From dirt to Kings. How a steam locomotive fireman became a minister

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Prince Khilkov is a nobleman and a wealthy landowner who distributed his land to the peasants, and made a brilliant career, going from a stoker on a steam locomotive in the United States, where he went to study all the intricacies of locomotive business, to the Minister of Railways of the vast Russian Empire.

Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Khilkov (1834-1909)

The future minister was born in 1834 in the Tver province in the family of Prince Ivan Khilkov. His mother, Evdokia Mikhailovna, was close to the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of Emperor Nicholas I. Mikhail's childhood and adolescence proceeded like all the children of his circle. He received his primary education at home. At the age of fourteen he entered a privileged educational institution - the St. Petersburg Corps of Pages, from which he graduated with the rank of ensign. At the age of nineteen, he began serving in the Life Guards of the Jaeger Regiment. Six years later, with the rank of staff captain, he left his military career and moved to a civil position in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This is where his typical career as a young rich prince ends.

Already in 1857, together with the writer Eduard Zimmerman, Mikhail Khilkov traveled across North America and tried himself at work on the railroad. According to some reports, the journey continued further south, and two young men even visited Venezuela.

With the abolition of serfdom and the beginning of reforms, Khilkov distributed most of the ancestral lands to the peasants and went to America. Large-scale railway construction began there, and Khilkov, under the name John Magill, in 1864 got a job as a simple worker with the Anglo-American Transatlantic Company. Then he worked as a fireman on a steam locomotive, an assistant driver and a machinist. He quickly rose to the position of Chief of the Rolling Stock and Traction Service of the Transatlantic Railway.

In the direction of his company, "John Magill" was sent to Argentina, where railway construction was carried out, and from there he moved to England (to Liverpool), where he started all over again - he got a job as a simple mechanic at a steam locomotive plant. (The New York Times obituary describes the positions that Khilkov held in America and England a little differently).

Returning to his homeland, the future minister also began his career with small positions and quickly advanced in the service. At first he worked as a machinist, then as the head of the traction service on the Kursk-Kiev and Moscow-Ryazan roads. Soon he led the construction of the Transcaspian railway, then the only one in the world, laid through the desert.

In 1882, the Bulgarian government invited M. I. Khilkov to head the Ministry of Public Works, Railways, Trade and Agriculture. For three years he becomes one of the key figures in the Bulgarian economy.

In 1885 Khilkov returned to Russia, where he was appointed head of the Trans-Caspian Railway. Soon he was transferred to work as the government director of the Privislenskaya railway, then the head of the Oryol-Gryazskaya, Livenskaya, Samara-Zlatoust and Orenburg railways. Since March 1893, Mikhail Ivanovich held the post of chief inspector of Russian railways.

According to S. Yu. Witte, in those years there was no person in Russia who had the same invaluable experience in the construction and operation of railways in different countries and in different climatic conditions. It was Witte who recommended Khilkov to the new Tsar for the post of Minister of Railways of the Russian Empire, where he was appointed in January 1895. It should be noted that Khilkov became the second Minister of Railways who had American experience behind him - the first minister P. P. Melnikov also studied railway business in the United States.

Khilkov's ten years in this post are characterized by an unprecedented pace of construction of railways and highways being built in the central and industrial regions of the country, in Siberia and Central Asia. Under him, the length of Russian railways increased from 35 to 60 thousand km, and their freight turnover doubled. About 2,500 km of railway lines were erected annually (there was no such rate even in the Soviet period) and about 500 km of highways.

Report of Prince Khilkov to Nicholas II, December 1895

The United States noted the appointment of a minister of a person with an American page in his biography. Leslie's Illustarted in the summer of 1895 came out with the article "Americanized Russian Minister". During all ten years of his work as minister, Khilkov's house and office were open to Americans who lived or visited St. Petersburg.

Prince Khilkov and a group of employees of the Ministry of Railways (circa 1896)

With his arrival, grandiose works were launched on the Trans-Siberian Railway (which had been under construction since 1891). Khilkov traveled to Siberia many times, where he promptly solved construction problems. He traveled by rail from the Urals to Lake Baikal, visited Transbaikalia. The minister paid special attention to the arrangement of the highway, improving the living conditions and life of railway workers and builders. Here is what he wrote to the tsar: "The more I get acquainted with the case of the Siberian railway, the more I come to be convinced of the forthcoming world significance of this path and I find it necessary to accelerate the implementation of measures outlined for its further improvement."

The appointment of Khilkov and the intensification of the construction of the Transsib were not accidentally interconnected. Tsarevich Nicholas not only opened construction in 1891, but, having become emperor, did not hide what exactly he invested in this project. General Nelson Miles reported on his conversation with Nicholas II:

"… He is very interested in the development of his country, especially the vast wild expanses of Siberia, the conditions of which are very similar to our own West some time ago. … I found that he is well acquainted with the history of the development of our West and the advantages brought there by the development of railways, and he hopes to follow our example of dividing unoccupied land into small parcels and distributing them to settlers to create a nation of patriotic homeowners like ours."

A year and a half after his appointment, M. I. Khilkov set off on a trip through Siberia and the Pacific Ocean to the United States of America in order to renew his knowledge of the American railway business. He turned out to be the first acting Russian minister to travel to the United States. His friend and companion on this trip was the American Joseph Pangborn (there is evidence that it was he who convinced Khilkov of the profitability of building a "straightening" Trans-Siberian line through Manchuria - the future CER). Despite the fact that the minister did not want to widely publicize the fact of his trip, the New York Times tracked his travels and meetings with American businessmen (for example, notes from 14.10, 18.10 and 19.10. 1896).

Speaking of Joseph G. Pangborn. This journalist, who specialized in describing railways, organized a four-member expedition (in addition to himself, an engineer, artist and photographer), which he called the World's Transportation Commission, to collect information on the world's transport systems for Colombia. Museum in Chicago (which was intended to continue the work of the Columbia World Exhibition of 1893 on a permanent basis). During his trip, the US economy was in a depression, and among Pangborn's tasks was to find new partners for American business in the world. Meeting with Mikhail Khilkov was a gift of fate for him.

Joseph G. Pangborn Tours India

While holding a high position, Khilkov did not consider it shameful to communicate with ordinary railroad workers while traveling. He could personally sit down at the locomotive. For example, in Transbaikalia, when the driver got confused while overcoming the rise, the 65-year-old minister took his place and showed the class of driving a train through the pass.

Prince Khilkov with the railway authorities at the carriage on the Trans-Siberian railway under construction, February 1896

Under Khilkov, a unique in its kind Circum-Baikal railway was built, the “golden buckle of the Transsib”, which has now become a monument of railway construction. With his approval, a station of pure marble was built in Slyudyanka, the only one of its kind on all the roads of the country. And in September 1904, not far from the station. The Minister Marituy personally hammered the last victorious crutch into the track of the Circum-Baikal Railway, connecting European and Asian Russia with a steel run.

Advertising of the Transsib connecting Paris and China

Khilkov's friend on his first trip to America, Eduard Zimmerman, who became a famous travel writer, rode the Siberian railway in 1901 and published travel notes in the journal Vestnik Evropy (1903, January and February issues). During these years, the prince Khilkov is included in the highest circle of dignitaries of the empire, becomes a member of the State Council.

Repin I. E. Portrait of the Minister of Railways and Member of the State Council, Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Khilkov. Study for the painting "Solemn meeting of the State Council".

During the Russo-Japanese War, he did everything to force the capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Here is what the English newspaper Times wrote in those years: “… Prince Khilkov is a more dangerous enemy for Japan than Minister of War A. N. Kuropatkin. He knows what to do, and most importantly, how to do it. Under him, the Siberian Railway began to work very effectively, and its employees demonstrate high professionalism. If there is a person in Russia who, more than anyone else, is capable of helping his country to avoid a military catastrophe, it is Prince Khilkov …”.

Dreaming of railway dynasties, he created comprehensive schools, lyceums and technical schools for the children of the railway workers. With the participation of Khilkov, the Moscow Engineering School was opened (now it is the Moscow University of Railways). And in St. Petersburg, in one of the buildings of the department headed by him, a museum was opened for various models, structures and vehicles.

At the suggestion of the minister, a professional holiday of railway workers was established in 1896, which is still celebrated today.

Khilkov's actions as minister and the scope of his vision are striking even today. Suffice it to recall his support for the project of the Siberian-Alaska transhighway. The concession for its construction was proposed to the Russian government at the beginning of the 20th century by an influential American syndicate.

The highway was supposed to start in the Kansk region (as an offshoot from the Transsib), cross the Angara and go to Kirensk. Then walk along the left bank of the Lena to Yakutsk, where it was planned to build a railway bridge. Further, through Verkhne-Kolymsk, the railway went to the Bering Strait, which was supposed to be overcome by an underground tunnel or bridge to Alaska. The highway had to cross a huge undeveloped area. It was planned to breathe life into these uninhabited areas at the expense of private capital, without the support of the treasury. To ensure guarantees of private investments, the Americans asked to give the syndicate a long-term, until 1995, concession of 12 km of the territory adjacent to the road.

By then, the United States had vast experience in railroad construction. Their own rail network was the largest in the world and in 1905 amounted to 350 thousand km (in Russia - 65 thousand km). At the same time, the construction of the main highways in the United States was completed, and American capital was actively looking for places for profitable investments, including in Asian Russia, where many railways were being built in those years.

The concession offered an American way of organizing construction in sparsely populated areas, with minimal budgetary assistance, with funds from railroad companies and syndicates. It was in this way that the vast territories of the North American United States were quickly developed. At the same time, the government only directed the work, allotted land to the railway companies with the right to exploit the mineral deposits discovered here. The rest of the land was transferred into the ownership of the settlers almost free of charge. All this contributed to an active inflow of capital and labor, mainly emigrants.

Here is how Burstin described the role of railways in the development of the United States:

“The railways of the American West had the ability to tread a trail for settlement. This unique potential of railways was noticed by discerning Europeans. “To build a railway in populated areas is one thing,” wrote an English traveler in 1851. “But to build it to attract people to uninhabited areas is a completely different matter.” The railway contributes so much to the development of the country that yesterday's waste lands become valuable sites. Thus, action creates interaction: the railway contributes to the development of the region, while the development of the region enriches the railway … The very competition to capture and take possession of these vast uncultivated spaces has decisively shaped the appearance of American railways.

The issue was considered by a special government commission. However, at that time, the Russian government did not dare to give the vast Russian territory for the exclusive use of a foreign company for a period of 90 years, with the right to develop all natural resources here, and therefore initially refused the concession. The refusal was motivated by the fact that foreign capital could seize Siberia, resettling their compatriots to the ceded territories. Subsequently, the syndicate again turned to the authorities, giving the obligation to build the road under the control of the Russian government, by the forces of Russian workers and engineers, not allowing anyone but Russians to settle along the line. Railway companies were ready to build churches for workers, schools, hospitals, and other socially significant facilities at their own expense. In addition, full preservation of the property rights of all private owners who acquired land plots in the area of the highway before the concession was guaranteed.

Moreover, at the disposal of Russia were the lands necessary for the implementation of state and military interests.

The company also placed its own communications at the disposal of the government, and after 30 years the state had the right to buy the road. 90 years later, in 1995, the highway and all its infrastructure were to be completely transferred to the ownership of Russia. Finally, as a demonstration of openness and seriousness of intentions, the Russian side was presented with a full list of members of the syndicate, which included very influential businessmen from New York, San Francisco, and Chicago.

After all the approvals, the idea of a concession was approved by the Russian Ministry of Finance and received support from the military department. However, after the resignation of S. Yu. Witte from the post of Minister of Finance and M. I. Khilkov from the post of Minister of Railways, this grandiose Siberian-Alaska project was never implemented. After the 1917 revolution, the project was completely forgotten (and a hundred years after the first discussion - in 2007 - they remembered again, and forgot again).

Minister Khilkov was concerned about the development of not only railway transport. He was an active supporter of the motorization of the country and predicted a great future for road transport. His signature is under the decree of September 11, 1896 "On the procedure and conditions for the carriage of weights and passengers in self-propelled carriages." This document officially allowed the mass use of the car as a passenger and freight transport. It was from this day that the history of the Russian motor transport industry began.

The Minister promoted the development of Russian highways, made sure that their quality corresponded to the level of advanced European countries. He has personally participated in a number of car rallies demonstrating that road transport can effectively complement rail transport.

In September 1901, on his initiative, three cars ran along the Georgian Military Highway from Vladikavkaz to Tiflis. At the wheel of "De Dion Boutona" with an engine power of 3.5 hp. there was Khilkov himself, another similar car, but assembled in St. Petersburg at the Frese company had a power of 4.5 hp, the third car - Panar-Levassor (14 hp, 6-seater) was discharged Khilkov from France. In August 1903 Khilkov took part in a motor rally along the Black Sea Coast Highway (about 600 versts), organized for the development of automobile communication in this region of the empire, primarily on the Novorossiysk - Sukhum section. Together with the minister, famous people of that time took part in the rally: P. A. Frese (one of the creators of the first Russian car and the owner of a carriage-automobile factory that produced numerous car models), as well as N. K. von Meck (public figure and one of the pioneers of the Russian automobile movement, commander of many motor rallies). The trip showed that cars can be successfully used for arranging regular communication along the Black Sea Highway, expanding the availability of southern resorts.

In recent years, Khilkov took care of the establishment of a bus service in cities and outlined a number of measures for the development of this type of transport. He saw the great benefit that cars can bring in the near future in organizing urgent intra-city and intra-district communications, gradually replacing outdated horse-drawn transport. With the outbreak of the 1905 revolution, strikes began on the railways. During the All-Russian October strike, Khilkov tried to set an example, and how he once sat down to drive a locomotive in his youth. But it did not help. Khilkov resigned.

Left out of work, he died in March 1909 in St. Petersburg.