Trans-Siberian Railway as the Russo-Chinese part of the Trans-Siberian Railway, connecting Russia with China and providing a shorter route to Vladivostok. A Russian staff and administration based in Harbin operated it. Siberian agriculture began to send cheap grain westwards beginning around 1869. Agriculture in Central Russia was still under economic pressure after the end of serfdom, which was formally abolished in 1861. To defend the central territory and prevent possible social destabilisation, the Tsarist government introduced the Chelyabinsk tariff-break (Челябинский тарифный перелом) in 1896, a tariff barrier for grain passing through Chelyabinsk, and a similar barrier in Manchuria. This measure changed the
The Eastern-Siberian Inland Navigation Company 1903. In 1905 the first ships on Lake Baikal were built — ferry «Baikal» and ice-breaker «Angara» for running through of train on the Transsiberian railway. The Soviet history of the Eastern-Siberian Inland Navigation Company began since 1918, when the Decree about fleet nationalization was passed. All ships of private companies were nationalized. One of the prominent revolutionists Lukas Michailovich Vlasov led the first river transport organization in Eastern Siberia. In the 1930s the company's workers carried out the building program of fleet repairing bases. The Great Patriotic War frustrated plans for river transport development. Thousands of workers went up