Sourcing labor was an acute problem. [G 06 / Cossacks] were needed to guard the frontier, Chinese settlers in the upper Ussuri valley refused to abandon their highly profitable cultivation of [G 09 / ginseng], and the local Goldi and Gilyak tribes were too primitive to understand the basics of railway construction.
Some headway was made with the conscription of 2,600 exiles from the region and 1,500 hard-labor prisoners from Sakhalin. But the murder rate rose dramatically in Vladivostok and the most dangerous prisoners were returned to Sakhalin after great protest by the city's residents.
Next, several thousand soldiers were drafted for the purpose. However, they proved uncooperative. Feeling insulted by having to work beside convicts, they loitered about and were even disruptive.
Finally, a deal was struck with Chinese labor contractors to import 15,000 laborers from North China every spring for the regular working season. With the coming of winter, they were shipped back in December. The arrangement seemed ideal, but the Chinese proved to be unsatisfactory workers. They had to be taught how to use wheelbarrows and shovels, their health suffered from temperature changes, and they refused to work in the rain.
These recurring difficulties led to the idea of contracting out work to local companies. Siberian merchants, retired officers and superannuated civil servants most commonly secured bids for rail work. However, these amateurs lacked experience and capital, and were prone to cheating the government. Eventually, what skilled labor could be found in Russia was imported and an eclectic mix of the above groups had to suffice.
