The Presidential Library to hold a video lecture on the history of railways in Russia

March 15, 2016 the Presidential Library will hold a video lecture timed to the 180th anniversary of the beginning of construction of the Tsarskoye Selo railway and the 125th anniversary of the beginning of construction of the Siberian railway in Russia. The event will be broadcast online on the Presidential Library website under the "Live broadcasts" at 15:00.

The first public railway in Russia was the Tsarskoye Selo railroad, which connected St. Petersburg with the imperial residence in Tsarskoye Selo. Its construction began in 1836, and in 1837 it was ready. Construction of railways, which began under Nicholas I, continued under Alexander II as well. During the Great Reforms of 1860-1870, it reached the first key point.

Creation of the network of rails had a strong impact on the economy, social situation and the state of all groups of the population, from peasant to emperor. That period of formation of a railway transportation and the related processes will be the subject of a lecture of Roman Konchakov, associate professor of the Institute of Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of Russia, Ph.D. in History. The title of the lecture is "The train rushes in the open field: beginning of the railway construction in Russia."

Russia’s immense space required the development of the network of rails far into the East. In 1891, the construction of a major Trans-Siberian Railway began. Sergey Kann, senior fellow at the State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ph.D. in History will tell about various aspects of design and construction of railways in the late 19th - early 20th cc., about the activities of the Siberian Railway Committee for studying and developing Siberia. The lecture is titled, "Backbone of Russia (Trans-Siberian project and development of Siberia). 

Difficult time of revolutions and of the civil war of the late 1917 - early 1920s impeded the construction of railroads. But after a course of accelerated industrialization, the situation gradually began to improve. In his lecture "On railway transport on the eve of the Great Patriotic War" George Kumanev, head of the Center of Russian Military History, senior researcher, Institute of Russian History, Russian Academy of Sciences, academician, Ph.D. in History will tell about the development of the railways on the eve of the Great Patriotic War.

The video lecture will be attended by students of the Anichkov Lyceum, representatives of the Small October Railway, October Railway, Central Railway Transport Museum, St. Petersburg State Transport University of the Emperor Alexander I and the Center of National Glory.  The lecture will also be made available through video conferencing to the representatives of a branch of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library in Tyumen Region, Pskov Regional Universal Scientific Library, Herzen State Universal Regional Scientific Library in Kirov, Gorky Regional Universal Scientific Library in Ryazan, Pushkin Regional Universal Scientific Library in Tambov, Socio-Economic Institute of the Plekhanov Economic University of Russia in Saratov, Orel State Institute of Culture, the Murmansk State Regional Universal Scientific Library, Lomonosov Northern (Arctic) Federal University.

Accreditation for media representatives will be available till 12.00, March 14:

Applications for accreditation should be sent in accordance with the form attached to the email address:

press service of the Presidential Library: Lyubov Lyubimova, lubimova@prlib.ru, tel.: (812) 305-16-21, ext. 167, mob. +7 (911) 773-28-85.

The attached form must specify the media name, full name of the journalist, date and place of birth, full passport details (series, number, by whom and when issued), place of registration, the equipment to be used, contact phone numbers.

Please note that the entrance to the Presidential Library for the media is available through the entrance N 2 only upon showing the passports!