Construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway. China Eastern Railway

Made it impossible to implement these plans.

October 12 - December 22, 1929 - fighting broke out between China and the USSR.

Due to the growing activity of Western powers in late XIX century in East Asia and the Far East, the Russian Empire began to show increased concern about the situation of a significant part of its territories of Siberia and the Far East, which were actually cut off from the central part of the country. The task arose of implementing a set of urgent measures to populate the outskirts, which required connecting them with the center by stable and convenient transport communications. In 1891, a decision was made to build the Trans-Siberian Railway. Its construction began simultaneously from Vladivostok and Chelyabinsk, and was carried out on public funds and demonstrated an unprecedented pace railway construction- over 10 years, 7.5 thousand km of new railway were laid. On the eastern side, the Trans-Siberian Railway was extended from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk, where construction works slowed down by the need to build a huge bridge across the Amur. On the western side, railway tracks were extended to Transbaikalia.

When work began on laying the Trans-Siberian Railway, two options for its passage from Transbaikalia to the east were considered. According to the first option, the highway was supposed to run along the bank of the Amur and the Russian-Chinese border to Khabarovsk, and according to the second, through Manchuria to the Pacific Ocean. The second option was considered even during the design of the Siberian Railway, when the possibility of laying it from Irkutsk through Kyakhta to Mongolia, then through China to Russian Primorye was discussed. Engineer S. N. Sviyagin played a prominent role in laying out the route and supervising the construction of difficult sections.

Supporters of the option of passing the Trans-Siberian along the Amur justified it by the subsequent increase in economic and social development Russian territories Eastern Siberia and the Far East. S. M. Dukhovsky, who was the Amur Governor-General in the period 1893-1898, stated that even if Manchuria were annexed to the Russian Empire, the importance for Russia of the Amur Railway would remain enormous, as would its “colonization and base-building significance.” He emphasized that under no circumstances should the previously planned construction of a railway line along the Amur be stopped.

A supporter of the Manchurian option was Finance Minister S. Yu. Witte, who believed that Railway will promote the peaceful conquest of Manchuria. The strengthening of the Manchurian option also played in favor of Far East Japanese activity, which threatened the interests of the Russian Empire in China. In addition, the Manchurian option provided the opportunity for Russia to enter new markets in the Asia-Pacific region. Ultimately, the concept of the Minister of Finance for the construction of a railway line, called the “Chinese Eastern Railway,” through the territory of Manchuria won. Only the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 demonstrated to the government the error of this decision, which accelerated the construction of the Amur Railway.

When discussing plans for the construction of the CER, it was decided to attract private capital to participate in it, for which appropriate preparatory work was carried out. In December 1895, the Russian-Chinese Bank was created with an initial capital of 6 million rubles. For its formation, 15% of the funds were provided by the St. Petersburg International Commercial Bank, and 61% came from 4 French banks.

On May 22 (June 3), 1896, the secret Russian-Chinese treaty on the alliance of Russia and China against Japan (the so-called Moscow Treaty) was signed. WITH Russian side The agreement was signed by S. Yu. Witte and Prince A. B. Lobanov-Rostovsky, and from the Chinese (Qing) side - by Li Hongzhang. The treaty granted Russia the right to build a railway through the territory of Manchuria. On August 27 (September 8), 1896, the Chinese envoy to the Russian Empire, Xu Zengcheng, signed an agreement with the board of the Russian-Chinese Bank, valid for 80 years, granting the bank the right to build a railway through Manchuria and creating a joint-stock company, the Chinese Eastern Railway Company. " The charter of this joint-stock company was approved by Nicholas II on December 4 (16), 1896. In accordance with the charter, the responsibilities for the formation of a joint-stock company were assigned to the Russian-Chinese Bank (§ 1), the company's share capital was determined at 5 million credit rubles (§ 10).

In December 1896, elections of the board of the CER Society took place in St. Petersburg. According to the election results, S. I. Kerbedz became vice-chairman of the board, members of the board were P. M. Romanov, A. Yu. Rotshtein, D. D. Pokotilov, E. K. Zikler, von Schaffhausen, E. E. Ukhtomsky. In January 1897, the Emperor of China issued a decree appointing the former Chinese envoy to St. Petersburg and Berlin, Xu Zengcheng, as the first chairman of the CER Society.

The selection of specialists for laying the CER was personally led by S. Yu. Witte, on whose recommendation the builder of the Ryazan-Ural Railway A. I. Yugovich was appointed chief engineer of the CER. The location of the Construction Department for the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway, which was initially called the “Sungari railway village,” was chosen on a site on the banks of the Songhua River (Songhuajiang), at the place where it was supposed to cross the railway line, where the city of Harbin later stood. On April 24, 1897, the vanguard detachment of the Construction Department of the Chinese Eastern Railway, led by engineer A.I. Shidlovsky, arrived on the shores of the Songhua, under the protection of the Kuban fifty foot squadron of Captain Pavievsky. In order to protect the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway, a special Security Guard was created, which was later transformed into the Zaamursky district of a separate border guard corps.

Start of road construction[ | ]

August 16 (27), 1897 was the day the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway began. Construction was carried out simultaneously from the location of the Construction Administration in three directions and from three terminal points of the CER - Grodekovo station in Primorye, from Transbaikalia and Port Arthur - in June 1898, Russia received a concession for the construction of the southern branch of the CER (later known as the South Manchurian Railway road), which was supposed to provide access to the Chinese Eastern Railway of Dalny (Dalian) and Port Arthur (Lushun), located on the Liaodong Peninsula, leased by the Russian Empire in March 1898 according to the Russo-Chinese Convention of 1898. On May 16, 1898, engineer Adam Szydlovsky laid the first barracks in the “Sungari railway village”. The city of Harbin began from this barrack...

Due to the large length of the highway, it was initially decided to split the construction into separate sections with the appointment of their own managers. The line between Manchuria stations in Transbaikalia and Pogranichnaya in Primorye was divided into 13 construction sections, the line from Harbin to Port Arthur was divided into 8 sections.

However, on July 5 (18), 1901, temporary train traffic and cargo transportation along the entire length of the CER was opened. Due to the disappearance of the need to divide the road into construction sections, they began to merge them into associations, and then the positions of department heads were abolished and the entire road was again subordinated directly to the chief engineer.

Participating in the “Allied Army of the Eight Powers” ​​(Great Britain, France, Germany, USA, Russia, Japan, Italy, Austria-Hungary), created to suppress the Yihetuan uprising, the Russian Empire took advantage of this opportunity and occupied the northeastern provinces of the Qing Empire to gain additional advantages in this region. However, its separate negotiations with the Chinese government after the suppression of the uprising were unsuccessful due to powerful opposition from other powers. In this regard, the government of the Russian Empire was created in August 1903, headed by Admiral E.I. Alekseev and instructed him to conduct further negotiations directly with the Qing court.

Road opening [ | ]

On June 1 (14), 1903, the Construction Department of the CER transferred the road to the Operations Department, which became the official opening date of the CER. When summing up the results of construction work, the cost of constructing one verst of the CER amounted to 152 thousand rubles.

The travel time for a fast train from Moscow to Port Arthur was 13 days and 4 hours, for a passenger train - 16 days and 14 hours; A 1st class ticket on a fast train cost 272 rubles, a 3rd class ticket on a passenger train cost 64 rubles. The arrival of fast trains to Dalniy was coordinated with the departure on the same day from Dalniy of express steamships belonging to the CER to Shanghai and Nagasaki.

The completion of the Chinese Eastern Railway immediately increased the advantages of Manchuria, turning this backward territory into an economically developed part of the Qing Empire. By 1908, in less than 7 years, the population of Manchuria grew from 8.1 to 15.8 million people due to the influx from China proper. The development of Manchuria proceeded at such a rapid pace that within a few years, Harbin, Dalniy and Port Arthur overtook the Far Eastern Russian cities of Blagoveshchensk, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok in population. The excess population in Manchuria led to the fact that in the summer tens of thousands of Chinese annually moved to work in Russian Primorye, where there was still a shortage Russian population, which continued to slow down the development of the region.

Russia's defeat in the war with Japan also affected the future prospects of the CER. According to the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, most of the southern branch of the Chinese Eastern Railway (the section from Changchun to the south), which ended up in Japanese-occupied territory, was transferred to Japan, forming the South Manchurian Railway (SMRR). This put an end to the plans of the government of the Russian Empire to use the CER to enter the markets of the Asia-Pacific region, but at the same time had a beneficial effect on the resumption of construction of the Amur Railway.

In 1908, Tobolsk Governor N. L. Gondatti, in a memo addressed to V. Plehve, insisted on the construction of the Amur Railway and the laying of a second track on the Siberian and Trans-Baikal Railways, without which the Amur Railway would have only local significance. In 1911, L. N. Gondatti was appointed governor-general of the Amur region, after which he managed to implement, through the construction of a bridge across the Amur, unique at that time, plans to connect the Ussuri Railway with the Amur Railway with access to the Trans-Baikal Railway.

In 1910, the Russian-Chinese Bank (which had the right to the CER) and the Northern Bank merged to form the Russian-Asian Bank with an initial capital of 35 million rubles.

CER Shipping Company[ | ]

Joint Stock Company CER also participated in the equipment seaport in Vladivostok and through the mediation of the Russian East Asian Shipping Company made voyages to the ports of Japan, Korea and China. By 1903, the CER Society already owned its own fleet of 20 steamships.

The road after the October Revolution[ | ]

November 29 (December 12), 1917 Harbin Workers' Council and soldiers' deputies dissolved all organizations and declared himself the only authority on the CER, and on December 4 (17) he removed D. L. Horvat from managing the road and appointed B. A. Slavin as commissioner of the road.

On December 13 (26), 1917, at the request of D. L. Horvat, Chinese troops under the command of Zhang Zulin entered Harbin and dissolved the Harbin Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies.

On March 16, 1920, Chinese troops under the command of Major Luo Bing occupied the Headquarters of the Russian Commander-in-Chief in Harbin and by March 19 completely occupied the CER exclusion zone. This was the actual end of the existence of the CER security guard. On September 23, 1920, the decree of the President of the Republic of China “On the termination of recognition of the powers of Russian envoys and consuls in China” abolished the right of extraterritoriality for subjects of the Russian Empire, and in 1921 the right of way of the Chinese Eastern Railway was transformed into the Special Region of the Eastern Provinces - a separate administrative unit of the Republic of China.

From April 1921 to October 1924, the manager of the CER was engineer B.V. Ostroumov. During this period, the staff of the CER was small. As of January 1, 1924, 15,750 people worked at the CER, including 9,000 full-time employees

The cleaning was not complete. Many CER employees with an anti-Soviet past were temporarily retained in their positions, for example, chief controller G.K. Gins, who had previously served in the Kolchak government and former boss headquarters of Ataman I.P. Kalmykov M.A. Demishkhan. In addition, in October 1924, the church department of the CER was abolished, and clergy were evicted from official housing. Gradually, the Tsarist personnel were replaced by Soviet ones. Since, according to the Soviet-Chinese agreement of 1924, only Soviet or Chinese citizens could work for the CER, from October 1924, railway employees and their relatives began to apply en masse to Soviet diplomatic institutions for Soviet citizenship. According to the Soviet consul in Harbin V. Ya. Aboltin, by 1927 the “Soviet colony” in Manchuria numbered 25 thousand people, by 1931 it was already 150 thousand people.

During the first three years of Soviet road management, the number of road employees increased noticeably. As of October 1, 1927, 27,144 people worked at the CER, including: 11,304 citizens of the USSR, 1,407 stateless persons, 1,547 Russians with Chinese citizenship, 12,886 Chinese. In 1925, the Soviet side initiated a lawsuit against three senior officials of the CER - B.V. Ostroumov, M.I. Stepunin, head of the land department N.M. Gondatti and head of the economic bureau I.A. Mikhailov. The case was conducted by a Chinese judge, who granted amnesty to all four defendants and released them on September 12 of the same year.

At the beginning of 1926, a conflict broke out between two Chinese military leaders Guo Songling and Zhang Zuolin, which engulfed the Chinese Eastern Railway. By the evening of January 21 of the same year, the Chinese military took control of the entire southern branch of the Chinese Eastern Railway and dissolved all trade unions on January 23. But the very next day, the USSR and China agreed: the road manager arrested by the Chinese was released, normal communication on the road was restored, and Chinese military transportation was to be carried out at half price and at the expense of the Chinese share of profits from the CER.

Attempts to alienate the road[ | ]

In August 1926, the power of Zhang Zuolin, who was hostile to the USSR, was established in Beijing. After this, the Chinese side began to gradually alienate the property of the CER in its favor. Already on August 24, 1926, the railway board received a dispatch in which Zhang Zuolin proposed to hand over all the CER ships to the Northeast Naval Flotilla, and on September 4 of the same year, the Chinese captured the CER Training Department. After Zhang Zuolin was assassinated in June 1928, he was succeeded by his son, Zhang Xueliang. Under him, a clearer course was taken towards the alienation of the railway.

In addition, in the early 1930s, relations between the Soviet and Chinese (it became known as the Manchurian) sides worsened, with the latter supported by the Japanese. The stumbling block was “the case of the hijacking of steam locomotives.” During the First World War, the tsarist government ordered a large batch of steam locomotives from the United States for Russian railways; they arrived and underwent maintenance at the Chinese Eastern Railway. During the Civil War, 124 of these locomotives were stuck on the Chinese Eastern Railway. The Chinese side considered them the property of the CER, and the Soviet side argued that they had nothing to do with the CER. The Soviet side transported 83 steam locomotives to the USSR; in response, the Chinese side in 1933 stopped direct communication between the CER and the Soviet Trans-Baikal and Ussuri railways. On charges of stealing steam locomotives, the Manchurian side arrested 6 Soviet employees of the Chinese Eastern Railway, who remained in custody for more than six months and were released under an amnesty on February 24, 1934. But the locomotives apparently remained in the USSR. In addition, local authorities often arrested Soviet and Manchurian employees of the CER without charge. As of December 1, 1934, the Manchu authorities arrested 424 Soviet citizens, of whom 201 were released, 94 were deported to the USSR, and 129 remained under arrest. Since November 1, 1934 from Xinjin with a new powerful station Harbin radio programs of white emigration (for example, K.V. Rodzaevsky) were broadcast to the Soviet Far East.

On September 19, 1934, months-long negotiations on the sale ended Soviet side CER to the government of Manchukuo, which was led by the Consul General of the USSR in Harbin M. Slavutsky. The amount of the agreed transaction was 140 million yen. On March 23, 1935, the USSR and Manchukuo signed an agreement on the sale of the Chinese Eastern Railway. It was agreed that in monetary terms Manchukuo would pay 1/3 of the amount, the remaining 2/3 of the amount would be repaid within three years supplies of Japanese and Manchurian companies on orders from the USSR in Japan. After the deal was signed, Manchukuo immediately contributed 23.3 million yen.

Stalin considered the agreement concluded with Chiang Kai-shek to be unequal, and in the late 1940s he proposed to Mao Zedong to transfer the Changchun Railway, as well as Dalny and Port Arthur back to China, but Mao feared that the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Manchuria would jeopardize the position CCP in northwest China, and convinced Stalin to delay the transfer.

On February 14, 1950, in Moscow, the signing of the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance between the USSR and the PRC, an agreement on the Chinese Changchun Railway, Port Arthur and Dalny (donated to China), and an agreement on providing the USSR with a long-term economic loan to the PRC government took place. On April 25, 1950, the road came under the control of the Chinese-Soviet Society of the Chinese Railways, whose board was located in Harbin.

On December 31, 1952, an agreement was signed on the free transfer of the KChZD to China. The KChZD property transferred to the Chinese was estimated at $600 million and included, in addition to the railway track and rolling stock: steam locomotive repair plants, coal mines, a number of forestry, trade and public catering enterprises, housing stock (1,850,364 m²), 69 schools, 25 houses culture and other objects. Since 1953, the KChZD was reorganized into the Harbin Railway, on which Russian history The CER was formally completed. In 1955, the Chinese stopped paying pensions to CER pensioners (at that time there were 287 of them in Manchuria, although after complaints, 60 needy pensioners received 1040 yuan each).

Current state[ | ]

As of 2012, Chinese railway schedules list at least one train running along the entire former CER line in China. Passenger train 4192/4194/4195 covers 1529 km from Manzhouli to Suifenhe in 25 hours. Most of the lines (for example, from Manzhouli to Harbin, or from Harbin to Mudanjiang) also have fast trains. Also, the Manchuria - Harbin section is used by FPC for running fast train No. 19/20 in the direction Moscow-Yaroslavskaya - Beijing.

The International Railway Border Crossing (IRBC) Manzhouli - Zabaikalsk is the eastern logistics corridor China - Europe. According to Manchurian Customs, in 2015, 45.6 thousand TEU with goods worth about 1.9 billion US dollars were transported through the Manchuria - Zabaikalsk international border crossing point.

List of stations [ | ]

see also [ | ]

Notes [ | ]

1. Former Eastern Manchuria
2. The highest approved charter of the Russian-Chinese Bank // Complete collection of laws of the Russian Empire, third collection. - St. Petersburg. : State Printing House, 1899. - T. XV, 1895, No. 12242. - pp. 698-707.

The history of the Chinese Eastern (Manchurian) Railway is closely connected with the construction of the Great Siberian Road - the Trans-Siberian Railway. At the beginning of work on the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, two options for its passage from Transbaikalia to the east were considered.

Proponents of the option of running the Trans-Siberian Railway along the Amur justified it by the subsequent increase in opportunities for economic and social development of the Russian territories of Eastern Siberia and the Far East. S.M.Dukhovskoy – Amur region governor general in the period 1893-1898 - stated that even with the annexation of Manchuria to the Russian Empire, the importance for Russia of the Amur Railway would remain enormous, as would its “colonization and base-building significance.” He emphasized that under no circumstances should the previously planned construction of a railway line along the Amur be stopped.

The Manchu option was favored by the increased activity of Japan in the Far East, which threatened the interests of the Russian Empire in China. In addition, the Manchurian option provided the opportunity for Russia to enter new markets in Asia-Pacific .

Therefore, the government made an extraordinary decision: simultaneously with the Trans-Siberian, lay a highway through the territory of Manchuria (North-East China), connecting Transbaikalia and the Ussuri region and, thus, obtain the shortest railway access to Pacific Ocean – ultimate goal Transsib in more early dates. This decision was also facilitated by the fact that after the signing of the Shimonoseki Peace Treaty between China and Japan in 1895, the Chinese government established friendly relations with Russia. When discussing plans for the construction of the CER, it was decided to attract private capital to participate in it, for which appropriate preparatory work was carried out. In December 1895, the Russian-Chinese Bank was created with an initial capital of 6 million rubles.

The building of the Russian-Chinese Bank on Vokzalny Avenue in Harbin

For its formation, 3/8 of the funds were provided by the St. Petersburg International Bank, and 5/8 came from French banks.

A supporter of the Manchurian option was the Minister of Finance S.Yu. Witte, who believed that the railway would facilitate the peaceful conquest of Manchuria.

Sergei Yulievich Witte (1849-1915) – initiator of the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway

On the initiative of Count S. Yu. Witte with the approval of Emperor Nicholas II special supreme body– The Siberian Roads Committee decided to build a railway route through the territory of Northern Manchuria from the Karymskaya station of the Trans-Baikal railway. to the station of the Nikolsko-Ussuriyskaya railway of the then Ussuriyskaya railway.

After successful negotiations between the Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers S.Yu. Witte and the leading Chinese statesman Li-Hong-Zhang May 22, 1896 an agreement was signed on the construction of a railway on the territory of Manchuria, and in St. Petersburg a East China Railway Society. The chairman of the board of the Society was the Chinese envoy to St. Petersburg and Berlin, Xu-Zen-Cheng, and the vice-chairman, on the recommendation of S.Yu. Witte, was the Russian railway engineer S.I. Kerbedz (nephew of the outstanding bridge builder S.V. Kerbedz).

Inspection of the survey line by vice-chairman S.I. Kerbedz in 1899 in Weishakh

He was an erudite person, an experienced designer, surveyor, organizer and leader of many transport construction projects.

In 1903, S.I. Kerbedz was replaced by engineer A.N. Ventzel, and then, to the position of chief engineer, the Company invited the talented railway engineer A.I. Yugovich, who by that time had extensive experience in railway construction in various regions of Russia.

Alexander Iosifovich Yugovich (1842-1925) – Chief Engineer construction of the CER

As a result of the comparison, the option of the road route from Manzhouli station to Pogranichnaya (Suifenghe) via Harbin (1513 km - main line) and from Harbin to Port Arthur (Lushun) (1014 km - southern line). In total, 2,527 km of the main track had to be laid.

Living conditions of prospectors in Bayansu

The road was built as a single track with a gauge of 1524 mm. Slopes in flat areas are no steeper than 0.005, in mountainous areas – up to 0.013. The width of the roadbed is 5.5 m, the thickness of the ballast under the sleepers is 45 cm, the weight of the rails is 32 kg/m, the minimum radius of curves on the plains is 532.5 m, in mountainous conditions – 320 m. The road capacity is 10 pairs of trains. per day. The distances between stopping points were assumed to be 32 km for flat areas and no more than 26 km for mountainous areas.

The official start date for construction of the CER is August 28, 1897.

Start of construction of the line, meeting on the eastern section

The opening of work on the construction of the CER began in May-June 1898 year, when two steamships “Blagoveshchensk” and “St. Inokenty” arrived on the banks of the Songhua River with management on board headed by the deputy chief engineer of the construction department of the CER. It was built in separate sections ranging from 70 to 150 km, which were later transformed into construction departments headed by experienced railway engineers N.N. Bocharov, N.S. Sviyagin, F.S. Grishman, S.N. Khilkov.

Deep stone excavations at 891 versts of the Southern Line

The conditions of the region made it necessary to cross a significant number of rivers, streams and dry lands, which required the construction of many artificial structures. The largest engineering structures were separated into independent objects. Thus, the construction of large bridges was led by Lentovsky, piers in Vladivostok - Egersheld, in Khabarovsk and on the Iman River - Vanovsky.

More than 21 thousand were built on the CER linear meters artificial structures with a length of the main route of 2500 kilometers - this is more than 1440 different structures, including: 912 metal and 258 stone (arched) bridges, 230 culverts and trays, 9 tunnels. Built artificial constructions They are distinguished not only by their high strength and monumentality, but also by their attractive architectural design. In particular, arched bridges with an opening of 21.3 m deserve this rating.

Arch Bridge over the Jinzhou River with an opening of 20

Among the most complex are metal bridges across the Songhua rivers near Harbin and in the southern section, across Nonni, Chinhe, etc.:

across the Songhua River 1 – 1005 meters (Harbin);

across the Songhua River 2 – 735 meters;

across the Honghe River - 735 meters;

across the Nonni River – 650 meters;

across the Chenghe River - 640 meters;

across the Mudanjiang River - 415 meters;

across the Taizi River - 415 meters.

The largest bridge with a length of 1005 m across the Songhua at Harbin was one of the largest bridges on the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Bridge over the Songhua River, 1005 m long, built in December 1901

The metal spans of large bridges were supplied under contracts by factories in Belgium, England, as well as a plant in Warsaw. It should be emphasized that the CER significantly exceeds the Trans-Siberian Railway in the number of artificial structures per kilometer of the route; and total length culverts amounted to about 20 km, and mountain passes - 7% of the total length of the road.

The central point for the development of work on the CER was Harbin city, which owes its birth to the Chinese Eastern Railway.

Harbin , CER, 1907

The date of birth of the city is June 11 (June 24, new style) 1898. Initially it was called "Sungari Village". Later it was renamed Harbin. Based on ancient Chinese documents, the term "Hao-bin" means "floodlands", that is, low floodplain meadows flooded by spring erosion. This name corresponds to the territory occupied by the city. And the word was transformed by the Russians into Harbin.

Under the asphalt, dry and smooth -

The ice of our years,

Survey tent

An old trace has disappeared...

Russian flag. Hitching posts.

Cossack talk.

There is no timid connection with the past, -

Russian rock is like that.

Engineer. The collar is unbuttoned.

Flask. Carbine.

Here we will build a Russian city,

Let's call it Harbin.....

From a poem by Arseny Nesmelov, 1938

From Harbin the builders went in the east, west and south directions. Despite the difficult conditions, the construction of the CER was quite successful. However, the situation changed dramatically in connection with the Yihe-tuan (“Boxer”) uprising in Northern China. In mid-1900, it also affected the construction areas of the Chinese Eastern Railway, which paralyzed construction for almost a year. As a result of the unrest, the Chinese Eastern Railway Company suffered losses amounting to about 70 million rubles. 160 thousand m 3 of roadbed, 60 track buildings, and part of artificial structures were destroyed. True, the losses were fully compensated by the Chinese government.

The successful construction of the CER was also facilitated by the fact that construction work was launched simultaneously from the end points of the road: Nikolsk-Ussuriysk from Primorye, Port Arthur from the south, Manchuria station (more precisely from the stopping point of the Chinese junction) in Transbaikalia.

One of the complex and inaccessible sections of the CER was the pass over the Great Khingan Range (Daxinanming). It is located in a mountain system Northeast China and extends for 1200 km with a width of up to 400 km and an altitude above sea level of up to 2034 m. The mountains are composed mainly of granites, andesites and other durable rocks. The research determined the need to build a tunnel under the eastern spur of the Greater Khingan. This is the most complex barrier object on the highway. The management of the construction of the tunnel was entrusted to engineer N.N. Bocharov, who by that time had extensive experience in the construction of Novorossiysk tunnels. Engineers Ya.L. Skidelsky and B.A. Snarsky became Bocharov’s assistants (by the way, stations on the Far Eastern Road were named after Bocharov, Egersheld and Snarsky). The total length of the double-track Khingan tunnel was 3073.6 m. In plan, it is located on a curve of 1280 m. The highest point of the tunnel, the western portal, is at an altitude of 974.3 m above sea level; the maximum thickness of the rock layer above the arch is 127.2 m. In an effort to reduce the length of the tunnel, if possible, N.N. Bocharov designed it as single-pitched, with a slope of 0.012 towards the eastern portal. Since the eastern slope of the ridge, descending into the river valley. Yal, very steep, Bocharov made a bold and original decision - to artificially develop the line into a closed loop with a radius of 320 m and a length of about 2 km (Bocharov’s spiral). In this case, the path first passed through a stone pipe with a hole of 9.4 m under an embankment 23.5 m high, and then along the embankment itself.

Bocharov's spiral

1 – tunnel; 2-passage; 3- pipe with a hole. 9.4 m; 4 – curve R =320 m

The world practice of railway construction has no analogues such a decision. The construction of a closed loop near the Khingan tunnel is a unique phenomenon that aroused the admiration of contemporaries. " I have traveled all the Alpine mountain passes, but nowhere have I seen anything like Khingan. The picture of the Khingan section of the CER gives a truly stunning impression. What is striking is not so much the enormity of the work invested here, but the brilliant victory of human thought, that highest victory that can bring forth tears of tenderness. I confess, I experienced this feeling when I was driving along the marvelous Bocharovsky spiral,” – this is how one of the passengers who was traveling along the CER responded.

Exit loop to Harbin along the Yal River valley (375 versts)

To construct the spiral, it was necessary to develop a rock excavation more than 20 m deep and move about 400 thousand m 3 of soil into the embankment approaching the tunnel, which took almost two years. As previously noted, the tunnel was built as a double track. However, in order to speed up the opening of train traffic in areas with strong rock lining (ruble masonry), only the tunnel arch was strengthened, leaving the soil under the heel of the arch untouched - the section became single-track (Fig. a);

in case of weak rocks (mainly at a distance of 640 m from the western portal), the development of the soil was carried out along a full profile with lining of the entire contour of the tunnel (Fig. 6). In both cases, the path was laid along the axis of the tunnel. The lining device was considered the most complex and responsible process. Italian masons, led by the famous specialist Ferri, were hired for this work.

Preparatory work in the tunnel and on the Bocharov spiral began in the first half of 1900. The structures in the tunnel and objects at the construction site destroyed during the Yihe-guan uprising were restored only in the spring of 1901. Drilling of wells for sinking the lower guide adit (the tunnel was built using the so-called New Austrian method) began on September 15, 1901, and on April 7, 1902, a through guide adit was drilled. The maximum rate of tunneling work was 15 m/day, the average – 8.5 m/day. In the fall of 1901, the eastern portal was approached with the laying of a track, which made it possible to deliver the necessary equipment and materials to the tunnel. During the construction of the Khingan tunnel, temporary (sometimes three-tiered) dead-end tracks with slopes of up to 0.025 were widely used, and in many other barrier sections, temporary bypasses were used for through train traffic.

Inspection of the work on punching the Khingan tunnel

The commissioning of the Chinese Eastern Railway was carried out in stages: the Manchuria-Harbin section opened in 1899; Harbin-Pogranichnaya - in 1901; border of the Empire of Manchuria, Pogranichnaya-Grodekovo, Harbin-Dalniy (Dailian) with a branch to Port Arthur - in 1903.

IN 1901 In 2008, train traffic was opened in some sections. Temporary train service began in early 1902. During temporary operation during the period when work was still underway in the tunnel, trains traveled along a detour, the length of which was 18.2 km.

The first train passed through the Khingan tunnel November 30, 1903- only 2 years and 2.5 months after the start of the main work, and another 3.5 months later - on May 14, 1904, the facility was put into permanent operation. In honor of the construction of the tunnel, a commemorative medal was minted.

The cost of 1 verst of the CER was 152,000 rubles. The CER was put into permanent operation July 1, 1903

In terms of its scale, the Khingan tunnel occupied second place on Russian roads after the Suram tunnel in the Caucasus. The length of the latter is 3987.4 m, which is 913.8 m greater than the length of the Khingan tunnel. But the Suram tunnel took more than three years to build, and work in the open air could continue there all year round. The harsh climate of Khingan allowed working outside the tunnel only for a short period. In the tunnel itself, in winter it was only possible to develop the soil; stone work stopped.

Iron road near the station Khingan CER(7045 km), 1903

In addition to the Khingan Tunnel, 8 more tunnels with lengths from 42.5 to 421.75 m were built on the CER. During the construction of the CER, other barrier areas, in particular stormy rivers, were successfully overcome. As can be seen from the table, large and extra-curricular bridges were also built in an extremely short time, and this despite the fact that the other complex bridges indicated in the table (across the Honghe, Taizi, Dongliaohe, Elin, Ashihe, Shangzi rivers) were built on caissons (the most labor-intensive ) foundations. Most of the work was done manually, but the pace of construction of many bridges on the CER exceeds those achieved in modern bridge construction in Russia.

General D.L. Horvath was appointed head of the Chinese Eastern Railway, with S.V. Ignatius as his assistant.

Dmitry Leonidovich Horvat (1858-1937), 1st manager of the CER from 1903 to 1918.

The success of the construction of the CER was facilitated by the fact that the Company promptly formed an extensive construction infrastructure, including a logistics support system. It owned a substantial maritime and river fleet, built woodworking and brick factories, stone quarries, coal mines, had its own telegraph and telephone exchanges. The company built houses, schools, libraries, hospitals, shops for railway workers, and opened 20 railway schools. At the same time, it erected practically from scratch the city of Harbin and in it a magnificent road management building, as well as the cities of Dalniy and Port Arthur, which were of great strategic importance for Russia.

Relief photograph of the CER building project

By the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War ( January 27, 1904) on the section of the CER from the border of the empire to Pogranichnaya station was laid Main way(with the exception of the Khingan pass section). The Chinese Eastern Railway played an important role in ensuring the combat operations of the Russian army.

So, the Chinese Eastern Railway total length 2527 km built in less than six years. For a time when manual labor predominated in construction, such deadlines can be considered outstanding. This is the great merit of the talented Russian railway engineers A.I. Yugovich, N.N. Bocharov, S.V. Ignatius, S.I. Kerbedz, S.N. Khilkov, N.S. Sviyagin, A.N. Lentovsky , B.A. Snarsky and many others, as well as a team of thousands of Russians and Chinese builders highways. The road got highly appreciated and world recognition of his contemporaries. Here is how the Amur Governor-General Grodekov assessed the CER: “In terms of the boldness of the plan, the grandeur of the construction and the speed of execution, only the Suez Canal can be compared with the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway. Moreover, if we take into account that not a single enterprise in the world was placed in more difficult conditions than the construction of this road, then we can safely say that this construction should be ranked as one of the most difficult enterprises carried out so far, by which The Russian people can rightly be proud, as well as those figures whose work and energy were crowned with such great success.”

In September 1905 In 2006, under the Treaty of Portsmouth, Japan transferred rights to the southern line of the CER from Port Arthur and Dalny to the city of Chang-chun. As a result, the southern line with a length of 230 km with the terminal station of Kuanchendzy remained within the CER. Further, to the south, the main line began to be called the South Manchurian Railway (SMZD).

In December 1917, the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies removed D.L. Horvat from the management of the CER and appointed B.A. Slavin as commissar of the road. But on December 26, Zhang-Tso-Ling’s Chinese troops entered Harbin and reinstated Horvath.

In 1921-1922, during the famine in Soviet Russia On the CER, the Central Railway Committee for Famine Relief was created - TsZhKPG, chaired by the railway manager B.V. Ostroumov, which organized the collection of funds and the purchase of food to be sent to the starving.

Boris Vasilievich Ostroumov, manager of the CER from 1921 to 1924.

5 trains of 30 wagons each were sent with food, medicine, medical personnel and a team of tractor drivers with tractors for agricultural work. Help was sent to Samara, Chelyabinsk and other places in Russia.

Workers and employees of the CER car service at the station. Harbin, photo from the 1920s

IN 1922 Harbin was opened polytechnic institute(KhPI), a forge of personnel for the Chinese Eastern Railway and other roads.

June 11, 1923 In honor of the 25th anniversary of the CER, a large anniversary exhibition was organized. At the ceremonial meeting, the road manager B.V. Ostroumov, heads of a number of road services, members of the Board of the CER and representatives of the Chinese authorities made a big report.

IN 1924 According to the agreement between the USSR and China, the CER transferred to shared management and exploitation of the USSR and China. B.V. Ostroumov was relieved of his post as manager of the CER. The Soviet government appointed a new manager of the CER, Ivanov, and then A.I. Emshanov and Yu.V. Rudy successively led the road.

In July 1929 There was an armed conflict between China and the USSR. Zhang Xueliang seized control of CER.

More than 200 Soviet citizens were arrested, 35 people were deported to the USSR, including the manager of the CER A.I. Emshanov.

December 14, 1929 In Khabarovsk, the “Khabarovsk Protocol” was signed, according to which the status quo of the CER was restored.

September 18, 1931 Japanese troops invaded Northern Manchuria. Due to the occupation of Northeast China by Japanese troops, the normal operation of the CER ceased.

March 23, 1935 The CER was sold to Manchukuo (actually Japan). As a result, there was a mass exodus of CER workers to their homeland.

The last of the Russians who worked on the Harbin route

After the defeat of Japan and liberation Soviet army Northeast China's 1945 year According to the Soviet-Chinese agreement, the Chinese Eastern Railway and the Southern Moscow Railway came under joint management and received the name Chinese Changchun Railway (CCR).

In 1949, the People's Republic of China (PRC) was formed. February 14, 1950, simultaneously with the conclusion of a treaty of friendship, alliance and mutual assistance, the USSR and the PRC signed an agreement on the KChZD, according to which the Soviet government freely transferred to the PRC all rights to manage the KChR and the property belonging to the road.

December 31, 1952 In Harbin, the Soviet government transferred the CER to the ownership of the People's Republic of China. Since 1953, the KChZD was renamed the Harbin Railway.

The Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) was one of the links of the Siberian Great railway track, connecting the Transbaikal and Ussuri railways of Russia through Manchuria. At one time, the CER was a route of enormous political and military significance for the Russian Empire. In terms of its vastness and energetic implementation, when 2,529 km of railway were built in just 4 years, the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway became perhaps the only commercial enterprise in the history of Russia with such rapid development. The revolution brought about by the construction of the CER in the life of the Russian Empire in political, military and economic relations is as extensive as this grandiose construction itself.

IN politically the road became one of the reasons for the aggravation of the situation in the Far East, which led to the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905. However, even after the shameful end of hostilities, it was clear that not only the outcome of the armed struggle itself that could arise again in the Far East, but even the possibility for Russia to enter into it would, to a large extent, depend on the state in which time this road.

Economically, the CER raised the culture and industry of Manchuria and had a positive impact on the settlement of desert areas adjacent to the Russian border.

The Chinese government issued a concession for the construction and operation of the CER in 1896 to the Russian-Chinese Bank, which became the founder of the CER Society. In view of the particularly important national significance of this strategic line, the construction and operation of the road, entrusted to a private company, was carried out under the supervision and leadership of the Russian government, which took upon itself to guarantee the capital of the company.

Work on the construction of the road began in August 1897. The gauge width was set to the general imperial one. According to the concession, after 36 years from the time of construction and opening of traffic, the Chinese government received the right to buy this road, compensating the public in full all the capital spent and all the debts made for the needs of the road with increased interest, and after 80 years the Chinese Empire took possession of the CER and all the property it owned free of charge.

According to the convention of March 15, 1898 concluded between Russia and China, and the additional St. Petersburg Protocol of April 15, 1898 on the cession by China of Port Arthur and Dalianwan (Dalniy) to Russia for 25 years, China expanded the rights of the Society , allowing him to build railway line from Manchuria to Port Arthur and Dalianwan. This highway became known as the “South Manchurian Branch of the CER”. The construction of the highway and the southern branch began in the following directions: from the border of Transbaikalia at the Manchuria station, the highway goes to the city of Hailar, then, after passing more than 320 km along the Hulunbuir plateau, the road rises to the Greater Khingan ridge and, descending from it into the valley of the Nonni River, crosses the latter south of the city of Qiqihar. Then, the highway crosses the Songhua River near Harbin, heads to the city of Agehe, crosses the Laoelin ridge, crosses the Mudanjiang River north of the city of Ninguta and enters the mountainous country, along which it follows to the border of the Ussuri region, at the Pogranichnaya (Ussuri Railway) station.

The length of the main line between Manzhuriya and Pogranichnaya stations was 1,481 km (from Manzhuriya station to Harbin - 934 km, and from Harbin to Pogranichnaya - 546 km). In addition to the technical difficulties caused by the complex mountainous terrain of Manchuria, it was necessary to overcome many rivers with the help of the construction of bridges and drains. The largest structures were the tunnel across the Greater Khingan, 2,848 m long, and bridges across the Songhua River (949 m) and Nonni River (693 m).

The South Manchurian branch, 972 km long, separates from the main line at Harbin and runs in an almost straight line to the southwest. After crossing the Songhua, the line rises to the watershed between this latter and the Liaohe River, passes through Kuanchenzi, Changtu-fu, Kaiyuan, Tieling, Liaoyang, Haichen, Gaizhou to Dalny and connects with branches to Port Arthur, Dalianwan and Yingkou. This line crosses several, albeit low, but very rugged ridges of the Kwantung Peninsula, and also bridges many rivers, of which the largest are: through the Songhua (736 m), Honghe (640 m), Taizihe (352 m) and Shahe (384 m). ).

The CER track was constructed according to the technical conditions accepted in Russia. In mountain areas, the maximum slope was 0.032 m in a straight line, with a corresponding decrease on curves, which were allowed with a radius of 426 m, and only in exceptional cases (over rough terrain) of 256 m. In flat areas, the maximum slope was 0.017 - 0.012 m, the width of the track is 5.55 m, and the thickness of the ballast layer is not less than 0.47 m. The rails were laid everywhere of the so-called heavy type (24 pounds per linear foot).

Initially, during the period of its construction, and also for some time after the start of operation, the CER was protected by special guards, although they had a military organization, but were recruited from volunteers and did not enjoy the rights of civil servants. During the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, about 2/3 of the entire length of the road was captured by the Chinese, who stole the rails and destroyed the roadbed. Of the 1,387 km laid before the riots began, only 426 survived. The Chinese completely tore down the track in many places, and many artificial structures and almost all station buildings and living quarters were burned and destroyed, material warehouses were plundered, and a significant part of the rolling stock was destroyed.

After the Boxer Uprising, it was decided to transform the railway guards into border guards of the usual type in Russia, organizing the Special Trans-Amur District of the Separate Border Guard Corps in Manchuria.

The cost of constructing the CER and related enterprises cost no less than 400 million rubles.

And yet, this road brought more harm to the Russian Empire than good, and its subsequent military significance began to pay off at a price too high for the state. With all this, the CER did not ensure the firmness of Russia’s strategic position in the Far East. This forced the Russian leadership, after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, to return to the old project, that is, to extend the Siberian Great Road to Vladivostok through Russian territory. Construction of the Amur Railway began.

Under the terms of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, Russia ceded part of the South Manchurian branch to Japan, along with lease rights to the Liaotung Peninsula. Thus, after the war, the Russian Empire lost most of the South Manchurian branch and began to exploit it only along the stretch from Harbin to Kuangchengzi (237 km) with some restrictions on the rights of use and protection.

Management of railways that departed from Russia, as well as those built by Japan during last war, was granted to a special joint-stock company under the name of the South Manchuria Railway Company, with the Japanese government retaining overall control and management; for this purpose, senior positions on the board of the company are given to persons in the civil service. The company built and operated the following lines: Kuanchenzi-Tairen - 705 km; Dafanshen-Dalianwan - 6 km; Dashichao-Yingkou - 22 km; Yantai-kopi-Yantai - 16 km; Suyatun-Fushun - 53 km; Kuangchengzi-Girin - 128 km and Mukden-Andong - 302 km. All of these lines, with the exception of Kuanchenzi-Girin, were completed by the Japanese Society only at the end of 1912. And by the spring of 1907, Japanese builders laid one narrow-gauge track with a width of 1435 mm, and only between Tairen and Suyatun station (near Mukden) there was a second way. The rolling stock is standard for Japanese railways. The average speed of trains was 16 - 21 km/h.

A natural consequence of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, which was unsuccessful for the Russian Empire. was a change in the military-political tasks of the Russian armed forces in the Far East. They were reduced only to protecting their own territories. After Russia lost its strategic positions on the Kwantung Peninsula and in Southern Manchuria, the center of gravity of a possible armed struggle here moved to the north - to Central and Northern Manchuria, and even to the Ussuri region. At the same time, Japan had two main advantages: freedom to choose the time and place for landings and the huge food resources of Southern Manchuria. Russia still had deserted spaces in its immediate rear and a huge length of communications, because all food, weapons, ammunition and other types of supplies had to be brought from Europe.

Thus, given the current unfavorable strategic situation, the problem of defending the Far East and maintaining Russia’s political position here came down to the question of the effectiveness of the existing communications routes, which could make it possible to transfer the necessary forces and means to the appropriate locations in the shortest possible time. areas. Therefore, in addition to railways in general, and the CER in particular, the importance of the Amur Waterway and the Amur River Flotilla naturally increased for Russia.

CER– China Eastern Railway

this is a railway line built by the minds of Russian engineers and the labor of Russian workers in 1897-1903 according to the Russian-Chinese treaty of 1896 and served to supply Port Arthur, and after loss thereof during the Russian-Japanese War - to shorten the route to Vladivostok.

There was a right-of-way around the railway that was considered Russian territory. Russian railway workers lived there, Russian laws were in effect and special money from the Russian-Asian bank circulated. Joint-Stock Company CER also participated in the equipment of the seaport in Vladivostok and, through the mediation of the Russian East Asian Shipping Company, made voyages to the ports of Japan, Korea and China. By 1903 the Society CER already owned its own flotilla of 20 steamships.

The money that went to CER

D B 1918 Japan sent its troops into the areaCER and in 1920 tried to take possession of it.

On March 16, 1920, Chinese troops under the command of Major Luo Bin occupied the Headquarters of the Russian Commander-in-Chief in Harbin and by March 19 completely occupied the exclusion zone CER. However, trains to Vladivostok continued to run, and the road was still maintained by Russian workers and specialists, and the head of the road was the Russian engineer Boris Vasilyevich Ostroumov.

On May 31, 1924, the USSR and the Republic of China signed the “Agreement on general principles to resolve issues between the USSR and the Republic of China,” according to which diplomatic relations were restored between the two countries, and the USSR government renounced “special rights and privileges,” after which Russian concessions in Harbin, Tianjin and Hankou were liquidated, with the Chinese government undertaking not to transfer these rights and privileges to a third power. But at the same time CER remained under the control and maintenance of the Soviet side.

St. Nicholas Cathedral in Harbin

However, Zhang Zuolin, aided and abetted by the Japanese, sought to take over CER to his raking hands, because the road brought us tens of millions of gold rubles annually, on which he sought to lay his furry paw. In the end, we got tired of Zhang Zuolin’s provocations, and on June 4, 1928, our special services blew up his train at railway station Huangutun. But after the death of the Generalissimo, the head of the Fengtian clique became his son, 27-year-old Marshal Zhang Xueliang, who, having formally recognized the power of the Nanjing government of Chiang Kai-shek over himself, continued to pursue an independent policy, and part of this policy included plans to seize CER.

Following a propaganda campaign in the press, Chinese police seized the telephone exchange on December 22 CER in Harbin. The flag was lowered on December 29 CER, consisting of Chinese, five-color at the top and Soviet red at the bottom. Instead, the Kuomintang flag was flown. At the beginning of 1929, the Chinese authorities demanded that the orders of the Soviet general manager of the road be coordinated with Chinese advisers. On February 2, 1929, the Soviet side invited the government of Zhang Xuelian in Mukden to discuss the emerging differences. But the meeting of the Soviet Consul General in Harbin Boris Melnikov with Zhang Xueliang ended in mutual accusations and a quarrel.

On May 27, 1929, Chinese police raided the premises of the Soviet Consulate General in Harbin and seized part of the documents. Under the pretext that a meeting of Comintern workers was taking place at the consulate, 80 people were arrested, including 42 consulate employees.

Finally, on July 10, 1929, the Chinese militarists actually captured CER, over 200 Soviet road employees are arrested, 35 of them are deported to the USSR. This event is considered starting point conflict. On July 17, the USSR broke off diplomatic relations with China, and on August 7, the Special Far Eastern Army (SDVA) was formed.

Squadron of P-1 aircraft that took part in the conflict

On October 12, the Sungari war began offensive ONE. During the battle near Lahasusa, the Amur flotilla destroyed 7 out of 11 enemy ships. The next day Lahasusu was captured. Chinese troops began to retreat in disorder towards Fugdin, and Soviet cavalry and infantry killed more than 500 enemy soldiers and officers during the pursuit. In total, Chinese losses amounted to almost 1,000 killed and wounded.

The war entered its decisive phase on November 17. On that day, the Mishanfu operation began. Suddenly crossing the frozen border river Argun, units of the Red Army, supported by artillery and aviation, attacked the positions Chinese army in the Zhalaynor area.

The first line of defense was crushed within minutes. At the same time, the cavalry cut the railway at Zhalaynor, so that the Chinese troops could neither retreat along it nor receive reinforcements. Finding themselves trapped, the Chinese put up a fierce resistance, despite losses (almost the entire Chinese 14th Regiment was killed). On November 18, fighters of the 35th and 36th Rifle Divisions of the KA, with the support of tanks (about him), managed to break enemy resistance before reinforcements spotted from the air could arrive. Leftovers Chinese soldiers were destroyed by Kuban cavalrymen.

At the same time, Soviet troops crossed the border into Primorye near the city of Mishanfu.

By November 20, the fighting ended with the unconditional victory of the Red forces, although formally it is believed that armed conflict, which began on October 12, was finally settled on December 22, 1929. Estimates of the parties' losses are contradictory. According to reporting documents, Soviet troops then lost 211 soldiers killed. But 60 years later - also according to documents - they established that there were at least 281 dead. The wounded were officially counted at 729, but later it turned out that more than 1,400 wounded passed through the hospitals of the Far East at that time. There were 32 missing people. The Chinese losses were much higher: almost 10 thousand prisoners were taken, and they stopped counting the dead when the figure reached two thousand.

On December 22, 1929, in Khabarovsk, the Commissioner of the Republic of China Cai Yuanshen and the Commissioner of the USSR, NKID agent Simanovsky signed the “Khabarovsk Protocol”, according to which the status quo was restored on the CER in accordance with the Beijing and Mukden Treaties. In September 1931, Japan began to seize Manchuria under the pretext of combating the lawlessness of local governors. September 18 Japanese troops invaded northern Manchuria. On February 5, 1932, Japanese troops occupied Harbin and then incorporated it into the state. Manchukuo, the creation of which was proclaimed on March 1, 1932 by the governors assembled by the Japanese in Mukden. There should be a break in the relationship Manchukuo with the Republic of China. On September 19, 1934, months-long negotiations on the sale by the Soviet side of the CER to the government ended Manchukuo, which were led by the Consul General of the USSR in Harbin Slavutsky. The amount of the agreed transaction was 140 million yen. March 23, 1935 USSR and Manchukuo signed an agreement on the sale of the Chinese Eastern Railway. It was agreed that in monetary terms Manchukuo will pay 1/3 of the amount, the remaining 2/3 of the amount will be repaid within three years with supplies from Japanese and Manchurian companies on orders from the USSR in Japan. After signing the deal Manchukuo immediately deposited 23.3 million yen. Under control Manchukuo, the road was converted to European (1435 mm) gauge, widely used on other railways in China.
During August 20, 1945, troops of the 2nd Far Eastern Front and ships of the Amur Flotilla, with the support airborne assault captured Harbin. The Chinese Eastern Railway returned to our USSR control.
On February 14, 1950, in Moscow, the signing of the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance between the USSR and the PRC, an agreement on the Chinese Changchun Railway, Port Arthur and Dalny, which were transferred free of charge to China, and an agreement on the provision of a long-term economic loan by the USSR to the government of the PRC. In 1952, with the transfer of the Chinese Changchun Railway to China, the Russian history of the CER was completed.

Look

The end of the 19th century can be called a new stage in the history of Russian-Chinese relations. Main distinguishing feature this stage - a change in Russian Far Eastern policy. From border issues and development trade relations it shifted towards economic and political penetration into China, obtaining extraterritoriality rights, as well as benefits and privileges for Russian entrepreneurs. In fact, this was the way that Western European countries, the USA and Japan began to penetrate into China somewhat earlier. At the end of the 19th century. Korea and Manchuria, territories directly bordering Russia, also became the object of colonial claims of Japan, Great Britain and the USA. This has caused serious concern Russian government, especially since the Far Eastern possessions of the empire were very weakly connected with the central part of the country, economically almost undeveloped and very vulnerable from a military point of view. Therefore, it was necessary, as one of the main measures - to strengthen the Far Eastern borders of the country and, in general, Russian positions in the Far East - to begin construction of a railway connecting the center with the Far Eastern outskirts.

In 1891, the issue of building such a road - the Trans-Siberian Railway - was resolved. In 1894, when discussing the current issues of construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, it became clear that in order to shorten the road (straighten the path), it would be advisable to lay part of the railway through the territory of Manchuria. This would significantly reduce material costs and speed up the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Russian-Chinese negotiations that began at the end of 1895 led to the conclusion in Moscow on May 22, 1896 of a secret agreement on the alliance and construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway.

Following the Treaty of Union of 1896, a special convention was developed for the construction of a road called the Chinese Eastern Railway. After approval by Russian and Chinese governments The "Contract for the construction and operation of the Chinese Eastern Railway" was signed in Berlin on August 27, 1896.

This document, which consisted of 12 articles, provided for the creation by the Russian-Chinese Bank of a special joint-stock company of the Chinese Eastern Railway, the shareholders of which could only be Russian or Chinese citizens. The concession period was set at 80 years from the start of operation of the line. The contract provided the Company with the right to unconditional and exclusive management of its lands and provided Russia with important advantages:

• - customs duties were reduced by a full third;
• - the board of the CER itself set railway tariffs;
• - the road was exempt from a number of taxes and duties;
• - the railway administration was completely dependent on the CER Society.

The Chinese side also received certain benefits. From the point of view of long-term prospects, the construction of the railway in Manchuria determined the rapid industrial development economically backward region, caused an influx of population into sparsely populated areas, the development of trade and construction, and the creation of new cities and towns. Immediately after completion of construction, the Beijing government received 7.6 million rubles. gold from the CER Society.

The first batches of Russian engineers and workers arrived in Manchuria in the summer of 1897. At that time, there were no maps or topographic surveys of the areas through which the railway was supposed to be built, and the few data that were available did not correspond to the truth. The work began in the fall of 1897 and continued throughout the winter, which the prospectors had to spend in the open air, in the most severe frosts and strong winds. Despite the hardest natural conditions, lack of roads and other difficulties, by March 1898 (just a year later), research on the Main Line had progressed so far that it was possible to begin creating a construction project. As a result, survey engineers determined total length The main line is 1500 km, the Southern line is 950 km. Thus, the CER Society needed to build 2,450 km of rail track, bypass and station branches, sidings, auxiliary structures, station buildings, etc.

The most suitable place in all respects for the administrative center of the road was Harbin. Convenient geographical position Harbin, at the intersection of a large waterway and a railway, was predetermined by the rapid development of the city, turning it into a large settlement that became a conductor of Russian culture in Manchuria.

The emergence of Harbin

chinese eastern railway

The shore of the Songhua, chosen for the construction of Harbin, was a deserted swampy plain with small, sparsely scattered villages of several fanzes.

So, in May 1898, busy work began on the right bank of the Sungari. Construction of the city began at two points - at the site of the vodka factory and at the berthing site for steamships.

The railway administration expanded the right-of-way on the territory of the future city to a significant area of ​​6,200 hectares. Three main districts of the city grew here very quickly: Old Harbin (quickly decayed and became a distant outskirts), New City (administrative and bureaucratic part) and Pristan (commercial, industrial and craft district).

Construction took on a particularly rapid scale under the engineer I. I. Oblomievsky, who, in fact, was the creator of the New City. Under him, a huge complex of buildings for the Railway Administration was built on Bolshoy Prospekt, for a long time considered the largest in area in the Far East. On the other side of Bolshoy Prospect, the building of the Railway Assembly (Zhelsob) with beautiful halls and a stage grew up (Zhelsob for a long time was one of the main centers of Russian culture in the exclusion zone.) The buildings of the CER Commercial Schools (male and female) were also built here - the first educational institutions in Harbin. At the beginning of 1903, the building of the Russian-Chinese Bank appeared on Vokzalny Prospekt, and the Garrison Assembly was also built here (later it housed the Board of the CER Society). All buildings were brick or stone, had central heating and running water. One of the main attractions of Harbin and a source of special pride for Harbin residents is Cathedral Square with the famous St. Nicholas Cathedral in the center.

If the Construction Department of the CER paid maximum attention to the construction of the New City, carrying it out exactly according to the project and under strict control, then the Pier developed exclusively thanks to private initiative and without any construction plans. It arose in a natural, original way - from the first settlements of Russian and Chinese workers, and therefore was built in a very unique way: stone two- and three-story houses of wealthy entrepreneurs were adjacent to wooden huts and clay fanzas. The marina was quickly turning into a large commercial and industrial settlement, so the Construction Department decided to prevent unauthorized development of the area: special plan, made a breakdown of streets and neighborhoods and even introduced police protection. However, life in this area of ​​​​Harbin could not be brought into a law-abiding channel. One of bright examples arbitrariness of the residents of the Pier - the emergence of Chinese Street, another attraction of Harbin. In the fall of 1898, groups of Chinese and Manchus voluntarily laid out this part of the Pier and marked out the plots with pegs. Later, Chinese adobe houses were replaced by solid stone buildings.

The rapid growth of Harbin was noted by contemporaries as a phenomenal phenomenon. The functioning of the road and the rapidly growing population of the city required not only workers and employees, but also various artisans and craftsmen, traders, industrialists, teachers, doctors, lawyers, priests, etc. Harbin began to acquire various satellite towns - Nakhalovka, Korpusny town and etc. On the outskirts of Harbin, divided into specialties, the less prosperous sections of the population settled: builders of the Sungari Bridge, cab drivers and artisans, etc. And in Modyagou, Harbin’s “Tsarskoye Selo”, on the contrary, rich people lived. This area would later become the epicenter of the Russian part of Harbin.

Speaking about the construction of Harbin, one cannot fail to mention the famous “Kavezhedek” houses for workers and road employees. Most of residential buildings were built in the New Town, these were mainly two-apartment one-story houses and two-story buildings (of 4-6 apartments). Mansions were erected for administrative officials. For workers and employees of the Main Mechanical Workshops, houses, one- and two-story, were built on the Pier and were, as a rule, simpler in design.

The administration of the Chinese Eastern Railway considered it necessary to provide each railway employee with a government apartment: in addition to high salaries, this served as an important argument for attracting people to work in distant and harsh Manchuria.

Harbin began to attract the attention of businessmen of all kinds who rushed to “make money” in the vastness of Manchuria. From all over the Russian Empire, merchants, contractors, stockbrokers, speculators, as well as workers, artisans, and shopkeepers poured here. Archival documents recorded massive influx on the Chinese Eastern Railway of the population from the western provinces of Russia, representatives of a wide variety of specialties. People who were involved in road construction contracts and worked in the timber industry and trade grew rich especially quickly.

Life in Manchuria before the First World War was relatively cheap, and work was paid relatively high. So, an ordinary accountant received 1200-1300 rubles. per year, clerk - 700-1000 rubles. - when the price of bread is 4-5 kopecks. pound, bottles of milk - 8-10.

Of course, relative prosperity was observed, firstly, only among part of the Russian population of Harbin, and the overwhelming majority of the Chinese and some Russian residents of the city were in constant poverty; secondly, this prosperity was achieved through significant government investments in the development of the CER and the entire right-of-way infrastructure. The administration of the Chinese Eastern Railway invested huge amounts of money in the construction of residential buildings, schools, hospitals, communications facilities, etc., which ensured the material well-being of the residents of the right-of-way.

On May 15, 1903, the first population census in its history was carried out in Harbin, showing 15,579 Russian citizens and 28,338 Chinese.

The rapid growth of Harbin led to the fact that by 1917 the number of its inhabitants exceeded 100 thousand people, of which over 40 thousand were Russian.

In 1910, an epidemic of Asian pneumonic plague began. The disease was transmitted by airborne droplets. The mortality rate among the sick was 100%, i.e. anyone who became infected would certainly die within a few days. Doctors and the administration of the Chinese Eastern Railway were well aware that only strict quarantine measures could save Manchuria from the spread of the epidemic. Harbin was cordoned off by troops. The Chinese government has appealed to the international community for help. Russian epidemiologists were the first to respond. Doctors headed by Professor Zabolotny left Moscow for Harbin. The Chinese began to flee the city. The strict restrictive measures taken by the administration of the Chinese Eastern Railway, the competent organization of quarantine measures, and, of course, the courage of doctors led to the fact that the epidemic that was raging in Manchuria was stopped by April 1911.