Banned by censors in May and first published on November 24, 1865, in the October issue of Sovremennik, it is regarded as one of the most powerful anti-capitalist statements of 19th-century Russian literature.
The loss of life among the workers was heavy, the exact number of victims remained unknown, although Nekrasov in his poem mentions five thousand.
Encouraged by the new law, abolishing the preliminary censorship procedures but toughening penalties for the actual publications, he published The Railway in Sovremennik's No.10, 1865, issue.
After the Ministry of Press and Publishing Council's special meeting in the end of November, the Minister of Interior Pyotr Valuyev on December 4 gave Sovremennik his second notification bringing the magazine to the brink of closure.
Suddenly the boy is struck by the horrible vision: thousands of ghosts of emaciated, mangled men rise up by the sides of the rails, each trying to tell his story, asking the people of the future if they remember at all those on whose bones they are now travelling.