the public feared most. After all, oil was expected on the domestic market in order to weaken Nobel’s Baku monopoly.

But the project aroused obvious sympathy among the ministries of finance and railways. Indeed, unlike all the others, behind which there were only penniless projectors, in this case the developer was the joint-stock company of the Bogoslovsky Mining District, with which both departments had long established a special relationship.

There is no last hope

A thoroughly bookish plot from a Victorian era novel: young man the father dies, but bequeaths enormous wealth, then the child dies - and a mysterious cradle with a wonderful baby appears on the threshold of the house. However, this is exactly what happened to the young baron and banker Alexander von Stieglitz, who discovered an amazing basket in his garden, where in exquisite diapers lay a little girl with an expensive pearl on a gold cross. There was a note attached to the basket that the girl’s name was Nadezhda and her middle name was Mikhailovna. Soon, Emperor Nicholas I himself showed interest in the mysterious Nadenka, wishing her a great and happy future. Stieglitz realized that he had become the adoptive father of the illegitimate daughter of the Tsar's brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, and that a happy future also extended to the baron.

Having the gift of a financier and connections in European banking houses, Alexander von Stieglitz became a the most important person Russian business world, chairman of the St. Petersburg Exchange Committee and co-founder of the Main Society of Russian Railways. And when his pupil came of age, by imperial decree he became the head of the State Bank.

Soon Nadezhda married one of the Senate employees, bringing with her a million dowry and her lucky star. Her husband would become Secretary of State and member of the Council of State.

In 1884, Baron von Stieglitz died, but before his death, the former head of the State Bank and one of the founders of the Russian railway network gave his adopted daughter important advice - to use part of the millions of inheritance due to purchase the Bogoslovsky mountain district.

The district, which eked out a sluggish existence somewhere in the Northern Urals, costing the previous owners 2 million rubles, was bought by Nadezhda Polovtseva (her husband) for 6 million rubles. The district was headed by the talented engineer Alexander Auerbach. In 1883, when the Cherdyn merchant Suslov was waiting for an official decision on his narrow-gauge railway project, the engineer Auerbach had already built 16 miles of track from the Turin mines to Bogoslovsk and ordered two steam locomotives from Motovilikha, and then a couple more from Germany. The total expense was 110 thousand rubles. This was equal to the net profit from the operation of the copper smelter for one summer. Three years later, the narrow-gauge railway extended another 40 miles. And soon the construction of a huge steel mill with the latest foreign equipment began on the railway line.

The new plant was named Nadezhdinsky, in honor of the owner (now the city of Serov). A bank loan of 2 million rubles was raised for construction. There weren’t enough people in the then sparsely populated region - and, amazingly, soldiers from Perm were sent to the construction site! Few people understood what was actually happening. Everything became clear when the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway began. The Nadezhda plant received a contract for a virtual monopoly supply of rails for the great highway.

Tourists from the provinces

At the end of 1910, the chairman of the Cherdyn Zemstvo Council Selivanov and the Cherdyn mayor Vereshchagin went to St. Petersburg to personally resolve the issue of the railway to Pechora. They spent three weeks in the capital, with the persistence of provincials, managing to bypass all ministerial offices, including the prime minister himself and the chairman of state control.

The Minister of Finance only “categorically repeated the same thing that had already been answered in writing,” namely, that no other railway projects would be financed while the treasury was occupied with the construction of the strategic road to the Amur (it cost slightly less than the Trans-Siberian Railway itself - almost half a billion rubles ).

Nevertheless, the deputies learned “a lot of useful things” from their walks.

At the Ministry of Railways, they were even shown “in secret” a map of the empire’s railway strategy, which included the desired line to Pechora, which, as they explained to the shocked Cherdyn residents, had been planned even before the war with Japan.

Prime Minister Stolypin greeted the walkers with all cordiality, willingly promising to give a concession, but procedures must be followed. And he began to patiently explain which ones. First of all, it is necessary to conduct research and economic justification for the route. In parting, Stolypin turned to Selivanov: “Have you served in the zemstvo for 40 years, starting your service from the moment zemstvo institutions were introduced? I wish that the railway you are requesting will be implemented with you.”

“Informed persons” recommended the intelligent railway engineer Andriyanov. He outlined in detail the calculation of the “zero stage” of a serious construction project that claims to be of national importance: the fee for government supervision is 3 thousand rubles, statistical research district to determine cargo turnover - 3 thousand rubles, field surveys - 25 thousand rubles, processing of calculations and defense in commissions (including the creation of a joint-stock company) - 20 thousand rubles. Total 51 thousand rubles. plus 1700 rub. for the purchase of tools.

Fascinated by the professional approach, the Cherdyn residents, as they later explained, “in view of the arrival of a competing project from the Theological Society and not wanting to waste time, risked accepting all the conditions of Mr. Andriyanov at their own responsibility.”

The amount requested by the engineer was a quarter of all zemstvo revenues of the county. The Solikamsk zemstvo was involved, because the designed road also went through saltworks. In just a few months we managed to collect 32 thousand rubles. (of which 13 thousand rubles were given by the Cherdyn merchants, 15 thousand rubles were allocated by the Cherdyn zemstvo).

At the beginning of 1912, as Andriyanov promised, all the materials were ready. The missing money was found thanks to the connection of the Cherdyn “fur king” Alin to the concession. Statistics have calculated that the road's cargo flow will initially amount to 2 million pounds of traditional cargo (including the transportation of 100 thousand pounds of hay). The cost of the road with rolling stock is determined at 22,823,469 rubles. The net annual profit was also accurately calculated - 578,308 rubles, or 2.6% of the construction capital (that is, the payback of the road is 40 years). True, neither oil, nor timber, nor other promising cargoes were taken into account in the calculations.

"Happy Whistle"

Initially, the Cherdyns expected to meet the cost of 7 million rubles, and the cargo turnover was expected to be at least 10 million poods. I had to console myself with the fact that the project to connect Arkhangelsk by railway through the Bogoslovsky District “does not have such justification, research and research.” The Perm press concluded with caution: “In higher spheres(so, at least it seemed) sympathies seem to be beginning to lean more and more towards the Kama-Pechora line.” Then she wrote in a sweeping manner: “In about five years, our north will live a different life: it will resound cheerfully with the whistles of steam locomotives, a grateful culture will flow here in a strong stream along the railway artery, and an ebullient life will fill the dead country.”

In reality, Cherdyn residents simply lost the 50 thousand rubles they had collected with difficulty. The projects never left the discussion stage until the outbreak of the First World War. And in wartime, the main concern of the Ministry of Railways was the construction of a large port in Murmansk and the construction of a 1000-kilometer-long railway to it through Karelia. Along the way, it was planned to receive 10 million pounds of military cargo per month from the allies.

In this regard, interest in the Karelian and Arkhangelsk directions has revived. In January 1917, the Perm Exchange Committee, chaired by Meshkov, discussed new railways outlined by the government commission. Among them was the line Perm - Pechora (440 versts) with a branch to Kizel and Dobryanka. This is probably the last edition of the Cherdyn project.

In 1915, a certain Nachalov began to actively promote the project of the Perm-Arkhangelsk railway, which from Arkhangelsk to Ust-Sysolsk (Syktyvkar) coincided with the government-approved Ob-Belomorskaya road of the Theological Society. Then the roads diverged - the Nachalova route went to the upper reaches of the Kama and further to Vereshchagino. This route was almost exactly reproduced in the 1990s in the initial version of Belkomur!

The need for the northern railway for Perm residents is caused by an urgent need. But why did the Bogoslovsky Plants Society need a long-distance highway to Pechora and Arkhangelsk? A question to which many answers can be found. The main one is the huge Nadezhda plant, which was ready to produce more and more new rails, which means it needed new railways. Like any joint stock company, Bogoslovskoye also depended on the mood on the stock exchange. It was important to be heard, and in a favorable manner. The noise generated around the ambitious railway project turned out to be very helpful.

However, the owners of the Theological Society did not go beyond the noise, although, unlike the Cherdyn zemstvo, they had every opportunity to build their own road. It is not known how things would have gone then Civil War, get Kolchak’s troops an easy way to the huge military warehouses in Arkhangelsk and unite with Yudenich at Petrograd.

100 years have passed since the start of the “railroad fever” in the land of ancient Biarmia, and events began that confirmed that history is moving in a spiral. Sometimes even according to a script where not a single line changes.

Perm Railway(PZD), the first mainline rail track in the Urals. The construction of the Perm Railway began with the construction of the Yekaterinburg - Perm line (1874-78), which was named the area. Ural, Gornozavodskaya railway d.; in 1897 it was bought by the treasury from the joint stock company. about-va, since 1898 it was called the Perm-Tyumen railway. d. With the completion in 1898 of the state-owned Perm-Kotlas railway. d. both of these roads were combined into one (1900) - PZhD, the management of which was located in St. Petersburg. The road, which included the railway. lines Wed. and Sev. Ural, had a length of 2035 versts (2171 km), the Ekaterinburg - Chel line. connected to the Samara-Zlatoust railway. In 1918 it was transferred to the subordination of the NKPS, management was moved to Perm. With the creation of the Ural Region in 1923, all railways were gradually annexed to the PZD. lines of the Urals, incl. People. knot (May 1, 1930). In Chel. the 7th operational district was organized, uniting the line from Kurgan to Poletayevo and Kustanai; On June 15, 1930, the Poletaevo - Zlatoust - Kropachevo Samaro-Zlatoust section was transferred to the PZD. and. d., where the 6th operational area was created. By 1931, the operational length of the railway was 4198 km, including 3880 km (92%) in the territory. Ural, region, other lines - in the territory. Bashk. ASSR and Botkin Autonomous Region. In 1934, the process of disaggregation of PZD began: in January. In 1934, the South Ural Railway was allocated, in 1943 - the Sverdlovsk Railway. d. By the end of the 1940s. the operational length of the railway decreased to 1,747 km (2.4 times compared to 1931). In con. 1950s PZD was included in the Sverdlovsk railway. etc., ceased to exist as an independent entity. subdivision. The lines that were previously part of the PZD are now part of the Sverdlovskaya and Gorkovskaya railways. D. and South Ural Railway.