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Soviet Union [USSR] RAILROADS
Railroads were the most important component of the Soviet
transportation system. They carried freight over great distances,
and historically they have contributed to the economic development
of the Soviet Union as efficient carriers of materials between
producers and users, both domestic and foreign.
Historical Background, 1913-39
On the eve of World War I, imperial Russia had a rail network
extending 58,500 kilometers. In 1913 it carried 132.4 million tons
of freight over an average distance of 496 kilometers, and 184.8
million passengers boarded its trains. In 1918, following the
Bolshevik Revolution (see Glossary), the new regime nationalized
the railroads. During the Civil War (1918-21), the railroads played
a strategic role in the Bolshevik government's struggle against
both White forces and invading foreign armies but suffered serious
losses and damage in tracks, locomotives, rolling stock, yards, and
stations. In 1920 Vladimir I. Lenin directed the first plan for
nationwide development of the economy, which created the State
Commission on the Electrification of Russia (Gosudarstvennaia
komissiia po elektrifikatsii Rossii--Goelro). It called for the
electrification of the country over a ten- to fifteen-year period,
the development of eight economic areas, and the reconstruction of
the transportation network. Railroads were assigned the task of
linking the economic areas and of transporting raw materials to
industrial producers and finished goods to users. To that end, the
regime provided for the electrification of the most important main
lines and the construction of new lines.
During the 1920s and 1930s, transportation, and in particular
the railroads, played a leading economic role and experienced rapid
development. Feliks E. Dzerzhinskii, the chairman of the dreaded
Vecheka (see Glossary) and the commissar of internal affairs, was
also named the commissar of railways. Because of his first two
positions, Dzerzhinskii ensured a rapid development of the
railroads. New rail lines were built between the eastern regions
and the industrial areas in the west. By 1925 some 4,000 kilometers
of new lines had been laid in both the European and the Asian
portions of the Soviet Union, including the first electrified line,
an industrial spur from Baku to Surakhany completed in 1926.
During the First Five-Year Plan (1928-32), the railroad network
was repaired, improved, and expanded. The plan recognized that
industrial
complexes (see Glossary), such as the Ural-Kuznetsk coal
and iron complex, needed transportation links. Plans called for
connecting the Siberian and Central Asian areas, rich in natural or
agricultural resources--ores, timber, coal, cotton, and wheat--to
manufacturers and consumers in the western portions of the country.
Thus the Turkestan-Siberian Railway, 1,450 kilometers long, was
built, along with the Central Kazakhstan and the Caucasus
railroads, among other lines. The European portion of the country
also saw new lines laid, connecting industrial areas with their
sources of raw materials.
In the 1930s, the railroads introduced new rolling stock and
locomotives that contributed to better performance. In the mid1930s , diesel-electric locomotives began to be used. Although more
costly to produce and to maintain than the electric locomotives and
also less powerful and slower, diesel-electric locomotives had
several advantages over the steam locomotives in use, particularly
under existing operating conditions. Fuel-efficient, dieselelectric locomotives covered long distances between refuelings,
required minimal maintenance between runs, sustained good speeds,
damaged tracks less, used standardized spare parts, and offered
operating flexibility. In contrast to the United States and Canada,
two countries also employing railroads to cover vast expanses, the
change from steam to diesel-electric traction in the Soviet Union
was initially very slow, in large measure because of a scarcity of
trained manpower, maintenance facilities, and spare parts.
During the Second Five-Year Plan (1933-37), new rolling stock,
including freight cars of new design, was also produced. Although
most freight cars were still of the two-axle type with a payload
varying between twenty and sixty tons, specialized four-axle cars,
such as hoppers and tippers of up to seventy tons, began to enter
service. The new rolling stock was equipped with safety and labor
saving devices, such as automatic braking and automatic couplings,
which increased safety and allowed more efficient train handling at
classification yards. The higher speeds and heavier train weights
made possible by more modern traction and rolling stock in turn
required heavier rails, improved cross ties, and ballast. The
automatic block signal system and centralized traffic control
increased the operating efficiency of trains.
Despite the modernization program, Soviet railroads lagged
behind the performance levels set by the plans. Ineffective
management, labor problems, such as poor work attitudes, and a high
accident rate contributed to the failures. On the average, railcars
and locomotives were idle about 71 percent and 53 percent of their
operational time, respectively. Yet industrialization efforts
placed increasing demands on the railroads. The military
authorities were also concerned about the poor performance of the
railroads, fearing their inability to support national defense
requirements.
From 1928 to 1940, the length of operating lines grew from
76,900 kilometers to 106,100 kilometers and included 1,900
kilometers of electrified lines. Freight traffic more than
quadrupled from 93.4 billion ton-kilometers to 420.7 billion tonkilometers . Passenger traffic also increased in the same period,
from 24.5 billion passenger-kilometers to 100.4 billion passengerkilometers . This growth in freight and passenger traffic was made
possible by track improvements, new rolling stock, locomotives,
signaling and control equipment and procedures, and new and more
efficient classification yards.
Data as of May 1989
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