An exhibition marking the 175th anniversary of the Nikolaev Railway has opened at the Russian Railway Museum

The exhibition “The Road That Changed the Country” has opened in the temporary exhibition hall of the Russian Railway Museum.

The journey, which previously took weeks, now took only hours, and the railway, which changed its name three times — the St. Petersburg–Moscow, Nikolaevskaya, and Oktyabrskaya — became the country’s main transport artery for a century and a half. The exhibition tells its story: from the emperor’s pencil note to the “Red Arrow”.

The exhibition includes authentic documents from archives and libraries, the State Historical Museum, and the Russian Railway Museum own collection. Among them, you can find a personal decree by Nicholas I on the construction of the road “at the expense of the treasury” and his own handwritten note from 1843, which, with a single stroke, defined the route bypassing Novgorod.

In the section about the engineering masterpieces of the railway, visitors will see the Verebinsky Bridge, which rose to the height of a modern eighteen‑story building, and the Mstinsky Bridge — at that time one of the largest in the world. Here you can also see the drawings of the twin railway stations designed by Konstantin Ton in St. Petersburg and Moscow, standard designs for stations of four classes, and a commemorative handkerchief that was given to passengers of the first trains. Visitors will learn how the everyday life of the railway was organized, why service on the main line was considered a privilege, and how the imperial family traveled. The Soviet chapter is represented by a decree signed by Lenin on emergency measures on the Nikolayev Road, a poster by Mayakovsky from the Windows of Growth, documents on the operation of the highway in besieged Leningrad, models of the steam locomotive IS, winner of the Grand Prix of the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937, and the country's first high-speed train ER200. The exhibition ends with a story about the "Red Arrow", which was dark blue for the first thirty years.

The history of the road is complemented by the voices of its passengers. At the exhibition, you can listen to excerpts from the works of Belinsky and Tyutchev, Alexandre Dumas and Saltykov‑Shchedrin, Bulgakov and Mayakovsky, Zoshchenko and Chukovsky, Dovlatov and Okudzhava. The installation featuring fragments from the 1967 film “Anna Karenina” reminds us that the railway has long been part of Russian literature.

The exhibition “The Road That Changed the Country” is held in the temporary exhibitions hall of the Russian Railway Museum.
Admission is by museum entrance ticket, all discounts are valid.