The former building of the Omsk Railway Administration, under whose roof today the Omsk State University of Railway Engineering is comfortably located, is situated on Marx Avenue. This building is an architectural monument from the beginning of the last century.
The facade of the building was designed by Fyodor Lidval, a famous architect from Saint Petersburg. The "highlight" of this project is four tall columns supporting the pediment.
At their tops are four sculptures symbolizing the Path, Traction, Movement, and Management. A whole pantheon of railway goddesses. The sketches of the statues were drawn by the architect from Omsk, Gorbachev, and their creator was the famous Czech sculptor František Winkler, who ended up in Omsk as a prisoner of war of the Austro-Hungarian army. The statues are made in the form of majestic semi-nude antique goddesses holding attributes in their hands that symbolize the era of technical progress. All four statues are executed in the Baroque style. The first statue, "Path," appears to lean on a tunnel, with a pickaxe on her shoulder. The second statue, "Traction," touches a locomotive with her hand.
The third statue, "Movement," resembles a railway switch operator; she leans on a switch and holds a lantern in her hand. And the last (fourth) sculpture, "Management," holds a caduceus entwined with snakes, the attribute of Hermes, the god and patron of merchants.
All statues were created by him in the spirit of neo-Baroque, and their hairstyles are in the Art Nouveau style. Each figure has its own individual features: "Path" is the most powerful, "Traction" the most charming, "Movement" the most dramatic, and "Management" the most majestic. The sculptures were made considering lighting and their visual perception from below. Therefore, all figures are slightly elongated upwards, and the pupils of their eyes are set deep under strongly protruding upper eyelids. Thanks to this, both the sculptures and their eyes are clearly visible from a great distance. The figure "Movement" has a special feature – it protrudes forward more than the others, so it is the first to be illuminated by the sun's rays.
Historians claim that the third sculpture, symbolizing movement, has no analogues in the world; in their opinion, she is pregnant.
In the vestibule, Winkler installed a relief composition called "Life," and the Council Hall was decorated in the "luxurious" style of the Spanish Hall (Prague Castle).
Winkler was not the only "foreign soldier" who built the administration building. During World War I, there was a concentration camp in Omsk for captured Austrians, Germans, Czechs, Hungarians, and Romanians. All prisoners were sent to the construction site. Incidentally, among the numerous workers was Broz Tito—the future president of Yugoslavia. The majestic building of the Omsk Railway Administration was built by the hands of prisoners from this concentration camp.
In 1918–1919, the building housed the Ministry of Railways, River Transport, and Troop Movement, as well as Kolchak's Headquarters. The writer Auslander, who published a brochure about Kolchak in Omsk in 1919, saw him for the first time in this building. He then wrote: "And when I saw him, suddenly a feeling of calm determination overcame me. I realized that all the salvation of Russia and each of us is connected with this man." Representatives of the Allied Powers such as Elliot, Ward, Zhannen, and others visited here. Distinguished military leaders also came, including the legendary General Kappel, Major General Voytsekhovsky, Lieutenant General Sakharov, Eastern Front Commander Dieterichs, the Ataman of the Orenburg Cossacks, Lieutenant General Dutov, and others.
The building is captured in photographs taken by French photographers at the end of winter and spring of 1919.
For many decades, the Administration was the largest institution in Omsk – its "domain" included the entire West Siberian section of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Later, the "power" was transferred to Novosibirsk, and in 1961 the building was handed over to the Institute of Railway Transport Engineers, renamed today as the State University of Railway Engineering. Only the preserved inscription on the pediment reminds of the past: "Administration of the Omsk Railway."
Sources:
https://omsk.media/dostoprimechatelnosti/vokzaly/178-byvshee-zdanie-upravleniya-omskoy-zheleznoy-dorogi.html
https://www.3ezhika.ru/eto-intnresno/dostoprimechatelnosti-omska-byvshee-zdanie-upravleniya-omskoj-zheleznoj-dorogi/
https://omskzdes.ru/society/76538.html
