THE PAST

Finnish rail with the russian track

Olga Alexeyeva, Curator,
The Central Museum of the October Railway.

        "Finnish Railway is to be opened for regular operation along the entire distance between St. Petersburg and Helsingfors on 30 August 1870. All the trains will continue to run between St. Petersburg and Vyborg by the existing Time Table till 15 September, though in addition there will be a special non-stop passenger train from St. Petersburg directly to Helsingfors."
        This announcement was published in the St. Petersburg Vedomosty newspaper announcing this remarkable event.
        Attempts to connect the capitals of the Russian Empire and the Great Principality of Finland by rail were repeatedly discussed before the first railway connecting St. Petersburg and Moscow were built. The construction of the Finnish rail was impaired by the repercussions of the Crimean War that destroyed most of the Finnish Merchant Fleet, Finland incurred great costs to re-build it. Another reason was a continuous shortage of financial resources. In addition there was a firm belief then that Finland rich in waterways with its numerous rivers and lakes needed no rail and that it rather had to develop its water thoroughfares.
        Nevertheless the issue of the railway kept to be continuously on the Agenda and was repeatedly postponed. The construction of the first Finnish rail started in the spring of 1858 from Helsingfors northward to Tavastgust. The engineering survey for the rail connecting St. Petersburg - Vyborg started a little bit earlier, the works were later extended to cover the distance to Helsingfors - Tavastgust line, where it had to tie in at the Riikhimyaki Railway Station.
        It was Count Adgerberg, governor-general of Finland, whose persistence and commitment to the cause made the project viable. Count Adgerberg encouraged the Seim of the Great Principality to allocate funds for the construction of the railway which opened land routes to various Russian regions and to West Europe via St. Petersburg. The funds were sourced in different ways, it were tax money of wine producers and sellers, there was also an internal Finnish loan amounting to 6 million Finnish marks (the rate of exchange at those years was such that one Finnish mark equalled to 1/4 of a Russian rouble).
        Alexander II signed His Majesty Prescript expressing His Majesty approval, empathising the importance of the railway for the development of country's economy as a whole and Finland in particular, he also added that "the people who suffered much because of poor yields of agricultural products" needed this new development project for it would give them, presently unemployed, an opportunity to earn their living. His Majesty authorised the construction of the rail and ordered "it to be started as soon the funds for it had been raised". The works started next year.
        The route for the future railway chosen by designers was 413 versts in length, starting from Vyborg District of St. Petersburg, it then had to cross Vyborg town and continue north up to the Railway Station called Riikhimyaki, which is 66 versts from Helsihgfors, where the rail was already built. This allowed them to cut the construction costs.
        The Russian Invalid, a popular St. Petersburg newspaper of that time (No 27, 1870), commented on the commissioning of the first section of the rail from Petersburg to Vyborg "as it has become known a versta of the rail will cost, on an average, 22 000 metal roubles". The Total Budget of the construction was roughly estimated to be 7 518 750 roubles, plus a contribution from the Finnish Government, provided that the funds allocated by the Russian Treasury, would be returned via its participation in the Railway Net Profit, one third of the profit was due to the Russian Treasury (for the new rail section up to Riikhimyaki) or 26% from the profit of the entire line up to Helsingfors.
        Legally the new railway, unlike state railways in Russia, was considered to be a private railway and as such it had its relationship with the Ministry of Railways until Finland became an independent state on 31 December 1917.
        The Headquarters of the Main Construction Office and later the Administration of the Finnish Railway was in Helsingfors. And later this was justified since almost entire railway was within Finnish territory, only its small section (about 32 verstas) crossed Petersburg Province. Though Great Finnish Principality before the Revolution was part of the Russian Empire, its autonomy was quite strong and both stations Beloostrov and Terioki were considered to be and actually were border stations with their own Customs Offices. In 1870 new Customs Departments were opened in Helingsfors and St. Petersburg.
        The track and its right-of-way extending up to the Finnish border crossed lands partially belonging to the State Treasury and partially to private land lords. Alexander II made a gift to the Railway amounting to 6 desyatin 360 square sazhen (one desyatina equals to 2400 square sazhen) of the state lands. A number of State Departments like the Department of Land Plots, Major Artillery Administration also allocated some land plots to the Railway, many land plots were presented by land lords who had their summer estates in the area in question like Count Levachov, Prince Golitsin, Countess Brunner and others. The Main Construction Office bought lands from their owners by a special price with the prospective payment of a certain per cent from the forthcoming profits as soon as the railway had started to operate.
        Designing and construction of various railway facilities, connecting lines, stations, technical and auxiliary facilities required recruiting a number of highly professional personnel. It is difficult to name the most important and it is impossible to list them all. The Railway Committee undertook a general management of the works, the Committee was chaired by an elected ober-engineer, retired Major General Kurt Sternval being one of them.
        Both engineers and manual workmen were recruited among the Finns. At first the number of workers did not exceed a thousand and a half, later their number increased up to 12 000 strong. Most of them were not highly qualified, others had no skills at all. Nevertheless the construction was finished with very good technical results and very fast, it took merely two years and a half to fulfil the job.
        It is interesting to mention here that even before the work on engineering design started there was no general agreement on the track width. One group suggested that the track should be the same as in Western Europe, i.e. 1435 mm, while others advocated a wide Russian track of 1524 mm. The second group won, since this track width ensured goods transportation without freight reloading for the goods transported from Finland and Finnish ports by cargo trains and also direct route for passengers travelling across Russia.
        At the same time with the rail construction railway stations were built. Wolmar Westling, Finnish architect, was the author of the architectural design of most of the railway station buildings. At the Russian Section of the Railway the station buildings were made of wood, in the so called "Russian Style", very similar to country estates (dachas) at the Karelsky Peninsula ( Lanskaya, Udelnaya, Shuvalovo, Pargolovo, Levasovo, Terioki, Kuokkala, later Ozerki and others). At the Finnish side railway station buildings reminded of the buildings in the style of Renaissance and Gothic. The fragment of an old Finland Railway Station building in St. Petersburg was successfully incorporated in the newly build station.
        The railway had a sufficient number of locomotives at the time. Passenger cars were comfortable and allowed passengers to walk through the entire length of the train (from its head to its tail). The then railway tariffs were not cheap, but quite affordable, a passenger had to pay three kopecks for travelling in the first class car for one versta, the cost of the same one versta in the second class car was two kopecks and only one kopeck in the third class car. It is not difficult to estimate that the trip from St. Petersburg to, say, Vyborg (a distance of 120 verstas) ranged from 1 rouble 20 kopeck to 3 roubles 60 kopecks.
        The railway was commissioned in stages, as soon as the section was finished it started operation. The first "pilot" train ran from Petersburg to Pargolovo in June 1869. In November of the same year a counter-section Riikhimyaki-Lakhti was finished and 1 February 1870 the rail ran from Petersburg to Vyborg. His Majesty Alexander II, in person, launched a through train that could run between the two capitals on 30 August 1870, that was the day of His Majesty Patron Saint. This day (12 September by the New Calendar of the 20-th century) is celebrated as the Birthday of the Finnish Railway. This year the Railway celebrates its 130 anniversary. On that day as on any day two trains will depart the Finland Railway Station (to say nothing of numerous electrical local trains), they are express-trains "REPIN" and SIBELIUS, they will head for Helsinki, the capital of a friendly neighbouring state.

Majesty Prescript