An important Eurasian root: Review of the collection of documents “Ulan-Batorskaya zheleznaya doroga. Istoriya i sovremennost’” [The Ulaanbaatar Railway. History and modernity] (Moscow: Kuchkovo Pole: Museon, 2024. 512 p.)

The collection of documents: “The Ulaanbaatar Railway. History and modernity” was developed by the staff of the Russian State Archives of Economy and dedicated to the 75-year history of the Ulaanbaatar Railway Joint-Stock Company. The collection includes the documents from the central, regional and departmental archives of Russia and Mongolia. The interdepartmental and departmental regulations, the documents of the JointStock Company Board and the official correspondence reflect the processes of the railway design, construction, and operation in Mongolia, as well as the development of economic cooperation between our countries. The Ulaanbaatar Railway is the main carrier of goods and passengers in the country. Crossing the country from north to south, the Trans-Mongolian traffic artery is an important part of the regional transport logistics. Thanks to its advantageous geographical position, it serves as a natural transit bridge between Europe and Asia. The Ulaanbaatar Railway modernization will make this highway an important link in the international transport corridor; it will also help expand the mutually beneficial economic ties with the major trading partners of Mongolia – Russia and China.

The materials of the collection are particularly important today in the context of strengthening economic ties between Russia and the countries of East Asia.

1. Kamandzhaev, N.A. (2023), “The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the geological study of Mongolia. Report of the expert group of the CMEA (COMECON) member countries, dated September 9, 1963”, History and Archives, no. 4, pp. 36–50.

2. Kamandzhaev, N.A. (2024), “MPR’s food supply improvement in the CMEA focus of attention. A project for the development of the virgin lands in the northern part of the Gobi zone”, History and Archives, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 45–59.

3. Kuras, L.V. (2011), “Mongolia in 1940-1945”, in Mongoliya vo Vtoroi mirovoi voine [Mongolia in World War II], Ottisk, Irkutsk, Russia, pp. 3–12.

4. Mukhin, M.Yu. (2024), “The Ulaanbaatar Railway – a traffic artery through countries and epochs”, in Yurasov, A.V., Ulan-Batorskaya zheleznaya doroga: Istoriya i sovremennost’ [The Ulaanbaatar Railway. History and modernity], Kuchkovo pole, Muzeon, Moscow, Russia, pp. 3–35.