The Trans-Siberian Railway
Short History Of...
00:00
The Taiga, a Train to Siberia
Nicholas Mjönninov is the engineer in charge of this section of railway. Most of these workers are convicts, some criminals and some political prisoners. Their main incentive is to reduce their sentence. For every year worked on the railway, they will get out of jail several months earlier. The segregation of ethnic groups enables inequality of pay and conditions. Russian workers get one ruble and 76 copecs per day, less than $1. But the Asian laborers are paid a third of that salary after deductions for food. A quarter of the workforce are non-Russian, predominantly Chinese masons and joiners,. Japanese, Persians, Southern Europeans.
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