Evidences from the Presidential Library stock discover a personality of the first Minister of Railway Transportation of Russian Empire Pavel Melnikov

3 August 2017

Talented Russian engineer, the first Minister of Railway Transport of the Russian Empire Pavel Petrovich Melnikov (1804-1880) was born on August 3, 1804. Some rare, relevant to his life and accomplishments evidences may have to be found on the Presidential Library website.

In his released in 1835 work of P. P. Melnikov About the railways there is a certain definition: “An outspread and an improvement of internal communications is, for sure, the most important source of that activity in industry and commerce, which presents itself as a distinguishing quality of this century.” However, the work’s author and a group of like-minded people had to struggle for the fact that railways finally overspread the state.

With a launch of the Tsarskoye Selo Railroad in 1837, Russia became the fifth country in Europe and the sixth in the world with a railroad as public transportations. The first years of operation of this railway branch demonstrated that it successfully functioned in severe winter conditions. It would seem that the expediency of introducing railway transport in the country was confirmed. Nevertheless, there was a lot of opponents-retrogrades of this technical innovation — down to the time when fresh young forces, engineers of a new generation entered this innovative area, and Pavel Melnikov symbolizes such people.

At the age of 14 he enrolled in the Moscow noble boarding school of Vasily Kryazhev and successfully graduated from it, then was admitted to the Military Construction Engineering School at the Institute of the Corps of Engineers of Railway Transportation, from where he enrolled straightaway in the third academic year of the institute. “Brilliant abilities, quick thinking and overall talents of Melnikov were noticed even when he studied at the Institute of Railway Transportation, — V. A. Panayev wrote in his book of 1889 about Four ministers of railway transportation, an electronic copy of which is available on the Presidential Library website. — His career was, it might be said, a march with flying colors. Melnikov began as a tutor, later became a brilliant professor of applied mechanics, and simultaneously was involved in various practical assignments.”

When Europe they began intensively building railroads, Melnikov was sent abroad to study them. Upon his return, he continued teaching at the institute, but when Emperor Nicholas I decided to build a railroad connecting St. Petersburg with Moscow, professor Melnikov was sent abroad again, instructed to get acquainted with the railways in the United States of America. On his return, Melnikov raised the question of the urgent construction of the St. Petersburg-Moscow railroad. In his detailed report on business trip he criticized the norms of railway construction that existed abroad and gave a number of new proposals based on excellent knowledge of railway technology and proving the uniqueness of Russian engineering thought. So, for instance, suggested a different width of a track and a roadbed, presented own original calculations of the main track appliances. All this was significantly different from Western European analogues.

“The railroads, — he wrote in the report, quoted in the book Four ministers of railway transportation, represent the advantage of speed, which gives them a high application in the system of internal communications of the state. A state that has a complete system of railways, which, for example, allows a speed four times higher than a regular mail-carrying speed, can be considered, with respect to administration and mutual relations, as if it was spread on a space 16 times smaller. Such a rapprochement of the state borders is too great benefit, that not to use it sooner or later is out of the question.”

On March 8, 1841, Tsar ordered to establish a commission to draft a project of the railway between St. Petersburg and Moscow. Among others, the commission included Melnikov and his associate N. O. Kraft. And although chief of gendarmes Benckendorff was appointed commission chairman, appointed a head of the Northern Directorate Pavel Petrovich Melnikov was a soul of it and its main drafter.

The Department of Railways parceled out only 4000 rubles for exploration work. Workers from among the peasants have to be hired for this money to make near 400 miles long clearings. The work had to be done in manual way. The only “mechanisms” were a heavy iron pickaxe, a shovel, a wheelbarrow, a stretcher and a huge wooden hammer in the form of a pickaxe for padding the sleepers with ballast.

An official opening of the St. Petersburg — Moscow railroad line took place in November 1851. On this significant day the first “all-nation train” made its first move. In the morning a mass of people crowded in front of the Nikolayevsky Station erected by an architect K. A. Ton and filled a vast “seni” (vestibule) to see firsthand a movement of a new means of transportation…

An outstanding role of Melnikov in the trunk construction was emphasized in granted to him special address of the Institute of Railways. It stated in it that the Petersburg-Moscow railway “with its magnificent buildings represents especially remarkable monument of your practical work: as the main rout of communication in Russia and as a school of earned knowledge under Your guidance construction engineers. Erected by them buildings, many of which are known around the entire educated world, in all fairness amplify the splendor of Your own deeds.”