In the painting, dated 1934, the Soviet artist Serafima Ryangina depicted the industrialization process. The slow pace of the dray cart, drawn by oxen, is contrasted with the quick movement of the freight train along the mountain ridges of the Surami Pass. The warm tones of the lower right angle give way to cold green and blue shades of the mountains: that was how the artist conveyed the depth of field.

Ryangina was born in Saint Petersburg in 1891. From childhood, she liked to paint city houses: she depicted each of their rooms with its own interior and details. During her studies in the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg in 1912-1923, her interest was supported by famous Russian artists from the Peredviznhiki movement, Petr Myasoyedov and Ivan Tvorozhnikov, as well as Dmitry Kardovsky.

Before becoming interested in industrialization, Ryangina was interested in all the various manifestations of the changing life in the early URSS. She painted scenes from everyday life, such as Workman’s Lunch. In her paintings, she showed the characteristic signs of those times: for example, in the painting Campaign Against Illiteracy, one can see peasants learning to read and write, and in the Red Army Studio, Soviet soldiers are preparing are staging a play. She was also interested in Soviet Asia: in 1926, she finished the painting The Interior of a Chaikhana.