The Circum-Baikal Railway is considered to be the unique monument of engineering architecture. On May 17, 1891 Tsar Alexander III issued the edict to construct the Trans-Siberian Railway in order to connect the Siberian territory rich in diverse gifts with the inner railways net.

In the beginning of 1902 the construction headed by engineer B.U.Savrimovich started. The railway along the Lake shore was built within 2 years and 3 months, and it was put into operation almost a year before the appointed term due to the war in Far East. On October 15, 1905 the constant railway traffic began there. The minister of Means of Communication, M. Khilkov, was the first who took the first train from Port Baikal to Kultuk.

The Circum-Baikal Railway at the south-western shore of Lake Baikal, between Port Baikal and the village of Kultuk, was 84 km (52 mi) long. There were built 424 diverse engineering constructions including 39 tunnels with a total length of 8994 m (5.6 mi) along the railway. The longest tunnels are Katorzhny (“Of Hard Labour”) – 538 m (1765 ft), Khabartuy – 548 m (1797 ft), and Polovinny (“Halved”) – 778,4 m (2552 ft).

There are 14 km (9 mi) of protecting walls, 47 stone and 3 iron galleries in dangerous places of landslides. The uniqueness of the Circum-Baikal Railway tunnels and stone galleries consists in the non-typical projects under which they were built. Furthermore, all those constructions hadn’t been ever reconstructed, and the original project of the architects and engineers of the 20th century was kept. Mainly, the piercing of the tunnels was being carried out manually with the use of explosive. The piercing speed was equal to 40-50 cm (16-20 in) a day. The Italian and Albanian specialists on the stone setting were hired voluntarily. They used the elements of the cyclopean masonry in the construction where the stones are put on each other without any linking solution by means of the form selection. At the average, one coach of explosive was expended on each kilometer of the railway.

In different time, there had been involved from 2700 to 15000 workers in the railway construction. The working day lasted 14-16 hours. Beside the builders the exiled (to Siberia) criminals participated in the construction. They were who accomplished the hardest work there. For instance, namely the exiled were preparing stones in the open-pit mines. The special technical conditions were elaborated for the Circum-Baikal Railway. In comparison with other parts of the Great Siberian way, there were forecast the road strengthening: to lay metals whisch are heavier, use only the full-sized sleepers and to increase its number for each kilometer of the railway.

Up to 1905 the railway traffic had been carrying on till the station of Baikal, then there was organized a passage by the ice-breaker-ferries to the station of Mysovaya, and from that point the coursing followed to the east. For the railway there was a ferry passage across the Baikal where “Baikal” ice-breaker and “Angara” ice-breaker specially constructed in England were used.

After the construction of Irkutsk hydro-electrical station’s dam, the part of the railway along the Angara River from Irkutsk up to the Baikal had been gone under water. The Trans-Siberian Railway was laid on along the mountains round the lake. Consequently, the Circum-Baikal Railway converted into the deadlock. On June 30, 1956 there ran the last train by the railway, and on July 1 the train traffic from Irkutsk to the lake was closed. In late 70s that dead-ended sector had been ranked as a historical archeological monument and was put under the state protection.

Among the all Russian railways it would be hard to find the Circum-Baikal Railway’s match in the same extent, difficulty and cost of works carried out. Before the revolution it was called as “Golden buckle on the steel belt of Russia”. The buckle as it connected parts of the Trans-Siberian Railway pulled apart by Lake Baikal, and golden as it exceeded all the existing in Russia trunks by its expenditure. This name was also given to the Circum-Baikal Railway thanks to its unique, second to none in the whole world look that combines complex architectural constructions with extremely picturesque shore landscape of the lake.

The Circum-Baikal Railway represents a rare combination, practically, of all the track engineering construction types, and could serve as perfect educational supplies for the students of the Railway Universities and engineer-construction art.