TURKSIB set itself the modest goal of educating the Soviet public about the need for a railroad connecting Siberia and Turkestan. Although the film was released before construction of the railroad was completed, which would not be until 1931, the dynamic finale of the locomotive reaching the nomads reenacts a bit of the future to come. This idealistic ending was an omen of the fiction-making that would become a staple of Soviet documentary in the 1930's.