The Romanovs and the Trans-Siberian: Building an Iron Road to Empire

The Romanov Dynasty: Rise, Power, and Bloody End — Fexingo History · Jun 1, 2026 · 7m · transcript

In 1891, Tsarevich Nicholas II laid the first stone of the Trans-Siberian Railway, a project that would become the longest railroad on Earth. This episode follows the epic construction through permafrost, across the Amur River, and over Lake Baikal by icebreaker ferry. We meet the engineers like Nikolai Mezheninov, the convict labourers who died by the thousands, and the American rail barons who profited. The railway transformed Siberia, sparked the Russo-Japanese War, and carried the last Romanovs into exile. From the painful slow crawl of the early construction to the ceremonial completion…