Part of the drive towards industrialization promoted by Sergei Witte, Minister of Finances under Alexander III and Nicholas II, the trans-Siberian railway was the most powerful statement of Russia's intention to become a major industrial power, and was a turning point in the colonization of her eastern lands. Marks relates the debates about the railway's construction, analyzes the government's motives for committing its resources to so vast a project, and examines the railway's economic consequences for the colonization and economic development of Siberia.
