The Trans-Siberian Railway, pride and symbol of all Russia, is like a huge 9,000 km vein that irrigates all of Siberia and provides access to major cities: the Cathedral on the Blood in Ekaterinburg, the performances of the Novosibirsk Opera House, the wooden architecture of Irkutsk or Tomsk and the port of Vladivostok are all within train reach
A legendary train
9,288 km of railways from Moscow to Vladivostok, 11 time zones, more than 80 cities and 16 rivers crossed (including the Volga, Ob, Yenisei and Amur), the Trans-Siberian Railway is the train of all records! A myth for all travelers and adventure lovers.
Images of a train sinking into a snow-covered taiga, a smoking samovar and endless nightly discussions over a glass of vodka... Who doesn't dream of "taking the Trans-Siberian Railway", that journey to the elsewhere, sign of supreme escape? But this word often evokes a confused and uncertain image much more than a reality. And yet its history represents one of the greatest challenges of the late 19th century. To build it, rivers were diverted, entire forests were razed and thousands of people were put to work. France, moreover, embarked body and soul on this epic in which she believed, which she followed, told and staged at the Universal Exhibition of 1900.
In order to understand what the Trans-Siberian Railway is, we must first of all know that the West has mythified this word. For the Trans-Siberian Railway is not a train on a magical and enchanted route, it is a rail network that was supposed to make Siberia accessible. Nowadays it comprises three main lines: Moscow-Vladivostok (known as the Trans-Siberian Railway), Moscow-Peking via Ulan Bator (known as the Transmongolian Railway), Moscow-Peking via Kharbin (known as the Transmandchurian Railway). The BAM (Baikal-Amur-Maguistral) railway line, which doubles the Trans-Siberian Railway, facilitates the transport of passengers and goods to north-eastern Siberia. So there is not one Trans-Siberian Railway but several trains that connect different cities in Siberia. You can choose to take a single train Moscow-Vladivostok, or you can decide to stop in different cities. You will then have to buy as many tickets as you travel. The train remains the preferred means of transport for Russians to travel to Siberia, it is cheaper than the plane and very convenient. But the Russians take it mostly for short distances from one city to another.
If all this may seem extremely banal it is because we do not know how much the train is attached to Russian culture and how much the atmosphere of a Russian train alone offers charm and magic. The train has always played a privileged role in the Russian imagination. Just think of the station scenes of Anna Karenina or Doctor Zhivago, or remember that Tolstoy died at Astopovo station, or that Lenin arrived in Leningrad on a train that became famous. Socialist realism has not failed to make the train the symbol of progress and revolution in the countryside.
Apart from the challenge of spending the longest train trip in one go, seven days and six nights, what is the point of spending a trip only on a train? It is impossible to understand the appeal of this adventure before having tasted the atmosphere of a Russian train. Indeed, to embark on this train is, in addition to the discovery of the magnificent and unknown landscapes of Siberia, a complete immersion in Russian culture, its sociability, warmth and sensitivity.
Across Siberia
So the train crosses Siberia. Taller, further, colder! This could be the region's motto, with its surface area equivalent to 1/7th of all the planet's land mass, its 14 million km² area linking the Urals, the Arctic and the Sea of Japan, and its temperatures ranging from -60°C to +40°C. But this accounting vision of Siberia does not take into account its extraordinary diversity, its dozens of indigenous peoples with thousand-year-old traditions that are still alive, its landscapes that alternate the densest forests, the most arid deserts, lakes, mountains and volcanoes. An ocean of land which, from taiga to tundra, was the place of the adventures of Michel Strogoff of Jules Verne, or the peregrinations of Doctor Jivago of Pasternak. Pasternak also raises the question of the other side of Siberia, that of deportation. In the houses of the 1825 exiles in Irkutsk, in the Perm Gulag Museum or in the port of Magadan, how can we not think of the millions of Russians who, from Dostoyevsky to Solzhenitsyn via Khodorkovsky, experienced the Siberian camp? But that would again reduce Siberia to a box too narrow for it.
Its territory is divided into four very different parts: the Urals, Western Siberia, Eastern Siberia and the Siberian Far East. The Urals extends from the Eastern European Plain to the Western Siberian Plain, its area is 1.8 million km2. The Ural mountain range traditionally delimits Europe and Asia. Western Siberia stretches from the Urals to the Yenisei. A vast plain overlooking the Arctic Ocean to the north and the Altai Mountains to the south and covering 2.4 million km2, this gigantic water-saturated northwestern area is rich in oil and gas deposits. Swamps cover one third of the territory. Secondly, Eastern Siberia stretches from the Yenisei to the watershed of the Pacific Ocean mountain ranges and covers 4.1 million km2. The greenest part of the country, Eastern Siberia, is full of fresh water resources thanks to its large rivers and lakes. Finally, the Russian Far East stretches 4,500 km in length, from the Pacific Ocean coastline, the Chukchi peninsula to the borders of Korea and Japan, and covers 3.62 million km2. This area is mainly mountainous and this is where the Trans-Siberian Railway arrives at its terminus in Vladivostok station.
Atmosphere, atmosphere!
But in the end the atmosphere of the Trans-Siberian Railway is perhaps the most difficult to describe. First of all, the Russians have an incredible art of promiscuity. While four of us live together in 2 m2, at no time do we feel any discomfort. Cohabitation is always done with modesty and elegance. The conversation always starts immediately. For Russians, the train represents a space of freedom, a moment of relaxation. It's almost like a parallel world, an opportunity to get out of one's daily life and spend a whole night talking to someone you'll never see again and to whom you tell your whole life story. You meet all kinds of people on the Trans-Siberian Railway. A real cross-section of Russian society parades through these corridors. Families on holiday, students, pensioners: everyone always has a reason - leisure, work... - to take the train, which remains the most convenient means of transport. Mythical!
Smart info
When? When to leave? That's a rather difficult question to answer when it comes to Siberia. Indeed, the most extreme temperatures contrast between summer and winter, ranging from +35°C in summer to -40°C in winter in some regions. It all depends on the activities you want to do: horseback riding in the steppes or skiing. For reasons of comfort, it is of course preferable to travel to Siberia in late spring, from May and throughout the summer.
Getting there. Average price of a return flight Paris-Moscow: from 180 to 500 € depending on the season and whether the airline makes a stopover or not. A single visa is enough to cross the whole of Siberia on the Trans-Siberian Railway, stopping in every city. The main thing is to register when you arrive in Moscow. You can buy your ticket from France via the Internet, or by contacting agencies organising trips on the Trans-Siberian Railway. It is also possible to buy tickets in Russia at any railway station in the country.
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