Wow! The mind boggles
I speak quite a few languages myself: English, Python, Perl, PHP, C, C++, Java (and JavaScript), PL/1, Basic, FORTRAN, Forth. Pythonthhhhssss isthhhhssss thethhhhssss toughestthhhhssss ofthhhhssss coursethhhhssss. Hahahahahahaha
No, really, I'm so impressed by people who speak many languages. Their brains seem more limber. I guess it promotes the ability to see from several differing angles simultaneously.
BTW, I invite you to make corrections to this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilansky_(town)
Your NewsLab citations would be very welcome I'm sure.
Have a great 2015 and thanks for your contribution. It is fascinating.

I don't have a dog. And furthermore, my dog doesn't bite. And furthermore, you provoked him.

The declension of Russian nouns and adjectives was always my bte noire. It is more complex than Spanish or French, both of which I speak.
For example, when you say "I go to Irkutsk," the name of the city doesn't change, but when you say "I am in Irkutsk" you have to add the suffix "e" to it, and when you say "I came from" you need the suffix "a." In other words, you have to worry about motion, direction and time.
An example heard often in this movie: The word
"zdarovye"
(health) changes when it's the object of motion and direction, as in the traditional toast "to your health" it then becomes
"zdarovya."
As to your musings, (1) I think that Chinese is harder to learn than Russian because it relies on an alphabet that has no visual resemblance to the Roman alphabet, used partly in the Cyrillic (Russian) alphabet. Also, Chinese relies on vocal intonation, which adds a new element to the meaning of words and sentences.
(2) According to the Russian website NewsLab, the village was founded in 1894 as "Ilan" and served as a railroad station and depot (hence
"Ilanskaya stantsya")
until August 1939, when it was granted town status and continued to develop as a major railway center. A big ceremony was held this past Aug. 3, the website says, to mark the town's 75th anniversary. It was attended by the interim governor of the Ilan region
("Ilanskyi rayon"),
Viktor Tolokonskyi. Nice little story, with pictures.
http://newslab.ru/news/603068

What a fascinating subject. If I'm understanding this correctly, it seems that Russian is like French regarding gender words (that have nothing to do with sex), but with a wrinkle. It seems that the name "Ilansky/Ilanskaya" is being treated as an adjective-like "modifier" of village or station or city in that it's the noun (village or station or city) that determines the gender (male nouns v. female nouns). We don't think of "New York" as a modifier, modifying "City". We think of "New York City" as an entire title, but from what you've written I infer that it's not that way in Russian (as evidenced by the "modifier's" gender change).
So Russian is like French, but with an extra layer of gender In French the village of Paris and the city of Paris are both "Paris", but in Russian there would be different forms of "Paris" (that is, if "Paris" was a Russian name) and written is Klingon-like Cyrillic characters. Do I have this right?
I wonder, 1, Whether Russian is harder than Chinese, and 2, What "Ilansky/Ilanskaya" means.

I don't have a dog. And furthermore, my dog doesn't bite. And furthermore, you provoked him.

Following Russian grammar, the name Ilansky changes according to the gender of the word that accompanies it. Thus,
"deryevna Ilanskaya"
(village of Ilansky) or
"stantsya Ilanskaya"
(Ilansky station) or
"gostinitsa Ilanskaya"
(hotel Ilansky) carry the ending
"aya,"
which is a feminine suffix.
If the accompanying word is masculine, such as
"gorod Ilanskyi"
(city of Ilansky), the suffix is
"yi,"
a masculine ending.
I had never heard of this movie until yesterday, 7 years after it was released, when I bought the DVD at a supermarket sale. The title attracted me because I've been to Russia a couple of times and have always thought about taking the
Trans-Sibirskaya Zheleznaya Daroga.
(That's a feminine name, as you can gather from the word endings.)

Thank You! Nearly 5 years later you solve the puzzle. A small city with a huge train yard. Apparently the actual name is "Ilansky" but was "Ilanskaya" when it was just a village. Obviously, the locals still call it "Ilanskaya" and I see that the train station still has "Ilanskaya". Good of you.

I don't have a dog. And furthermore, my dog doesn't bite. And furthermore, you provoked him.

I think the mistake in geography was made by the translator of the subtitles. The actors pronounce the name "Ilanskaya," which is the correct name of the station, but the subtitles render the name as "Ulyanovsk."