The first time I went to Russia by taking the
train from Warsaw to Moscow,
and then flying home from Sankt-Peterburg.
I flew into Sankt-Peterburg on the second trip,
and then left by train to Tallinn, Estonia.
After a few days there,
it was a ferry to Helsinki and a flight home.
After that, I always flew between Chicago and Helsinki,
and went in and out of Russia by train.
Usually by ferry between Helsinki and Tallinn,
and train between Tallinn and Sankt-Peterburg.
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It takes a while to swap out
all the old decorations...
CCCP is SSSR in Cyrillic:
Союз
Советских
Социалистических
Республик =
Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik =
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
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US government maps of north-western Russia
and surroundings
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At the Minsk station
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At the Minsk station
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By Train from Warsaw
You board a train at Warszawa Centralna station
in the late afternoon.
By midnight you have reached the Belarussian border.
The train is rolled into a large building.
Large hydraulic lifts raise each car, so the western
bogies (the two-axle wheel sets) can be rolled out
and the Russian ones rolled in.
When rails were being laid around the world in the 1800s,
the Russian Empire chose a larger gauge than most of the
world.
That is, the rails are further apart on a Russian railroad.
Besides the potential for a smoother and more stable ride
(well, at least in theory, if the rails are laid well),
the incompatability makes land invasion that much harder.
The alternative is wading through hundreds and hundreds
of kilometers of swampy birch forest.
Only the truly insane — Napoleon, Germany (twice) —
attempt to march on Moscow.
Rail
Gauges
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4' 8.5"
143.51 cm
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Western Europe, the Americas
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6' 6.74"
200 cm
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Imperial Russia
(former Soviet Union plus Finland)
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The border guards come through the train,
then the cars are uncoupled and lifted so the wheel sets
can be swapped out.
Time for bed.
You are rolling through Belarussia the next morning,
with a stop in Minsk along the way.
In a Russian sleeper car rolling through Mother Russia
The trains have nice accommodation —
4-bunk sleeper compartments,
although only some of the bunks may be occupied.
There was only one other person in my compartment,
which was a good thing.
He was a "shuttle trader", taking Russian goods to Warsaw
to sell in the street markets, and bringing back loads of
western goods for sale in Moscow.
The upper bunks and storage areas were completely filled
with all sorts of merchandise.
Bring food, drink, and something to read!
You reach Moscow in the evening, over 24 hours after
leaving Warsaw.
By Train from Helsinki
There are two trains a day from Helsinki to Sankt-Peterburg.
However, the one leaving later in the day arrives at
Sankt-Peterburg's
Finlandskaya Stantsiya
late in the evening — very close to the time that the
Metro shuts down.
So, it is a far better idea to take the early morning
train out of Helsinki.
You have to be at the station awfully early,
but you get into Sankt-Peterburg around mid-day.
One of the Russian passenger cars
By Train from the Baltics
There is train service between Sankt-Peterburg and both
Tallinn, Estonia and Riga, Latvia.
The problem with the Riga train is that it crosses a
corner of Estonia,
see the maps above.
One border crossing in the middle of the night is more
than enough, two are at least twice as bad.
The Tallinn—Sankt-Peterburg train leaves
in the evening and crosses the border in the
middle of the night,
getting in at the other end very early in the morning
(arriving in Tallinn) or mid-morning (arriving in
Sankt-Peterburg).
