The Borki train disaster Catastrophe occurred Coming_to_be on October 29 , 1888 ( N.S .

) , near Borki station in the former Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire ( present-day Kharkiv Oblast of Ukraine ) , 295 kilometers south of Kursk , when the imperial train carrying Sending Tsar Alexander III of Russia and his family from Crimea to Saint Petersburg derailed Motion at high speed .