[edit] Route development The original plans and funding for construction of a Trans-Siberian railway to connect the capital, St. Petersburg, with the Pacific Ocean port of Vladivostok, were approved by the Czar Alexander II in St. Petersburg. His son, the Czar Alexander III supervised the construction; the Czar personally appointed Sergei Witte Director of Railway Affairs in 1889. The Imperial State Budget spent 1.455 billion rubles from 1891 to 1913 on the railway construction, an expenditure record which was surpassed only by the military budget in World War I. In March 1891, the future Czar Nicholas II and Alexandra personally opened and blessed the construction of the Far East segment of the Trans-Siberian Railroad on their stop in Vladivistok, after visiting Japan at the end of their journey around the world. Nicholas II made records in his diary about his anticipation of travelling in the comfort of The Czar's Train across the unspoiled wilderness of Siberia. The Czar's Tra ...more

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