In the online archives of old American newspapers, one can sometimes come across interesting stories about Kharkiv—a place far removed from their own—that would be difficult to find in our newspapers. However, it’s not certain that these stories were true.

The Washington Herald, August 11, 1907:

TRAIN THIEF GETS $600,000.

Russian Woman Loses Big Fortune in an Instant.

St. Petersburg, Aug. 10.-The Odessa railway police are searching for the author of a robbery of $600,000 which has taken place on the Kharkov-Odessa line near Lubotin.
Mme. Dobrinow, a rich landowner, left Kharkov by the evening train, intending to go abroad. She was the only occupant of the compartment, and she placed a bag containing $600,000 worth of scrip, money, and jewels under her pillow before going to sleep. It was very hot in the train, and she consequently left the window open. Soon afterward she saw a man covered with soot entering through the window of her compartment.

The man stretched out his arm toward the bag, which she, in her fright, held in her hand, saying, “Do not resist, or else it will be worse for you.” She let it go, and the robber seized the bag and jumped out of the window.

$600,000 in 1907 is equivalent to $20 million in 2026. Apparently, the robber had been moving across the roof, as he was covered in soot from a locomotive’s chimney. One might assume that he was acting on a tip-off… Incidentally, a little earlier that same summer, a famous robbery took place in Tbilisi when the Bolsheviks attacked a treasury cash transport convoy, stealing $5 million in today’s money. That was a very well-known story, unlike the one from Lyubotin, Kharkiv region. Newspaper reporters in all countries at that time were very fond of making a mountain out of a molehill or simply making up news out of thin air. Therefore, they should be treated with a great deal of healthy skepticism—they could easily have added more than one zero to the sum of 600,000.

What did pre-revolutionary railcars look like? The photo below shows “first-class” railcars at the historic railway equipment display at Kyiv Station. The railcar pictured below was manufactured in Tver in 1912 and was used to transport railway officials throughout the Ukrainian provinces.

In 1918, a preliminary agreement on the unification of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic was signed in this train car. Interestingly, the two-person luxury compartments featured an “upper” berth, unlike modern luxury sleeper cars in Ukraine, where both berths are lower.

Another carriage, however, carried Stolypin, Former Prime Minister of the Russian Empire, and was manufactured in Hungary in 1910.

During WWI, the carriage drove General A. Brusilov around the Southwestern Front. Later, the carriage drove members of the Provisional Government and Soviet leaders.

In the 1920s, it was reinforced with an armored belt.

These cars even had a bathroom.