2021 Sc – Russian Railways Scott –

2021. Russian Railways.
Condition: MNHOG.
Catalogs: Scott -, Standard Collection -, Michel -.
Issued on: August 2, 2021.
Perforation: 12½ x 12.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Face value: 2*27 ₽.

Russian Railways is the state-owned railway company of Russia. It is one of the biggest railway companies in the world with 85,500 km of track and 1.2 million employees. Almost 1.3 billion passengers travel via Russian Railways annually as well as 1.3 billion tons of freight. Russian Railways accounts for over 3.6 % of Russia’s GDP and handles almost 80% of all transportation in Russia.

First railroad truck was built in Russia in 1837 between Saint-Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo (Village). The Department of Railways later part of Russian Ministry of Communications was created in the Russian Empire in 1842 in order to oversee the construction of Russia’s first major railway line. The railway linked imperial capital Saint-Petersburg and Moscow and was built between 1842 and 1851.

Pavel Melnikov Russia’s first Minister of Communications who played a key role in the expansion of railway network in European Russia.

The Trans-Siberian Railway connecting Moscow and European Russia with the Russian Far East provinces, Mongolia, China and the Sea of Japan was built between 1891 and 1916.

During the First World War and the Russian Civil War more than 60% of the Russian railway network and more than 80% of the carriages and locomotives were destroyed.

In the Soviet Union period People’s Commissariat of Communications expanded railway network to a total length of 106,100 km by 1940. During the Great Patriotic War the railway system played a vital role in war effort transporting military personnel, equipment and freight to the frontlines and often evacuating entire factories and towns from European Russian to the Ural region and Siberia. After the war Soviet railway network was re-built and further expanded by major additions such as Baikal Amur Mainline. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union its railway system broke up into national railway systems of various former Soviet republics. Russian Railways was established as a Public Corporation with the state as the only shareholder of the company.