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| Soviet Railways (RZD) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Soviet Railways (RZD) |
| Native name | Советские железные дороги |
| Founded | 1917 |
| Defunct | 1992 |
| Successor | Russian Railways |
| Headquarters | Moscow |
| Key people | Felix Dzerzhinsky; Vyacheslav Molotov; Nikolai Osyanin |
| Industry | Transport |
Soviet Railways (RZD) was the state-owned rail transport system that operated across the territory of the Soviet Union from the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917 until the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1991. It integrated regional administrations such as the Moscow Railway, October Railway, Trans-Siberian Railway, and Baikal-Amur Mainline into a centrally planned network that supported industrialization, Five-Year Plans, and wartime mobilization. The system connected major urban centers such as Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Kharkov, Baku, Tashkent, Vladivostok, and Murmansk, and interfaced with neighboring states including Poland, Finland, China, Mongolia, and Turkey.
The roots trace to the late Imperial period where railways like the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Great Siberian Route were built under tsars such as Alexander III of Russia and Nicholas II of Russia. After the October Revolution and during the Russian Civil War, rail transport was militarized under figures including Felix Dzerzhinsky and coordinated with the Red Army logistics for campaigns against the White movement and interventions by Entente powers. During the New Economic Policy the network underwent reconstruction alongside projects initiated under Joseph Stalin's First Five-Year Plan (1928–1932), which prioritized links to industrial centers like Magnitogorsk and Chelyabinsk. In the Great Patriotic War, railways were pivotal for evacuations from Leningrad and supply routes to the Battle of Stalingrad and Siege of Leningrad, with heroic labor drawn from regions like Siberia and Central Asia including Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Postwar reconstruction entwined with the Cold War, where infrastructure projects such as the Baikal-Amur Mainline and extensions to Sakhalin reflected geopolitical priorities under leaders like Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev.
Administration was centralized in the People's Commissariat for Railways (NKPS), later the Ministry of Railways (Soviet Union), with ministers including Felix Dzerzhinsky (early security roles interfacing with transport), Lazar Kaganovich, and Ivan Pavlovsky. Regional divisions comprised the Moscow Railway, October Railway, South Eastern Railway, North Caucasus Railway, and Siberian Railway administrations, each coordinating with industrial ministries such as the Ministry of Heavy Industry and the Ministry of Coal Industry of the USSR. Planning tied to entities including the State Planning Committee (Gosplan) and institutions like the All-Union Institute of Railway Transport. Labor relations involved the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, the Youth Communist League (Komsomol), and trade bodies allied with ministries in cities such as Voronezh and Perm.
The network's backbone included the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Baikal-Amur Mainline, with critical junctions at Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, and Irkutsk. Urban commuter networks centered on Moscow and Leningrad incorporated suburban lines and links to metro systems like the Moscow Metro and Saint Petersburg Metro. Freight corridors served resource basins: the Donbass, Ural Mountains, Kuzbass, and Timan-Pechora Basin, and ports including Murmansk, Novorossiysk, Vostochny Port, and Riga. Standard features were 1520 mm gauge, electrification schemes (25 kV AC, 3 kV DC) developed in coordination with institutes in Kharkov and Riga, and bridges like the Khabarovsk Bridge and the Ob River Bridge. Border crossings linked to the Sino-Soviet border, the Polish People's Republic, and the Finnish Democratic Republic era agreements, while tunnels such as projects near Vladikavkaz addressed mountainous terrain.
Rolling stock evolved from Russian steam locomotive designs to diesel and electric classes like the E series (locomotive), TE3 (diesel locomotive), VL10 (electric locomotive), and passenger stock including Soviet Railways passenger coach models used on trains like the Rossiya (train) and the Dzhambul Express. Manufacturing came from plants such as Kolomna Locomotive Works, Bryansk Machine-Building Plant, Ural Locomotive Works, and Baltic Shipyard conversions. Signaling and safety used systems developed by institutes in Moscow and Tbilisi, while experimental high-speed research involved the Soviet high-speed rail experiments and electric multiple units from factories in Riga and Kharkov. Maintenance workshops at hubs like Perm-2 and Chelyabinsk-2 supported heavy overhauls and rebuilds.
Passenger services ranged from local suburban commuter runs in Moscow Oblast and Leningrad Oblast to long-distance expresses connecting Moscow with Vladivostok, Almaty, and Yerevan. Freight operations prioritized bulk commodities: coal from Donetsk Oblast, oil from Baku and Tatarstan, ore from Kola Peninsula and Kuzbass, timber from Siberia, and grain from Ukraine. Timetables and resource allocation were controlled through the Ministry of Railways (Soviet Union) and the State Planning Committee (Gosplan), linking with industrial centers such as Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works and Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Special services included troop movements for the Red Army, diplomatic transports for delegations to Yalta and Potsdam, and cultural excursions tied to events like the Spartakiad.
Railways underpinned Soviet industrialization campaigns like the First Five-Year Plan (1928–1932) and later plans, enabling resource flows for enterprises such as Gorky Automobile Plant and Zlatoust Iron Works. Strategically, rail corridors were vital in conflicts including the Winter War logistics and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan support phases, and for Arctic convoys connected to Murmansk during World War II under Allies like United Kingdom and United States. International projects and aid involved partners such as China during the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, technical exchanges with East Germany and Czechoslovakia, and influence in transport policy across the Warsaw Pact.
After the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, successor states established national carriers like Ukrainian Railways, Belarusian Railway, Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, and Georgian Railway, while the Russian Federation consolidated assets into Russian Railways in 2003 to inherit lines, depots, and rolling stock from the Soviet era. Transitional challenges involved legal succession under treaties such as the Belavezha Accords, asset division among republics including Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, and modernization programs financed through entities like the World Bank and partnerships with firms from Germany, France, and Japan. The Soviet-era network left enduring engineering works such as the Trans-Siberian Railway and cultural references in literature by authors like Boris Pasternak and Vasily Grossman, plus film portrayals in productions from studios like Mosfilm.
Category:Rail transport in the Soviet Union Category:Defunct railway companies