How a bright future was stolen from the Russian people
The red emperor. Stalin built a society of the "Golden Age", where man was a creator, creator. Hence his many creative projects aimed at the development and prosperity of the Russian state and people.
Transpolar highway
The Stalinist government realized that the Siberian Railway alone was not enough for the cohesion of the Soviet Union. And after the Great Patriotic War, it became obvious that the northern strategic communication - the Northern Sea Route, is vulnerable to potential opponents. Its main ports - Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, are located close to the north-western border, and in the event of a new major war with the West they can be blocked. Also, such a path led to the settlement and economic development of the Russian North.
It is worth noting that the idea of building the Great Northern Railway Track was in the Russian Empire. Projects were proposed for the construction of a road from the Barents Sea to the great rivers of Siberia with a further extension to the Tatar Strait, that is, to the Pacific Ocean. But then these projects were not implemented due to the complexity of the route, the enormous material costs, underdevelopment and low population of territories north of the Trans-Siberian Railway. In 1928, the idea of connecting the Atlantic, Northern and Pacific Oceans by rail returned. In 1931, this plan was postponed, focusing on the development of the eastern part of the Northern Sea Route. The Great Patriotic War showed that the highway in the North is necessary. Initially, it was decided to build a new port in the Gulf of Ob in the area of Cape Kamenny and connect it with a 700-kilometer railway line to the existing Kotlas-Vorkuta branch. The construction was entrusted to the Central Railway Administration of the USSR NKVD-MVD. Prisoners and civilian workers built the road.
Pretty soon it became clear that the Gulf of Ob was not suitable for the construction of the port. At the beginning of 1949, a meeting was held of I.V. Stalin, L.P. Beria and N.A. Frenkel (head of the Main Department of Housing and Public Health). It was decided to stop construction on the Yamal Peninsula, not to lead the road to Cape Kamenny and to begin the construction of a 1290-kilometer path to the lower reaches of the Yenisei, along the Chum - Labytnangi - Salekhard - Nadym - Yagelnaya - Pur - Taz - Yanov Stan - Ermakovo - Igarka lines, with the construction of the port in Igarka. It was further planned to extend the line through the Dudinka line to Norilsk.
Construction department No. 502, which was engaged in the construction of a railway from the Chum station of the Pechora railway to Cape Kamenny with a branch to Labytnangi, was liquidated. Two new departments were formed - western No. 501 with a base in Salekhard, which was responsible for the section from Labytnangi to the river. Pur, and the eastern administration No. 503 with a base in Igarka (then moved to Ermakovo), which built a line from Pur to Igarka.
Construction was proceeding at a fairly rapid pace. On the western section, 100-140 km of track was leased per year. In August 1952, a movement was opened between Salekhard and Nadym. By 1953, the embankment was filled up almost to Pur, some of the rails were laid. Things went slower in the eastern sector, there were fewer workers and materials were more difficult to deliver. A telegraph and telephone line was built along the entire road. By the death of Stalin in March 1953, more than 700 km of 1290 km were laid, about 1100 km were dumped. About a year remained before commissioning.
However, in March 1953, all work was stopped, and then completely stopped. The working staff was removed, some of the equipment and materials were also taken out, but most were simply abandoned. As a result, the creative work of tens of thousands of people, the time, effort and materials spent, tens of billions of full-weight rubles - all turned out to be in vain. The most important project for the country and the people, which, obviously, would be continued, buried. Even from a purely economic point of view (without the strategic need to improve the cohesion of a power of military importance), the decision to quit the construction of the Trans-Polar Railway in such a high degree of readiness led to greater losses for the state treasury than if the road were completed. Moreover, it could and should have been extended to the Norilsk industrial region, where rich deposits of copper, iron, nickel and coal have already been developed.
The fact that the construction of the Trans-Polar Railway was a necessary and objective step is evidenced by the fact that already in modern Russia they have returned to this or that extent to this project. This is the so-called Northern latitudinal passage, which should connect the western and eastern parts of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, and then continue east to Igarka and Dudinka.
Sakhalin Tunnel
Stalin's other gigantic infrastructure project is the Sakhalin Tunnel. This project is also regularly recalled in modern Russia and is even planned to be implemented, but in the form of a bridge (in the fall of 2019, Russian Railways included the construction of a railway bridge to Sakhalin in the investment program for 2020–2022).
The tunnel to Sakhalin, like the Northern railway, was of military importance (the rapid transfer of troops to the island in the event of a threat of war in the Far East) and economic. A large infrastructure project was needed for the development of the Far Eastern region. Aviation and ferry services are insufficient for Sakhalin. In stormy weather, the island is inaccessible, in winter the Tatar Strait freezes, icebreakers are required to be escorted.
The idea of a tunnel to Sakhalin arose in the Russian Empire, but was not realized. They returned to her already in Soviet times. In 1950, Stalin personally advocated the project of connecting Sakhalin with the mainland using the railway. Options with a ferry, a tunnel and a bridge were considered. On May 5, 1950, the USSR Council of Ministers decided to build a tunnel and a reserve sea ferry. The Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Railways of the USSR were responsible for the construction of the tunnel. The technical design was prepared in the fall of 1950. Part of the path went along the island of Sakhalin - from Pobedino station to Cape Pogibi (the beginning of the tunnel), only 327 km. The length of the tunnel itself from Cape Pogibi on Sakhalin to Cape Lazarev on the mainland was supposed to be about 10 km (the narrowest section of the strait was chosen). On the mainland, they were planning to draw a branch from Cape Lazarev to Selikhin station on the Komsomolsk-on-Amur-Sovetskaya Gavan section. In total, more than 500 km. The tunnel was supposed to work in late 1955.
About 27 thousand people were involved in the construction - prisoners, parole, civilian workers and military personnel. By the time of Joseph Stalin's death, more than 100 km of the railway on the mainland were built, preparatory work was still underway in Sakhalin (lack of equipment, materials, the problem with their delivery), work was underway to create a ferry crossing. After Stalin's death, the project was turned off. Obviously, this was another stupidity or sabotage. So, one of the builders of the tunnel, engineer Yu. A. Koshelev noted that there was everything to continue the work - well-trained specialists and workers, machinery, equipment and materials. Builders "awaited an order to resume construction. We wrote about this in Moscow, asked and begged. I think the cessation of the construction of the tunnel is some kind of wild, ridiculous mistake. After all, billions of rubles of folk money, years of desperate labor were invested in the tunnel. And most importantly, the country really needs a tunnel ... ”It was only in the 70s that a ferry crossing was launched.
Thus, the “heirs” of Stalin inflicted damage on the defense capability of the USSR-Russia, and for many decades delayed the infrastructure and economic development of Sakhalin and the region as a whole.
The fourth navigable canal of Stalin
Since 1931, at the direction of Stalin, canals were built in Russia successively. The first was the White Sea-Baltic Canal (1931-1933), which connected the White Sea with Lake Onega and had access to the Baltic Sea and the Volga-Baltic Waterway. The second channel is the Volga-Moscow (1932-1938), which connected the Moscow River with the Volga. The third channel was the Volga-Don Canal (1948-1953), connecting the Volga and Don rivers at the point of their maximum convergence on the Volgodonsk Isthmus and at the same time providing the Caspian with the Sea of Azov.
Stalin's plans also included a fourth canal - the Main Turkmen Canal, from the Amu Darya River to Krasnovodsk. It was needed for the irrigation and land reclamation of Turkmenistan and was part of Stalin's larger-scale program to transform nature. Also for shipping from the Volga to the Amu Darya. Its length was to be over 1200 km. The width of the canal was more than 100 m, the depth was 6–7 m. At the beginning of the canal, a huge dam was built in Takhiatash, which was combined with a hydroelectric power station. 25% of the Amu Darya drain was about to be diverted to a new canal. The Aral Sea was supposed to lower the level, and the land freed during the retreat of the sea was supposed to be used in agriculture. Around the canal, it was planned to erect thousands of kilometers of trunk and distribution channels, reservoirs, and three hydroelectric power stations of 100 thousand kilowatts each.
Preparatory work began in 1950. 10-12 thousand people were involved in the construction. The completion of the titanic construction was planned for 1957. After Stalin's death, the project was closed. Formally, due to the high cost. Instead of the Turkmen canal in 1957, they began to build the Karakum canal. Construction was often interrupted and was only completed in 1988.
Interestingly, this project of Stalin had roots in pre-revolutionary Russia. In fact, the Soviet leader materialized bold and advanced designs for his time, which were forgotten for a long time. So, in the 1870s, officers of the Russian General Staff leveled new possessions of the Russian Empire in Central Asia. In 1879–1883 an expedition headed by Colonel Glukhovsky worked in Turkestan. It took almost ten years to study the old branches of the former Amu Darya delta, its dry channel (Uzboy) in the direction of the Caspian and the Sarakamysh depression. Based on the results of geodetic surveys, the project was compiled: "Passing the waters of the Amu Darya river along its old channel into the Caspian Sea and the formation of a continuous water Amu Darya-Caspian route from the borders of Afghanistan along the Amu Darya, Caspian, Volga and Mariinsky systems to St. Petersburg and the Baltic Sea." However, the project was hacked, and Glukhovsky was called "crazy."
Stalin's plan for transforming nature
Stalin built a society of the "Golden Age", where man was a creator, creator. Hence his plan for the "Great Transformation of Nature" - a comprehensive program of scientific regulation of nature in the Soviet Union. The program was developed by prominent Russian scientists. The plan was adopted at the initiative of the Soviet leader and was put into effect by a resolution of the Council of Ministers of October 20, 1948. It was designed for a long period - until 1965. It was based on the creation of powerful forest belts in the steppe and forest-steppe zones of the country with a length of thousands of kilometers; introduction of grass field crop rotation; construction of ponds, reservoirs and irrigation canals.
The effect was amazing: the yield of grain, vegetables, herbs increased, soil erosion processes slowed down, they recovered, forest belts protected fields and crops, terrible sand and dust storms stopped. Provided food security of the state. Forests were restored. Thousands of new reservoirs were created, a large system of waterways. The national economy received cheap electricity, water was used to irrigate fields and gardens.
Unfortunately, during Khrushchev many programs were destroyed or distorted. Which led to big problems in agriculture, lower yields and a violation of food security in Russia. After the collapse of the USSR, when Russia became part of the world capitalist system, and standards of a consumer society — the society of the “golden calf”, self-destruction and destruction of man and nature, were introduced into our lives, the situation became much worse. We are witnessing a global biosphere crisis. Forests are everywhere exterminated, reservoirs are polluted, like everything around. As a result, the rivers become shallow, in the spring “unexpected” floods, in the summer terrible fires. The whole country was turned into a garbage dump. All these are consequences of the rejection of the Stalinist society of creation and service, where man is the creator. Now our society is part of a global system of consumption and self-destruction. Man has been turned into a consumer slave, a “virus” that destroys its own cradle - Earth. Hence the numerous destructive trends leading to a global environmental disaster.
New imperial culture
Among the numerous projects of the red emperor is imperial culture. “All the richness of culture must be claimed by the new reality. Culture must become the life-giving soil of a new life! ” So Stalin claimed. Culture in the Stalinist empire became the technology of embodiment of the ideal - the image of a possible, probable and desired future. She convinced people, especially young generations, in the reality of the new world, the civilization of the future. Where a person fully reveals his creative, intellectual and physical potential, he masters the depths of the oceans and space. The dream came true "here and now." In the Stalinist USSR, people saw how a country is transforming for the better, at a very fast pace, just wonderful.
Soviet (Stalinist) culture was based on the best traditions of Russian culture. On Lomonosov, Pushkin, Lermontov, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. In Russian epics, fairy tales, Alexander Nevsky and Dmitry Donskoy, on Alexander Suvorov and Mikhail Kutuzov, Fedor Ushakov and Pavel Nakhimov. On the matrix codes of Russian civilization. Where good always triumphs over evil, where the general is higher than the particular, solidarity is higher than individuality, mutual assistance is selfishness. Russian culture carried light and justice.
Therefore, under Stalin, in all the more or less significant settlements, houses and palaces of culture were opened. In them, children received the basics of knowledge of art and culture, were massively involved in creativity, creation. They sang, played musical instruments, performed in folk theaters, studied in studios and laboratories, made amateur films, etc.
Hence the Stalinist architecture. The Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy (VDNH), the metro, the Stalinist skyscrapers - monuments of imperial culture. Under Stalin, beautiful and comfortable houses were built ("Stalin"). The appearance of the red empire was beautiful and attractive. Under Khrushchev introduced grayness and wretchedness ("Khrushchev's myth of housing construction").
Thus, Stalin led the power and the people in "Happy Tomorrow", "to the stars." Russia was a world leader in creating a just order and society, and gave mankind a real alternative to the Western project of enslaving a person. She showed how to live. Worthy of honest work, creation. The red emperor took over the “finished country” and left behind an empire superpower. However, after Stalin's death, the door to “Tomorrow” was closed for the Russians. With Khrushchev, "perestroika-de-Stalinization" began, which made Russia and our people a part of the global slave system, where our place is a colony and a resource for the "chosen".
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