In Pictures: Faces of the Trans-Siberian Railway

At a stop of the Trans-Siberian Railway

BBC Pop Up is currently in Russia, working on stories about the country suggested by readers. The team spent more than 50 hours travelling on the Trans-Siberian Railway last week. They wanted to know who the other passengers were on the train - and what brought them there.

Meet Boris. Boris is a military veteran from Satka, a town that sits near the geographical divide between Europe and Asia. His young grandson is going to school for the first time in a town a few hours away, and Boris wants to be there to see it. The 67-year-old now works as head of occupational safety and health at his company.

Marina is a translator living in Melbourne, Australia. She was born in Russia but moved to Australia in 1958. She and her husband are now searching for her relatives across Russia. The couple also run a Russian Orthodox Church in Melbourne.

Nikolas is an ice skater. He's just finished a competition and is travelling with his team from Krasnoyarsk, the third-largest city in Siberia, to Chelyabinsk, located just east of the Ural Mountains.

Aleksey and Irina are ice skaters on Nikolas' team and are also travelling from Krasnoyarsk.

Uriy is a retired engineer from Miass, just 100 kilometres west of Chelyabinsk. He now spends his time painting. His art is currently hanging in galleries in 12 cities across Russia. He's on the train today because he's visiting relatives in Irkutsk.

Vladimir builds and repairs computers in Novosibirsk, a city in Siberia known for science and technology. He is travelling back home after a work trip to Omsk, a city of more than a million in southwestern Siberia.

Elena is from Kurgan, a former fortress town that originally served as a frontier post. She's travelling today with her son to Tomsk, where he recently began studying at the local university.

Egor is Elena's son. He begins medical school on 1 September and is "very excited".

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