Kyakhta in 1840-1930s: magnificence and poverty of window to China

The article dwells upon long time history of Kyakhta - a trading town on the Russian-Chinese/Mongolian border. Kyakhta started to surrender its positions after opening the tea delivery seaway, nevertheless being the single point of the Russian trade with China in the first half of the 19th century. Transsiberian railway construction destroyed the town as the acknowledged centre of tea trade. Hopes for Kyakhta renaissance were connected with Kyakhta railway branch, which was supposed to be stretched through Mongolia to Urga, thus having joined it to the Transsiberian railway. However, even the construction of this branch during the Soviet period did not revert Kyakhta's former glorious days.