Church Construction in Transbaikalia and the Chinese Eastern Railway: Kaydalovskaya Railway Branch at the Turn of the 19th – 20th Centuries

The paper considers the process of church construction on the Kaidalovskaya branch of the Trans-Baikal Railway (one of the branches connecting the Chinese Eastern Railway with the Russian railway network). The history of how the branch was constructed and operated has been left beyond the scope of scholars’ interests, which explains the focus of the paper. The research relies on archive records data and aims at assessing the role of the state in the spread of Orthodoxy in Transbaikalia and the Far East through the main stages of the branch railway construction at the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries. It also sheds light on how the Department of Railways of the Ministry of Railways and the Department of the Committee of the Trans-Baikal Railway solved the practical issues. The study spotlights a special agreement between the Trans-Baikal and Chinese Eastern Railways, which was concluded in order to boost efficiency of the CER railway section from the Chinese border to Manchuria station. It helps to evidence the specificity of church construction in the region under consideration: the trend towards constructing churches on the territory of large settlements near the railway and introducing mobile church cars. In such a way, the abbots of churches at the stations could travel hundreds of kilometers and meet the religious needs of workers and employees who lived along the railway line. The paper concludes that church construction has become a manifestation of Russian national policy aimed at strengthening its stance in the east of the country. The churches on the Kaydalovskaya branch, funded by philanthropists, local residents, and special purpose funds, still exist and should be seen as cultural heritage sites.