Book - Trans-Siberian Railroad (& Russia) as Influenced by PM Sergei Witte

[Murphy Siding]

     Hmmmm.... a hastily built transcontinental railrod to unite a country and open up new lands for opportunity.  What a novel concept....

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Also mentioned in the linked book review:

"No venture, however, rivaled the significance of the "Great Siberian Way," the railroad that would traverse the Eurasian landmass and connect the empire. It was also the undertaking that hastened the onset of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, a conflict for which Witte was often blamed despite his frequent warnings that Russia was not prepared for war and should step back from its antagonizing land grab in Manchuria and the Korean peninsula."

Yet another illustration of the military maxim that: "Amateurs study tactics (or strategy); professionals study logistics" - see: http://www.military-quotes.com/forum/logistics-quotes-t511.html 

- Paul North.

[Victrola1]

However, though Russia had built the Trans-Siberian Railroad (1891-1904), it still lacked the transportation facilities necessary to reinforce its limited armed forces in Manchuria with sufficient men and supplies.

http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/romeo/russojapanese1904.htm

It is wise not to irritate the neighbors until you can make your trains run on time.

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

In today's (Mon, July 18, 2011) Wall Street Journal's "Bookshelf" section is a review of the following book:

Tales of Imperial Russia

By Francis W. Wcislo
Oxford University Press, 314 pages, $65

with the headings:

"A Statesman For the Czar - A portfolio that included building the Trans-Siberian Railway and helping end the Russo-Japanese War."

by Jennifer Siegel, history professor at Ohio State University, at:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304259304576377462570802564.html?mod=ITP_opinion_0 

 Some excerpts:

"For Witte and for Russia, the railroad was the great transformational technology, capable of revolutionizing the 19th-century imagination itself. It was Witte's intimate understanding of all the elements connected to the railroad—its management and technology, its potential for expanding Russia's economy and changing its society—that catapulted him from Odessa to Kiev and then on to St. Petersburg's halls of power." 

"Fortunately, once Witte embarks upon his career as a railway man*, leaps of faith are no longer required." [with regard to the lack of substantiation to support the book - PDN.]

*That phrase seems familiar . . .

- Paul North.