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The Railways of the Western Ukraine and Western Russia 1 . With one overview map.
The railways captured by the Soviet Union, formerly Russian Western Ukraine and Western Belarus are duely recorded in a Law of 1 and 2 November 1939 of the USSR, where the administration of the network has been transferred to the People's Commissariat of Transportation. The network of these areas had during the Imperial (?) Russian time, to connect the economy except the military, to the Russian domestic market and exports. The freight was not insignificant, but then changed under Polish administration fully its structure, its amount and direction as a result of the border between Poland and Russia.
The tracks run in large part on level ground, some surveys can be found in the north and in the central Belarus, only the South has in the Carpathians mountainous character. Currently, there are 6700 km railways, of which 4900 km single track, double track 1800 km.
The railways are almost the only mode of transport, the river navigation is poorly developed, although a number of navigable rivers: the Niemen, Pripyat, Dnieper and Bug run through the country. Automobile transport options are not practical. The density of the railway network is low, and is 100 square kilometers in the district of Wilna 2.8 square kilometers, 2.5 kilometers in Wolhynien and reaches just to the south (Lemburg, of Tarnopol and Stanislau) 5.6 km. On new construction from the Polish period only 214 km are recorded.
From the Soviet administration now four Railway Districts Bjelostok, Brest Litovsk, Kowel and Lemberg are set up. In the district Bjelostok 80-90% of the population devote themselves to agriculture, animal husbandry is also partly forced. The entire district has significant timber industry. During the war the wood was there also processed (Bjalowies, Augustowo), the works have, however, partially ground to a halt under Polish rule. In addition, the textile industry Bjelostoks and the tobacco industry in Grodno to be mentioned.
The railway Saremba-Bjelostok-Marzinkanzi-(Wilna) once formed a part of the two-track express route Warsaw-Petersburg, which was completed in the years 1851-1862. Under Polish administration, the second track removed on the northern portion for a distance of 70 km from Nowoswenzian. The freight amounted to between the Bug and Bjelostok to 2-2.5 billion tons per year, but took in the direction of Grodno significantly (1-1.5 billion tons). In parallel, the strategic rail Semiatitsche-Wolkowysk-Molodetschno-Sagatje runs in a length of 549 km, between Lida and Molodetschno the second track was also removed by the Poles from Bogdanov.
The burden of freight amounted to 1-1.5 billion tons per year. The cross-train to Grajewo had significance for export to Königsberg (cereals, etc.), the former second track is eliminated between Grajevo and Strosielce again.
The Brest Litovsk railway serves the administrative district of Brest, and a portion of the districts of Baranowitschi and Pinsk (Polish), the poorest and most backward parts of the country of the Western Belorussia. The population density is less than 25 persons per square kilometer.
Large tracts of land have been passed by forest or consist of swamps and sandy surfaces. Only 2-3% of the country are planted with grain, however, the forest occupies about a third of the surface area to complete. The tributaries of the Dnieper provide an opportunity to rafts of timber.
Wood processing represent the only industry, sporadically found in Brest distilleries and canneries, dairies at Nowogrudki and linen industry in the district of Baranowitschi paper mills in Baranowitschi also quarries. From Brest, a once strong fortress with little industry and about 36 000 inhabitants, leads to the north-east, a main track on Baranowitschi after Stolpze (273 km), it was built in 1871 and formed the western part of the large line Moscow-Minsk-Brest. It is double track, until 1914 the express trains ran on them from Moscow-Warsaw, which were scheduled by the Polish administration on the line, Bjelostok Baranovichi.
The railway Brest-Stolpze had a years of freight of less than 1 million tons, mainly wood in both directions, the route Tscheremcha-Brest-Kowel is also double-tracked, their freight low. The district of Koweler Railway extends over a large part of Wolhynia and the district of Rovno, where agricultural development is poor. Bread grain must be imported, wood, however, is abundant, even more so in the north than in the south of the county where the agricultural situation is better.
Accordingly is found in the Northeast, the timber industry in the area of Sarni, Kostopol, Lutsk and Rovno, in the south companies process the agricultural products: mills, sugar refineries, tobacco factories and breweries. The tracks run in the south mostly in the valleys of the mountainous terrain in the north of the lines was determined by the swampy terrain. The route Jagodsin at the Bug-Kowel-Sarni-Ostki is 258 km long, the western part is in 1877 as part of the railway Warsaw-Kowel, which originated from eastern Kowel in 1912 as part of the railway Kowel to Kiev. Although single track, the total distance for the express train traffic is suitable.
From their branches in Antonowka and two narrow gauge railways Rakitno after Kuchezkaja Wola and Modschuljanka for the development of forest areas and quarries starting. The agricultural area south Kowel is accessed through a railway after the ancient Russian city of Wladimir-Wolinski, to the north there is a route to Kamen-kashirsky and is continued in a narrow-gauge railway to Janow. From Kowel to the southeast runs once important,1873 completed railroad Kiev-Brest- Grajevo, which as already mentioned served, exports to Königsberg and Danzig. Military necessity was the significance of single-track railway Rowno-Wilna, which was built in 1884-1885 and is navigable for express trains, its freight traffic is low.
The lines of the Lemburg railway district run through economically more developed land. The natural development conditions are here effective in the southern part of Ukraine, in district of Drohobitscher, Lembergei, Stanilauer and Tarnopol. for agriculture and industry The cereal crops are 20-30%, in the north 30-40% of the bottom surface. There are cultivated wheat, oats, buckwheat, corn, potatoes, beets, hemp and tobacco. South and southwest have large forests on (on the mountain slopes mostly firs and pines, in the mountainous terrain in oak and beech), which in the Carpathians and south of the railway line Stryy-Kolomea cover more than half the land area. Accordingly, the timber industry is represented with furniture and match factories. Second is the processing of agricultural products. Steam mills can be found in Lemburg, Peremischl, Brodi, Tarnopol and Stanislau breweries in Lemberg, Krasne, Kolomea, canneries in Lemberg, tobacco factories in Lemberg and Peremischl, sugar factories are found in Chodorow and Gorodenka. Great importance is attached to the mining industry. At the foot of the Carpathians themselves naphtha found in the Ollen Borislav Drohobitsch, Sambor, Stryy and Kolomea. The processing could recently 400-450000 t be supplied annually. In Stryy also are natural gas and
Borislav and Kaluscha also potash, finally at Lemberg lignite. The density of the railway network, which goes back in Austrian times, is relatively large. Lemberg, the economic center of the country, with 350 000 inhabitants, is also a hub for 9 railway lines, apart lead lead from here in all directions Sdolbunov, Potutori, Stanislau, Stryi, Sambor, Peremischl, Jaworow, Rawa Ruska and Luzk. The directions Peremischl and Krasne have expanded to double track. From Krasne branches off subsequently the single track to Tarnopol and Podwoloschinsk, which has mainly agricultural traffic. Tarnopol is a city with livestock droving residents and is developed with the little, industrially mainly agricultural hinterland connected by 2 other tracks. The famous express route from Lemberg to Sniatyn leads in a length of 230 km to the Romanian border. 140 km away from Lemberg, Stanislau, an insignificant town of 60 000 inhabitants, branch off from the several paths according to Stryi, Korytschenzi, Kolomea and Woronienka. The industrial districts Borislav and Drohobitsch be opened up by the railway Stryi-Sawotschne. The naphtha passes from the mines first in routes by Drohobitsch and from there most of the railway Borislav-Sambor after Peremischl or Stryi to Lemberg.
The passenger transport in the area captured by the Soviet Union Railways is small
a type suburban development only around. at Lemberg, Brest Litovsk and Bjelostok
Dr. Wehde-Textor.
1 From the magazine Sozialistitscheski Transport, Moscow 1939, Issue 11 and 12
