When Vyshnegradskii became minister of finance , Andreevskii was invited to take over his functions on the Southwestern Railroad, that is, to act as chairman of the board since Bloch did not concern himself with the company's operations.! Consequently, I was again nominated as manager of the railroad, which year after year had been losing money or, at best, showing a slight profit. This time [September 1886], as a result of the prestige I had acquired in railroading, the Ministry of Ways and Communications was no longer in a position to reject me. Thus, I became the first, and last, person to be made manager of a major railroad without being an engineer of ways and communications.