The Largest Megaproject in History

The Trans-Siberian railway, at least to me, has always been an enigmatic topic in the sphere of Russian history. It’s very famous today, but I have seen virtually no coverage of its origins and history outside of a Wikipedia article or two. Needless to say, Wikipedia isn’t exactly a very thorough or extensive source. Considering its cultural clout and fame, I thought that this was a particularly sorry state of affairs and that it deserved a bit more of the limelight. Well, here’s that limelight. This video covers the political origins of the Trans-Siberian railway, the rise of the man most commonly associated with it (Sergei Witte), and the construction process. It is nowhere near exhaustive, I basically had to cut 800 words from the final script because it was getting too unwieldy - but nonetheless, I hope you enjoy. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapters: 0:00 The Iron Road 1:17 Origins of the Railway 5:41 Sergei Witte Takes the Reins 9:23 The Construction & Logistics 12:21 The Working Conditions 15:01 Completing the Railway ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sources, Script and Notes Available here: Video ?dl=0 The Uncut Script (which hasn’t been refined so don’t expect a particularly polished read): (1).docx?dl=0 Twitter: