 54,000 workers (as of 1913), brought from Central Russia and Siberia (the Tsarist government specifically forbade the use of foreign workforce).In 1905, the city duma of Blagoveshchensk, urged by local merchants and industrialists, turned to the Council of Ministers with a request to build the Amur section of the Transsib.The Council of Ministers approved the decision to construct the Amur Railway with the support of Pyotr Stolypin.