The article is devoted to the study of the contribution of S. Yu. Vitte (1848–1915) in the development of railway transport. The life path of the outstanding personality, his development as a scientist and engineer, characterized engineering activity, principles of railway transportation. All this corresponded to the urgent needs of the society of that time, the restructuring of railway transport in tsarist Russia and Ukraine under Moscow.

S. Yu. Vitte was Minister of Communications, Minister of Finance, Chairman of the Committee and Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire. He was the inspirer of railway construction and a transformer of the economy of railways in the state of that time. However, its activities in the context of the development of railway transport still require detailed consideration. The author focused his attention on the activities of S. Yu. Vitte as a railway worker. After all, S. Yu. Vitte is the author of the first Statute of domestic railways, the author of the theory of railway transportation tariffs, the initiator of the reform of railway construction and operation, a member of Commission of Count E. T. Baranov (it did a lot of useful things in the development of the railway business in tsarist Russia), he was the initiator and actual leader of the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the China-Eastern Railway, the Central Asian and Northern Railways, the construction of which was determined by the desire to penetrate Asian markets. His connections with Ukraine are known. Here he became a railway worker, managed the South-Western Railways, the Odesa Railway, participated in the formation of the railway network in Ukraine.

1. Russian State Historical Archive in St. Petersburg. Fund 560, Inventory 16, Unit 768.
2. Tanasiichuk, B. I. (2005). S. Iu. Vitte i zaliznychne budivnytstvo v yevropeiskii Rosii [S. Yu. Witte and happy life in European Russia]. Problemy ta perspektyvy rozvytku transportnykh system: tekhnika, tekhnolohiia, ekonomika i upravlinnia. Serіa «Ekonomika i upravlinnia»: Tezy dopovidei tretoi naukovoi konferentsii – Problems and prospects for the development of transport systems: engineering, technology, economics and management. Series «Economics and Management»: Abstracts of the third scientific conference. Kyiv, pp. 123–124 [In Ukrainian].
3. Kryvopishyn, O. M. (2012). Pivdenno-Zakhidni zaliznytsi na terenakh Ukrainy v druhii polovyni ХІХ stolittia: dosvid aktsionuvannia ta strukturnykh peretvoren: monohrafiia [Powder-Walking Plants on the Terrans of Ukraine in the Other Half of the Nineteenth Century: Evidence of Action and Structural Changes: Monograph]. Nizhyn [In Ukrainian].
4. Andreev, P. N. (1906). Istoriya postroyki i ekspluatatsii reysovyih putey, vhodyaschih v set Yugo-Zapadnyih zheleznyih dorog. Pervonachalnyie predpolozheniya o postroyke zheleznyih dorog v Novorossii i Yugo-Zapadnom krae [History of the construction and operation of routes included in the South-Western Railways network. Initial assumptions about the construction of railways in Novorossiya and the South-Western Territory]. Inzhener – Engineer, no. 4–5, pp. 105–118; no. 7, pp. 177–178 [In Russian].
5. Salov, V. V. (1909). Istoricheskiy ocherk uchrezhdeniya, pod predsedatelstvom general-ad'yutanta grafa E. T. Baranova, Komissii dlya issledovaniya zheleznodorozhnogo dela v Rossii [Historical sketch of the institution, chaired by Adjutant General Count E.T. Baranov, Commission for the Study of Railway Business in Russia]. Sankt-Peterburg [In Russian].
6. Bryull, N. L. (1908). Obschiy ustav rossiyskih zheleznyih dorog [General charter of Russian railways]. Sankt-Peterburg [In Russian].
7. Abalkin, L. I. (2000). Ekonomicheskie vozzreniya i gosudarstvennaya deyatelnost S. Yu. Vitte [Economic views and government activities of S. Yu. Witte]. Moskva: Ekonomika, Vol. 3, pp. 443–494 [In Russian].
8. Vitte, S. (2012). Printsipyi zheleznodorozhnyih tarifov po perevozke gruzov: 3-e dop. izd. [Principles of railway tariffs for the transportation of goods: 3rd add. ed.]. Kiev [In Russian].
9. Vitte, S. Yu. (1912). Po povodu natsionalizma: Natsionalnaya ekonomiya i Fridrih List. 2-e izd. [Regarding nationalism: National Economy and Friedrich List. 2rd add. ed.]. Sankt-Peterburg [In Russian].
10. Kirpichev, V. L. (1895). I. A. Vyishnegradskiy kak professor i uchenyiy [Vyshnegradsky as a professor and scientist]. Vestnik obschestva tehnologov – Bulletin of the Society of Technologists, no. 6, pp. 95–96 [In Russian].
11. Kreynin, A. V. (2004). Razvitie sistemyi zheleznodorozhnyih gruzovyih tarifov i ih regulirovanie v Rossii (1837-2004) [Development of the system of railway freight tariffs and their regulation in Russia (1837–2004)]. Moskwa [In Russian].
12. Lyakin, A. N. (1999). Deyatelnost S. Yu. Vitte na postu Direktora Departamenta zheleznodorozhnyih del Ministerstva finansov [Activities of S. Yu. Witte as Director of the Department of Railway Affairs of the Ministry of Finance]. S. Yu. Vitte – vyidayuschiysya gosudarstvennyiy deyatel Rossii: Tezyi dokladov i soobscheniy nauchnoy konferentsii, posvyaschennoy 150-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya S. Yu. Vitte [S. Yu. Witte – an outstanding statesman of Russia: Abstracts of reports and messages of a scientific conference dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of S. Yu. Witte]. Sankt-Peterburg, 22-23 iyunya 1999 g. Sankt-Peterburg, pp. 238–239 [In Russian].
13. (1914). Kratkiy otchet o deyatelnosti tarifnyih uchrezhdeniy i Departamenta zheleznodorozhnyih del za 1889-1913 gg [Brief report on the activities of tariff institutions and the Department of Railway Affairs for 1889–1913]. Sankt-Peterburg: Tipografiya redaktsii periodicheskih izdaniy Ministerstva finansov [In Russian].
14. Vitte, M. I. (2002). Predislovie [(Matilda) Preface] / Sergey Yulevich Vitte: vospominaniya, memuaryi [Sergei Yulievich Witte: memories, memoirs]. Moskva, Minsk. Vol. 1, pp. 53–56 [In Russian].
15. (1997). K knigam S. Yu. Vitte «Vospominaniya» [To the books of S. Yu. Witte «Memoirs»]. Profil – Profile, no. 15 (37). 21.04.1997. [In Russian].
16. Zenzinov, N. A. (1999). S. Yu. Vitte – ministr putey soobscheniya [S. Yu. Witte is the Minister of Railways]. S. Yu. Vitte – vyidayuschiysya gosudarstvennyiy deyatel Rossii: Tezyi dokladov i soobscheniy nauchnoy konferentsii, posvyaschennoy 150-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya S. Yu. Vitte [S. Yu. Witte – an outstanding statesman of Russia: Abstracts of reports and messages of a scientific conference dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of S. Yu. Witte]. Sankt-Peterburg, 22-23 iyunya 1999 g. Sankt-Peterburg, pp. 232–234 [In Russian].
17. Kurlova, S. F. (1992). Chelovek, kotoryiy delal horosho vse, za chto bralsya (Sergey Yulevich Vitte i ego programma razvitiya Rossii) [A man who did well everything he undertook (Sergei Yulievich Witte and his program for the development of Russia)]. EKO: Ekonomika i organizatsiya promyishlennogo proizvodstva – ECO: Economics and organization of industrial production. Novosibirsk, no. 9, pp. 120–127 [In Russian].