Trans-Caspian railway

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Map of the Trans-Caspian railway
Bokhara and Samarkand
.
Baharly
on the Trans-Caspian Railway, c. 1890

The Trans-Caspian Railway (also called the Central Asian Railway,

Lord Curzon visited the railway, he remarked that he considered its significance went beyond local military control and threatened British interests in Asia.[1]

History

Construction

Route of Trans-Caspian railway in Turkmenistan
Route of Trans-Caspian railway in Uzbekistan
Uzun-Ada port and railway station

Construction began in 1879 of a

Tashkent Railway
connecting the Transcaspian Military Railway with the network of other Russian and European railways was completed in 1906.

Economic impact

The railway permitted a massive increase in the amount of cotton exported from the region. This increased from 873,092 pudy in 1888 to 3,588,025 in 1893. Also sugar, kerosene, wood, iron and construction material were imported into the area. These rising trade figures were used by Governor-General Nikolai Rozenbakh to argue for the extension to Tashkent, while the merchant N. I. Reshetnikov offered private funds for the same purpose.[2]

Revolution and Civil War

The railway was the most important means of communication in the area, and workers on the railway became key activists during the

Bolshevik-oriented Tashkent, setting up the Ashkhabad Executive Committee
on 14 July 1918.

Both railway and workers played an important role in the Russian Civil War. Troops of the British Indian Army participated in some of the battles along the railway line. Tashkent was an important bastion for the Red Army.[5]

Under the Soviet Union

During the Soviet period and beyond, the railway was administered from Tashkent.

Route

Bereket city is an important junction on the Trans-Caspian route.

The railway starts at the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea at

Urganch and on to Kazakhstan
and Russia.

The main line continues from Turkmenabat through

Turkestan-Siberia Railway to Novosibirsk
.

See also

  • Railways in Turkmenistan

References

  1. ^ Military power, conflict, and trade by Michael P. Gerace, Routledge, 2004 p182
  2. ^ Russian Colonial Society in Tashkent by Jeff Sahadeo, Indiana University Press, 2007, p120
  3. ^ Sahedeo, Jeff, Russian colonial Society in Tashkent, 1865-1923, Indiana University Press, 2007, p. 190
  4. ^ The Times, The Fighting In Trans-Caspia, 3 March 1919
  5. ^ Hopkirk, Peter, On Secret Service East of Constantinople, John Murray, 1994

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Trans-Caspian railway.
  • OCLC 2115675.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  • Annenkov, Mikhail (1881). Ахал-Техинский Оазис и пути к Индии. Санкт-Петербург.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Dobson, George (1890). Russia's Railway Advance Into Central Asia. W. H. Allen & Co.
    OCLC 1097761
    .
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