Development of Road Infrastructure in Transcaucasia in the Second Half of the 19th - Early 20th Century

The author examines the historical experience of the development of the road infrastructure of Transcaucasia in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Based on the analysis of the corpus of documents from the funds of the Russian State Historical Archive and the State Archive of the Russian Federation, they have determined the interrelations of the processes of creation and expansion of networks of dirt and highway roads, as well as steel trunks across Transcaucasia. The author indicates the primacy of the military purpose of the region’s roads over economic functions. This is reflected in the trend towards increasing allocations for the construction and repair of the Transcaucasian railways in the period under review. Within the text, an emphasis is placed on the fact that the construction of dirt and highway roads contributed to the construction of steel trunks across Transcaucasia. In turn, this pattern determined the stages of the construction of the Transcaucasian railways. Particular attention is paid to the creation of conditions for the intensification of trade relations with Persia due to the connection of the region’s steel trunks with the railway network of the Russian Empire and the construction of a line to the Russian - Iranian border. The author reveals the content of unrealized projects such as the construction of the Perevalnaya railway across the Caucasian Range, the development of the Tiflis transport hub, and the electrification of some sections of the railway. The examination of the indicators of trade between Russia and Persia across the land border in the Caucasus allows the author to conclude that the measures taken to develop the region’s road infrastructure had a positive impact on Russian - Persian economic relations.