Architectural Planning Features of Class II Stations of the Ussuri Railway: Vladivostok and Khabarovsk

Glatolenkova Ekaterina Senior Lecturer, Department of Design of Architectural Environment, Pacific National University 680035, Russia, Khabarovskii krai, g. Khabarovsk, ul. Tikhookeanskaya, 136 008703@pnu.edu.ru Other publications by this author

IntroductionRelevance.

Restoration and protection of architectural monuments of industrial purpose is an acutely relevant topic, but, unfortunately, it is still little discussed in the Far East. Moreover, the preserved historical buildings are not always included in the list of protected cultural monuments, many of them are irretrievably lost. Meanwhile, it is the industrial heritage of the region and, more narrowly, railway facilities that are important elements of urban development. Khabarovsk and Vladivostok are large cities with many "growth points" and an impressive list of protected architectural monuments. But in many ways, both cities owe their rapid growth and development at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries to the railway. The districts of railway stations, with forecourts, streets, adjacent buildings, characteristic railway facilities in both cities, without exaggeration, can be called the urban cradle. Many of the first buildings have already been lost, but the author of the article considers it important to preserve the memory of the former urban structure that laid the foundation for future railway districts, in light of which he sees it necessary to study it even for such a short, no more than twenty years, time interval.
A brief overview of research on the topic. In the professional community, railway architecture is increasingly becoming the object of attention of researchers and restorers: thematic "near-railway" lectures and entire conferences are held (for example, the conference "Railway Heritage", organized in 2021-2022. By the National Committee of ICOMOS), a series of lectures by the Moscow Higher School of Urban Studies named after A. A. Vysokovsky and the A.V. Shchusev Museum of Architecture (MUAR), not to mention thematic events in departmental railway organizations and various amateur public). "Architectural journey along the railways" is a colorful publication prepared based on the materials of MUAR, the angle "from the train window" is also chosen for the story about the capitals and provinces in the third volume of "Urban Planning of Russia" ^[1]. Among the authors whose works are necessary to understand the general context of the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway, I would like to mention S. Marx and K. Volmar ^[2],[3], dissertations by M. A. Vivdych ^[4], N. E. Ablova ^[5], A.V. Hobt ^[6]. A lot of works on the history of railway architecture have been published, but they mainly affect one direction; we note some: G. M. Kamalova is engaged in the study of the Orenburg-Tashkent Road ^[7], T. Y. Troitskaya studied the Chinese-Eastern Railway (KVZhD) ^[8], A. K. Chertilov – the Circum-Baikal Railway ^[9]. Architectural and artistic aspects of railway construction are studied by N. M. Petukhova ^[10]. N. P. Kradin and M. E. Bazilevich wrote about Far Eastern architects and engineers involved in the design of railway facilities ^[11], A. A. Hisamutdinov ^[12] A series of scientific and journalistic works by V. V. Burkova are devoted to the history of the construction of the Ussuriyskaya Road and the KVZhD, as well as, with her participation, a collective monograph "Far Eastern the highway of Russia" ^[13]; at railway stations – L. E. Baklyskaya^[14], A. A. Artemyeva ^[15].

The problem of research. Obviously, with the abundance of research on railway construction in the Far East, there are no works related to the architectural design and urban planning of the Ussuriyskaya line yet. This is partly explained by the utilitarian purpose of settlements at railway stations: residential buildings, depots, workshops built more than a century ago continue to be operated and are part of the urban landscape, read as "ordinary", "ordinary"; these objects are not perceived as architectural monuments that require attention and study. However, if we shift the optics and consider each village at the railway station as part of the architectural ensemble of the Great Siberian Way, other building qualities of significant research interest are more clearly manifested (such as the use of standard projects, versatility, functionality, unity of stylistic solutions). The author has already touched upon the architectural heritage of the Ussuri Road in works ^[16] and ^[17], the purpose of the presented study is to consider the town–planning and architectural features of the first settlements at Class II railway stations, the buildings of which are mostly already lost.

The object of the study is the final points of the route under consideration, Class II stations Vladivostok and Khabarovsk. The subject of the study is the architectural and town–planning features of station settlements.

The method of complex research combining historical and archival, bibliographic research, field surveys was used in the work. Materials obtained from the funds of the Russian State Archive of the Far East and the 350th Fund of the Russian State Historical Archive of St. Petersburg were used as sources for stylistic and typological analysis. These are drawings of buildings, plans for the location of tracks and buildings at stations; printing albums published at the end of the XIX–XX century were also used – they published executive drawings, types of buildings; regional periodicals – Khabarovsk newspapers "Amur Vedomosti", "Pacific Star", reports on the construction of the road, explanatory notes, memoirs. During the expeditions in May and September 2021, August 2022, full-scale surveys of the locations of interest were carried out, allowing to record the current state of railway construction, to assess losses.

The scientific novelty lies in the fact that for the first time the architectural and town-planning features of the railway stations of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, which have only partially survived to the present day, are analyzed; historical reconstructions are made on the basis of previously unpublished archival materials.

The author of the article expresses gratitude to the staff of the library of the Far Eastern State University of Railways and the reading room of the State Ariva of the Khabarovsk Territory, the Museum of the Far Eastern Railway and personally V. V. Burkova and A. A. Lisitsyn – for their help in finding the material.

The main partAs already mentioned, the stage of railway construction in the south of the Far East is well studied, so we will touch only on the general and most important points.

 The Ussuri Railway is the first section of the Great Siberian Railway, which was laid by the future Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich. A visit by such a distinguished guest is an outstanding event for the Russian Far East: a rare excursion in Vladivostok will do without mentioning the name of Nicholas II, who "... deigned to personally put earth in a prepared wheelbarrow and take it to the canvas of the Ussuri Road under construction" ^{[18, p. 125]} and "personally then took part in laying the station building again, with the help of the silver tools presented to Him and, having personally laid the first stone of the building, he was pleased to invest in the building, made in St. Petersburg according to the model approved by His Majesty, a mortgage silver plaque ..." ^{[18, p. 126]}

At the time of the start of construction, the area of the South Ussuri region was poorly populated, the main settlers were Cossacks and peasants who settled compactly, but apart from each other. There were no roads to Khabarovsk, the administrative center and the Governor–General's house, and communication with the city was carried out by river. And the railway became a connecting element of disparate villages and villages. Its strategic importance was emphasized by Emperor Alexander III, entrusting the heir to the throne to participate in the celebrations on the occasion of the opening of the construction of the road: "Your significant participation in the undertaking of this truly national cause undertaken by Me will serve as a new evidence of My sincere desire to facilitate the communication of Siberia with other parts of the Empire ..." ^{[19, p. 516]} To such imperial attention, a little more than three decades after the signing of the Aigun and Beijing Treaties, the Far Eastern territories were finally recognized as part of the Russian Empire. The cities that the tsarevich visited were significantly transformed, preparing for the meeting, they began to write about the Far East in the press, a guidebook "From Vladivostok to Uralsk" was published to coincide with the trip ^[20]. In 1894, P. Piasetsky, already a well–established artist, was assigned to prepare a panorama of the Great Siberian Railway under construction by 1900: the old Siberian cities and small stations depicted as if from the train window, standing alone among the Far Eastern "desert", were used in the pavilions of the Russian Empire at the World Exhibition in Paris; then these colorful views were transferred visitors to a distant land, today – are a source of unique information about the first years of the life of the highway and the cities associated with it.

In terms of construction, the road was divided into two sections: the Southern one – from the city of Vladivostok to the station Muravyov-Amursky (it is also the Grafskaya station, the modern name of the village is Lazo) and the Northern one – from the station Muravyov–Amursky to the mountains. Khabarovsk, with a branch on the Amur River. In 1891, the Construction Department of the road was organized, the structure of which consisted of a Technical Department directly carrying out design and construction work; at the same time, the construction of the Southern section of the road (from Vladivostok) began, and in 1894 – the Northern section (from Khabarovsk). The laying of the path took place in very difficult conditions of an unusual climate (abundance of snow and severe frosts, swampy terrain, high temperatures and midges in summer). Railway brigades, exiled convicts, Chinese and Korean workers, detachments of lower military ranks participated in the work. The first buildings on the line of the road were barracks, freight platforms and temporary warehouses for cargo storage. There is very little information about the buildings under construction in the construction reports and information about the works submitted by the site managers, which is explained by the need to build quickly, many buildings were therefore temporary. Engineers-graduates of the Institute of Railway Engineers in St. Petersburg, who arrived in Vladivostok, took part in the work on the projects.

According to the Album, 33 stations and 28 sidings were built on the Ussuriyskaya Road (taking into account the branches from Nikolskaya station to Pogranichnaya and from Ugolnaya station) ^[21]. The distance between the stations was very uneven and varied from 5 to 35 versts in different areas. According to the established order, all railway stations of the Russian Empire were divided into five classes, half-stations and sidings ^{[22, p. Ed. I, Chapter IV, p. 9]}. Class I stations were usually located in large cities or at significant nodes, had expanded functionality (separation of passenger and freight stations, parking, maintenance, repair of rolling stock, warehouses, comfortable passenger buildings). There were no such stations on the Ussuriyskaya Road, the stations of the highest class – II – were in Khabarovsk and Vladivostok. Also, 28 sidings, six class III stations, four - IV, 21 – V class were built.

The Vladivostok and Khabarovsk stations in question had a coastal structure, that is, the railway tracks ran along the passenger platform line. In the continuation of the Vladivostok station there was a freight station with access to the seaport, in Khabarovsk the terminal station was Khabarovsk–a pier on the Amur coast.

On the plan (Fig. 1), the boundary of the alienation of the road is clearly read: the work carried out by the railway department did not extend further. But within this boundary, the territories were landscaped: in Vladivostok, on the site along the bay and Svetlanskaya Street – a city park, a little further – Admiralty Garden (Fig. 2). The most common variant of the coastal location of stations and tracks is a variant with a passenger station and an open forecourt, which in some cases was replaced by a public garden. The configurations of the squares varied: for example, in the projects of the Ussuriyskaya Road, round squares were more common, and rectangular ones along the KVZhD. Streets were arranged parallel to the road line in such projects, and the main buildings of the station settlement were oriented to the station square; in the Far Eastern sections – these are the buildings of the departments or station chiefs, in the territory of Northern Manchuria – an Orthodox church. The selected site for the passenger building in Vladivostok was located in the structure of the existing building, with a picturesque view of the Golden Horn Bay. A public garden was laid out next to the station, opposite there was a fenced square with a small garden in the center. This is clearly visible in the photo (Fig. 4). Residential buildings for employees were not provided, since the station was located within the city of Vladivostok.

The Class II passenger building (Fig. 3) is built of local gray sandstone with a veneer of hewn rows with brick lintels, with an area of 116 sq. sazh. The waiting rooms (separately for classes I-II and III) were located on the ground floor and had both an entrance through the central lobby and separate exits to the platform and the forecourt. Halls for the I-II class also had restrooms, a buffet. On the second floor, kitchens and the apartment of the assistant station chief were equipped in one two–story block and the apartment of the station chief in another, the interiors of the station were "decorated with decorative Japanese tiles and tiled Dutch ovens" ^[11], an icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was installed in the Class III hall "in the place where the 19 May 1891, the first stone of this building is now safely Reigning Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II" ^{[23, p. 57]}. In the 1910s, it was decided to rebuild the station, expand it and give it a new look, it was then that the current station in Vladivostok was built. For a long time, the author of the project of the new station was considered unidentified, even the participation of V. Pokrovsky was assumed ^[25]. However, recent research by colleagues no longer gives any doubt about the authorship of V. Planson ^[12]. Also in confirmation of his authorship: an interesting document is kept in the Russian State Historical Archive of the Far East – "Correspondence with the work manufacturer and contractor" (RGIA DV. F. 75. Op. 1. D. 188). The file contains letters and orders, complaints, invoices signed by V. Planson and representatives of workers; correspondence on 202 sheets for one month in 1911.  

There were covered freight platforms at Vladivostok station. The rectangular wooden and small locomotive building (for 4 stalls, the largest, for 5 stalls, stone, was at the Nikolskoye station) – already during the construction of the station, the issue of its rapid reconstruction was discussed, so many buildings were temporary.

To this day, the building of the water tower has been preserved from the railway facilities of Vladivostok, it is a recognized monument of regional significance (Fig. 5). The exact date of construction is unknown, according to some sources it is 1893, but there is no tower in the pictures of Vladivostok dating from 1896, and its first "appearance" can be seen in the photo of 1903, except moreover, it was not a typical project of a water–lifting building for the road: it is completely made of red brick, decorated with belts and protruding pilasters with a certain Gothic accent, which makes the building similar to typical projects for workshop buildings at Vyazemskaya, Nikolskoye and Spasskaya stations - built at the beginning of the XX century, and with garrison architecture in the village of Razdolny authorship V. Zhigalkovsky ^[26].

Fig. 1. Layout of tracks and buildings at Vladivostok station, 1900 ^{[23, p. 85]}

Fig. 2. Fragment of the plan of tracks and buildings at Vladivostok station and Egersheld pier, the beginning of the XX century: the railway station (after reconstruction) and the building of the water tower are highlighted ^[24]

Fig. 3. The facade of the passenger station at Vladivostok station, architect P. Bazilevsky, ^{[23, p. 57]}

Fig. 4. The building of the first stone building in Vladivostok. The facade facing the city is well read: the area in front of the station is fenced, in the center there is a small garden fenced in plan (in the photos taken ten years later it is no longer there, but the square is still fenced), along the tracks there are green spaces ^[27]

Fig. 5. Water tower, built at the beginning of the XX century. The building is after reconstruction. Photo by the author, 2021

Khabarovsk station was located outside the city, therefore, in addition to the passenger building, a whole village was built for the accommodation of road employees and its maintenance, including several residential buildings, an Orthodox church, a railway hospital, services, warehouses, depots (Fig. 6). The passenger building was made according to a standard design, made of wood (like all other buildings on the stations), on a stone foundation, with an area of 92.99 sq. sazh. it was the largest wooden railway station on the Ussuriyskaya Road (Fig. 7). The building housed: a large vestibule with a luggage compartment and ticket offices, a waiting room for classes I-II with separate exits to the platform, a buffet and restrooms, a hall for class III, mail, telegraph, kitchens, offices of the station chief. The decor of the station is simple – carved details of cornices, valances, simple, but with decorative inserts, window frames. Carved inserts with the image of an anchor and an axe intersecting (the symbol of the Ministry of Railways) are a typical design technique for the buildings of the Northern section of the Ussuri Railway, which was also found on the residential houses of trackmen.  The passenger building was laid in October 1896 in the presence of Governor-General S. Dukhovsky and engineer O. Vyazemsky. In the information on the progress of work on the construction of the Severno-Ussuriyskaya Railway dated August 1, 1897, the following is indicated regarding the station in Khabarovsk: "all buildings have been completed, except for the reservoir, water–lifting and passenger buildings, rafters are being put at the last one <...> The Railway School [in] Khabarovsk: the foundation and basement floor are finished, the residential building at the school - the foundation and basement are finished. The food point in Khabarovsk – the foundation and the plinth have been removed" ^[28] V. V. Burkov in an article dedicated to the anniversary of the city refers to two issues of the local newspaper "Amur Vedomosti" of October-November 1897: "The station station Khabarovsk itself is not arranged, and passengers have to wait for trains, it happens in the rain, during several hours"... and further: "Part of the passenger building at the Khabarovsk station, namely Class III, intended for the common people, will be finished and opened by December 1 this year" ^[29]. The stationmaster lived in a separate house. The street on which the station goes – Nikolaevskaya, in Soviet times was renamed Leningrad. On the territory of Northern Manchuria, during the construction of the KVZhD, the same tradition spread – to name streets parallel to the tracks with the names of Russian emperors.

A small circular garden was originally laid out opposite the station, similar in outline to Vladivostok. Later in 1900, a monument "Glory to the Russian Soldier" will be erected in this place in honor of the builders of the Ussuri road (military of various ranks made up about a third of all the builders involved in the construction of the road), and in 1958 – a monument to E. Khabarovsk (sculptures by A. P. Milchin). The park was moved to the wasteland located to the left of the station, which is reflected in the drawings of 1915 (Fig. 8). According to V. V. Burkova, the engineer N. Dolmatov was engaged in the arrangement of the park (the park was even called by his name in everyday life); in Vyazemsky, where the engineer served as station chief, his efforts also improved the park with a fountain. The tradition of landscaping not the station square, but the nearby territory, including along the railway tracks, is a characteristic feature of the Ussuri Railway. During the preparation of reconstruction projects in connection with the construction of the Amur Road in the 1910s, several options for transferring the station were considered. The railway school mentioned above was located outside the station square, when planning the reconstruction of the station, proposals were put forward to transfer the passenger platform and organize the station in the school building. However, the outbreak of the World War and the revolution of 1917 prevented the restructuring. The station was damaged in a fire during the Civil War, and the new building was rebuilt only in 1926 according to the project of an author who has not yet been identified. The stone station was more spacious, two–storeyed, made in the style of Art Nouveau, which was already outdated at the time of construction, with an obvious influence of the national style, which, of course, built Khabarovsk station into the triad of the main stations of Eastern Russia - Blagoveshchensk (architect V. Hoffman) and Vladivostok (architect V. Planson). Opinions on the authorship of the project, as in the disputes of the early 2000s about the Vladivostok railway station, diverged. According to one version, a pre-revolutionary project prepared during the discussion of the construction of the Amur Railway was used in the construction. In the article of the newspaper "Pacific Star", released in honor of the 125th anniversary of Khabarovsk, there is a mention of the reconstruction of the station: "After the final expulsion of the White Guards and interventionists from the Far Eastern land [1922 – E. V.], the construction of a new railway station began. But the work had to be suspended: it was necessary to restore objects of paramount importance – factories, residential buildings. Only in 1925 the construction continued, and the following year the new station came into operation" ^[30]. In 2021 , at an open lecture , the architectural historian K. Stepanov, who studies Khabarovsk constructivism, presented a different version about the author of the station project, believing that he was the Samara architect P. Shamansky, whose project won the architectural competition in 1925. The version is certainly interesting and requires study. P. Shamansky had experience working on the railway (after graduating from the University of Civil Engineers in St. Petersburg, he served as an assistant to the head of the distance on the Mykolaiv railway), a number of Art Nouveau buildings were built in Samara according to his project, but after the Civil War nothing was known about the architect's activities, some sources claim that he could have emigrated to Shanghai ^[31]. The area of the railway station in Khabarovsk initially had the opportunity to expand, so some buildings have survived to this day.

This is the building of a water tower, built according to a standard project, with a stone base and a wooden dome. A residential building at Leningradskaya, made according to a standard project for accommodating two families: the decor is recognizable in the building, the roof is characteristic (Fig. 9). With significant losses and in poor condition, the house is nevertheless inhabited.

The railway church has also been preserved, today it is the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ built in 1900.  In terms of the project, it is a simple rectangular building, without lateral limits (Fig. 10). It is possible that the temple was used for classes (no separate school was built at Khabarovsk station), but usually in churches-schools, in addition to the temple hall, there were rooms for lessons, in particular, common in settlements along the KVZhD. In 1946, a side chapel was added to the building in honor of St. Innocent of Irkutsk. Today, this temple is the only one of the active pre–revolutionary temples in Khabarovsk, with its simple architecture, wood facade decoration, it differs sharply from the new models (Fig. 11).

Fig. 6 Layout of tracks and buildings at Khabarovsk station. The railway church and the school, 1915, are highlighted in red ^[32]

Fig. 7. The building of the first wooden railway station at Khabarovsk station, view from the station square,
1903 ^[33]Fig. 8. Layout of tracks and buildings at Khabarovsk station, 1915 ^[34]

Fig. 9. A typical residential building in Khabarovsk. Photo by the author, 2022

Fig. 10. The plan and location of the church at Khabarovsk station. Initial project, without extensions, 1915 ^[35]

11. The Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ – the former railway church, view from the southwest. In the foreground is the chapel of Innokenty of Irkutsk. Photo by the author, 2022

Conclusion

The article considered the settlements of the DVH stations of the II class – Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, built in the first years of operation of the Ussuri railway. Despite the significant difference between these two cities, they are united by a common railway past: the layout laid out at the end of the XIX century was preserved in the areas of railway stations, at the same time the places for the most important infrastructure facilities (square, streets, main buildings) were determined. The stations considered are the end points of a long route, form the framework of the architectural ensemble of the Ussuriyskaya Road and to a large extent "set the tone" for the development at the remaining stations (Vladivostok – the Southern section of the road, Khabarovsk – the Northern. Unfortunately, the limited volume of the publication did not allow us to consider these examples – the author plans to further study the stations of classes III–IV).
The above analysis will allow us to further consider the station settlements of the Ussuri Railway in the context of railway construction at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries; compare and compare the applied methods of design and construction on similar lines of the Great Siberian Railway located on the territory of Russia (Amur and Zabaikalskaya lines) and China (the former Chinese Eastern Railway). The results obtained can also be used to popularize the preservation of the industrial (railway) architectural heritage of the south of the Far East.