Financial aspects of the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway: the structure of budget expenditures

The article deals with issues related to the financing of the construction of the Trans–Siberian railway in the late XIX - early XX centuries. In the course of the study, the total cost of construction was determined, as well as the reasons for the differences in the amounts spent for individual sections of this railway were identified. The comparison of planned and actual expenses, both total and for individual items, was carried out, as well as the reasons for overspending the originally planned amounts and the circumstances that made it possible to reduce costs for certain types (stages) of work were identified. The structure of expenses is determined, the share of various items in the total amount of construction costs is estimated. A comparison of the cost structure of different parts of the Trans-Siberian Railway is carried out. The basis of the source base of this study is the materials of reports on the construction of individual lines of this railway. In the structure of expenses for all sections of the road, the most significant items are allocated, which take over the bulk of the allocated funds. At the same time, the existing differences can be explained, first of all, by the conditions of construction work, the need to construct various infrastructure facilities, bridges, tunnels. Despite the presence of miscalculations at the planning stage during the construction of the West Siberian, Tomsk branch of the Middle Siberian, both sections of the Ussuri Railway, the cost amounts did not exceed the initial estimates.

Russian history, Russian empire, transport policy, railway construction, Trans-Siberian Railway, Siberia, Chinese Eastern Railway, West Siberian Railway, Circum-Baikal Railway, Ussuriysk Railway