Work in the interests of rail transport: the second Minister of Railway Transport of the Russian Empire – Volodymyr O. Bobrynskyi (1869-1871)

Self Cite

The article continues the series of publications devoted to the assessment of activities of the heads of the Ministry of Railways of the Russian Empire. In this article, the authors attempt to systematize and analyze historical data on the activities of Klavdii Semyonovich Nemeshaev as the Minister of Railways of the Russian Empire. There are numerous biographical studies devoted to K. S. Nemeshaev, but little is known about his activities as a minister, and to date the data are scattered and not systematized. The analysis of archival materials, scientific publications, memoirs of Nemeshaev's contemporaries and colleagues allowed us to conduct a detailed assessment of his activities and ministerial policy. It has been found that despite his short term of office, Nemeshaev's consistent policy and extensive managerial experience allowed him to carry out two significant reforms in a short time. The first one involved redistribution of the state-owned railway lines between separate local administrations and merging them into larger groups, which was important in terms of improving their operations and facilitating the cost efficiency, as well as speeding up freight traffic. In opinion of the authors of this article, another important achievement of Nemeshaev as the Minister of Railways was the establishment in 1906 of the central, local and district committees regulating mass transportation of goods. This was the first centralized measure aimed at managing the rolling stock. Nemeshaev's extensive managerial experience, high erudition and energy also led to prominent outcomes in some other areas of the Ministry operation. Attempts were made to create syndicates of shipowners in river transport. Modernization of river and sea vessels was carried out. Works on projects for the development of the Northern Sea Route has begun. The article also assesses the development and construction of railway network in the Russian Empire during Nemeshaev's office, in particular, of the Amur Line and Moscow Encircle Railway, as well as the increase in the capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway. It has been found out that K. S. Nemeshaev paid great attention to various social aspects of railway employees’ activities. The article also highlights the legislative policy of the Ministry of Railways of that period. Nemeshaev's participation in the preparation of the French scientist’s Paul Pelliot and the Russian officer’s Carl Gustaf Mannerheim joint trip to China has been analyzed. Due to the mass replacement of light and worn-out rails on state-owned railways with heavier ones and the need to discharge a significant number of steam locomotives built in the 1850s and 1860s, an introduction of more powerful steam locomotives was expedient. The article discusses K. S. Nemeshaev's contribution to the development of technology and the introduction of a new type of freight steam locomotive for state-owned railways. Nemeshaev's political views have also been assessed.

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Analysis of Klavdii Semyonovich Nemeshaev’s activities as the Minister of Railways of the Russian Empire

Strelko

Pylypchuk

2021

Self Cite

“…The principles of objectivity and that of historicism enable consideration of the studied historical events in their interrelation and development, giving the grounds to a comprehensive analysis and reliable assessment of historical facts. The application of the systemic method to the work allowed investigating comprehensively railway transport engineering in the Russian Empire in the second half of the nineteenth century (Pylypchuk & Strelko, 2016;Pylypchuk & Strelko, 2017;Pylypchuk & Strelko, 2019).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The development of railway transport engineering in the Russian Empire in the second half of the nineteenth century

Hurinchuk

2019

The article is devoted to the consideration of the features on the development of railways and railway engineering in the second half of the ХІХ th century. It is well known that railway transport in European countries emerged in the eighteenth century, and the nineteenth century was a period of rapid development of raiway systems, railway technology and the creation of operation technologies. The author of the article shows that the development of railway transport engineering in the Russian Empire began in the 30s of the XIX century and went on at a rapid pace. It is clear that foreign technology was used at first, and foreign technology thought was significantly influenced by technology. As the whole policy of the tsarist government was aimed at reducing the country's dependence on potential opponents, the idea of forming a Corps of national transport engineers was greatly supported. Among its graduates were such well-known engineers as P. P. Melnykov, M. I. Lypyn, V. P. Sobolevskyi, M. A. Beleliubskyi, D. I. Zhuravskyi and others who managed to create a national scientific school in the field of railway transport. Almost all problems were solved independently without the help of foreign specialists. Among them, according to the author, the most significant were "Track bed structure", "The development of signalling systems, centralization and block signal system" and "The development of rolling stock". Based on the analysis of a large number of sources, the author concludes, that in the second half of the nineteenth century the development of industry in the Russian Empire went through capitalist reforms. Expansion of domestic and foreign markets, active domestic and foreign trade led to the need to develop means of communication. The railways proved to be the most powerful and economically effective. They connected different regions, places of production and consumption, facilitating, speeding up and reducing the cost of delivery of raw materials and goods. In the 60-80's of the XIX century there was a significant increase of the railway network. The construction was mainly carried out at the expense of private joint stock companies. During that period, foreign specialists who were not interested in the qualitative development of the Russian railway network played a major role in the construction and management of the

“…The methodological basis of the work comprises the scientific principles of research, such as objectivity, historicism, systemic, complexity. The principles of objectivity and that of historicism enable consideration of the studied historical events in their interrelation and development, giving the grounds to a comprehensive analysis and reliable assessment of historical facts (Pylypchuk & Strelko, 2016;Pylypchuk & Strelko, 2017;Pylypchuk & Strelko, 2019). The application of the systemic principle to the work allowed investigating more comprehensively the achievements of I. H. Aleksandrov in the field of hydraulic engineering development.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The contribution of Academician I. H. Aleksandrov to the development of national hydraulic engineering (on the example of scientific and engineering approaches to irrigation problems in the Turkestan region)

Isaienko

2019

History of science and technologies as a branch of scientific knowledge is aimed at studying the most significant ideas of prominent scientists and practitioners and their influence on the world science development and the technologies' advancing. In the opinion of the authors of the article, one of such figures of the early twentieth century is Academician I. H. Aleksandrov. Historical and scientific analysis of life and activity of I. H. Aleksandrov as a scientific theoretician, engineer, a science organizer is of high topicality due to the scale and versatility of his scientific contribution. Scientific creative work of I. H. Aleksandrov can be divided into five main directions of development of science and technologies: hydraulic engineering, hydropower, geographic zoning, railway transport and irrigation. In the context of the development of hydraulic engineering and hydropower, I. H. Aleksandrov had world-class achievements that glorified national science. But till recent years I. H. Aleksandrov is mostly recognized as the designer and one of the constructors of the Dnipro hydroelectric power station near Zaporizhzhia (1927-1932) (he prepared a project and directed the construction of the largest hydroelectric power station in Europe at that time) or as a creator and developer of the methodology for economic zoning of the Soviet Union. Other achievements and ideas of Academician I. H. Aleksandrov are rarely mentioned in the scientific papers and researches. The article concludes that the breadth of scientific and technical interests of I. H. Aleksandrov was the result both of his individual abilities and of the thorough theoretical and practical training received by a young engineer I. H. Aleksandrov from the highly qualified teaching staff of the Moscow Higher Technical School