The Red Emperor. Stalin was building a society of the "golden age" where man was a creator, a creator. Hence his numerous 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 connectivity 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 adversaries. Its main ports, Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, are located close to the northwestern border, and in the event of a new big war with the West, they can be blocked. Also, this path led to the settlement and economic development of the Russian North.
It should be noted that the idea of building the Great Northern Railway was still 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 continuation 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 density of the territories north of the Transsib. In 1928, the idea of connecting the Atlantic, North and Pacific oceans by rail returned to the idea. 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 a 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 railroad to the existing Kotlas-Vorkuta branch. The construction was entrusted to the GULZhDS (main department of the camp railway construction) of the NKVD-Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR. Prisoners and freelance workers built the road.
It soon became clear that the Gulf of Ob was not suitable for the construction of a port. At the beginning of 1949, a meeting was held between I. V. Stalin, L. P. Beria and N. A. Frenkel (head of the GULZhDS). It was decided to stop construction on the Yamal Peninsula, not to lead the road to Cape Kamenny and to begin 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 line, with the construction of a port in Igarka. Further, it was planned to extend the line of Dudinka 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 number 501 with a base in Salekhard, which was responsible for the section from Labytnanga to the river. Pur, and Eastern Directorate No. 503 with a base in Igarka (then moved to Ermakovo), which built a line from Pur to Igarka.
Construction proceeded at a fairly rapid pace. On the western section, 100-140 km of track were handed over a year. In August 1952 traffic was opened between Salekhard and Nadym. By 1953, the filling of the embankment was carried out almost to Pura, part of the rails was laid. In the eastern section, business was slower, there were fewer hands and materials were more difficult to deliver. A telegraph and telephone line was built along the entire road. By the time of Stalin's death in March 1953, more than 700 km of the 1290 km were laid, about 1100 km were laid. About a year remained before commissioning.
However, already in March 1953, all work was stopped, and then completely stopped. The workers were taken out, some of the equipment and materials were also taken out, but most of them were simply thrown away. As a result, the creative work of tens of thousands of people, the time spent, efforts and materials, tens of billions of full-weight rubles - everything turned out to be in vain. The most important project for the country and the people, which, obviously, would have continued, was buried. Even from a purely economic point of view (without the strategic need to improve the connectivity of the state, of military significance), the decision to abandon the construction of the Transpolar Mainline at such a high degree of readiness led to greater losses for the state treasury than if the road had been completed. In addition, it could and should have been extended to the Norilsk industrial region, where rich deposits of copper, iron, nickel and coal were already being developed.
The fact that the construction of the Transpolar Railway was a necessary and objective step is evidenced by the fact that already in modern Russia this project has returned to one degree or another. 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 eastward to Igarka and Dudinka.
Sakhalin tunnel
Stalin's other giant infrastructure project is the Sakhalin Tunnel. This project is also regularly remembered in modern Russia and is even planned to be implemented, but already 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 Railroad, 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 East region. Aviation and ferry services are insufficient for Sakhalin. In stormy weather, the island is inaccessible, in winter the Tatar Strait freezes, icebreaker escort is required.
The idea of a tunnel to Sakhalin originated in the Russian Empire, but was not implemented. They returned to it already in Soviet times. In 1950, Stalin personally advocated a project to connect Sakhalin with the mainland by means of a railway. Options were considered with a ferry crossing, a tunnel and a bridge. On May 5, 1950, the Council of Ministers of the USSR made a decision to build a tunnel and a reserve sea ferry. The Ministry of Internal Affairs 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 route went along Sakhalin Island - 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 going to build a branch from Cape Lazarev to Selikhin station on the Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan section. More than 500 km in total. The tunnel was supposed to start working at the end of 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 had been built on the mainland, preparatory work was still underway on Sakhalin (lack of equipment, materials, problems with their delivery), work was underway to create a ferry crossing. After Stalin's death, the project was canceled. Obviously, this was another stupidity or sabotage. So, one of the builders of the tunnel, engineer Yu. A. Koshelev, noted that everything was available to continue the work - well-trained specialists and workers, machinery, equipment and materials. The builders “were waiting for the order to resume construction. We wrote about this to Moscow, asked and begged. I consider the termination of the construction of the tunnel to be some wild, ridiculous mistake. Indeed, billions of rubles of people's money, years of desperate work were invested in the tunnel. And the most important thing is that the country really needs a tunnel …”Only in the 70s was a ferry crossing launched.
Thus, the "heirs" of Stalin inflicted damage on the defense capability of the USSR-Russia, delayed the infrastructural and economic development of Sakhalin and the region as a whole for many decades.
Stalin's fourth navigable canal
Since 1931, at the direction of Stalin, canals were consistently built in Russia. 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), which connects the Volga and Don rivers at the point of their closest approach on the Volgodonsk isthmus and at the same time provides a connection between the Caspian Sea and 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 watering and reclamation of Turkmenistan and was part of Stalin's larger program to transform nature. Also for shipping from the Volga to the Amu Darya. Its length was supposed 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 erected in Takhiatash, which was combined with a hydroelectric power station. 25% of the Amu Darya's runoff was going to be diverted into a new canal. The Aral Sea was supposed to lower the level, and the lands freed up during the retreat of the sea were supposed to be used in agriculture. Around the canal, it was planned to build thousands of kilometers of main and distribution canals, reservoirs, three hydroelectric power plants of 100 thousand kilowatts each.
Preparatory work began in 1950. 10-12 thousand people were involved in the construction. Completion of the titanic construction was planned for 1957. After Stalin's death, the project was closed. Formally, because of the high cost. In 1957, instead of the Turkmen Canal, they began to build the Karakum Canal. Construction was interrupted frequently and was not completed until 1988.
Interestingly, this project of Stalin had its roots in pre-revolutionary Russia. In fact, the Soviet leader materialized bold and advanced plans for his time, which were forgotten for a long time. So, in the 1870s, officers of the Russian General Staff were leveling the 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 delta of the Amu Darya, its dry channel (Uzboy) in the direction of the Caspian Sea and the Sarakamysh depression. Based on the results of geodetic surveys, a project was drawn up: "The passage of 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, the Caspian, Volga and Mariinsky system to St. Petersburg and the Baltic Sea." However, the project was hacked to death, and Glukhovsky was called “crazy”.
Stalin's plan for the transformation of nature
Stalin was building a society of the "golden age" where man was a creator, a creator. Hence his plan for "The Great Transformation of Nature" - a comprehensive program for the scientific regulation of nature in the Soviet Union. The program was developed by outstanding Russian scientists. The plan was adopted on the initiative of the Soviet leader and put into effect by a resolution of the Council of Ministers of October 20, 1948. It was designed for a long time - 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 crop rotations; construction of ponds, reservoirs and irrigation canals.
The effect was amazing: the yield of cereals, vegetables, grasses increased, the processes of soil erosion slowed down, they recovered, forest belts protected fields and crops, terrible sand and dust storms stopped. Provided food security of the state. The forests were being 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's time, many programs were destroyed or distorted. This led to big problems in agriculture, a decrease in crop 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 the standards of the consumer society - the “golden calf” society, self-destruction and extermination of man and nature - were introduced into our lives, the situation became much worse. We are witnessing a global biosphere crisis. Forests are being destroyed everywhere, reservoirs are polluted, like everything else around. As a result, the rivers become shallow, in the spring there are “unexpected” floods, and in the summer there are terrible fires. The whole country was turned into a garbage dump. All these are the 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" destroying its own cradle - the Earth. Hence, numerous destructive tendencies leading to a global ecological catastrophe.
New imperial culture
Among the many projects of the red emperor is imperial culture. “All the wealth of culture must be claimed by the new reality. Culture should become the life-giving soil of a new life! This is what Stalin said. Culture in the Stalinist empire became a technology for the embodiment of the ideal - the image of a possible, probable and desired future. She convinced people, primarily young generations, of the reality of the new world, the civilization of the future. Where a person fully reveals his creative, intellectual and physical potential, explores the depths of the oceans and space. The dream came true “here and now”. In the Stalinist USSR, people saw how the country was changing for the better at a very fast pace, just wonderful.
Soviet (Stalinist) culture was based on the best traditions of Russian culture. At Lomonosov, Pushkin, Lermontov, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. On Russian epics, fairy tales, Alexander Nevsky and Dmitry Donskoy, Alexander Suvorov and Mikhail Kutuzov, Fyodor Ushakov and Pavel Nakhimov. On the matrix codes of Russian civilization. Where good always triumphs over evil, where the common is higher than the particular, solidarity is higher than individuality, mutual assistance is higher than egoism. Russian culture brought light and justice.
Therefore, under Stalin, houses and palaces of culture were opened in all more or less significant settlements. In them, children received the basics of knowledge in art and culture, were massively involved in creativity, creation. They sang, played musical instruments, performed in folk theaters, studied in studios and laboratories, shot amateur films, etc.
Hence the Stalinist architecture. Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy (VDNKh), the capital's metro, Stalin's skyscrapers - monuments of imperial culture. Under Stalin, beautiful and comfortable houses were built (“Stalin's”). The appearance of the red empire was beautiful and attractive. Under Khrushchev, dullness and wretchedness were introduced ("Khrushchev's myth of housing construction").
Thus, Stalin led the state and the people to "Happy Tomorrow", "to the stars." Russia was the world leader in creating a just order and society, gave humanity a real alternative to the Western project of human enslavement. She showed me how to live. Decent, honest work, creation. The Red Emperor took over the "finished country" and left behind a superpower empire. 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-holding system, where our place is a colony and a resource for the "elite".
