Construction of Baikal-Amur Mainline Railroad

The Baikal Amur railroad was “A project of a century” as Brezhnev said. It was a railroad to connect the middle of Siberia with the Pacific coast, with a length over 4,300 kms. And again, like the story of the exploration of the lands we had earlier, the main power to accomplish this were the young Soviets. They were attracted there by romantic stories of the exploration, a big help to the state, new horizons which will open this road to others, etc. You might find this naive and not too motivating, but in the country where most of the people were getting the same payments and where there was not much diversity in the stores, and where the apartments were given away by the state and were not purchased, it made sense. People flocked there for a bit higher pay, for doing something new, to be useful, and of course to get free housing, etc. Songs were written about this project, people came from different parts of USSR to take part in it.

And again, young people were the most active in this.

Huge machinery was used to make the tunnels through Siberian hills.

The helicopters were constantly transporting people in and out.

Engineers, just regular workers, etc.

Coming with their dogs, for a romantic adventure of exploration.

Those builders come from “Lietuva” – or modern day Lithuania.

The conditions were harsh. Because of excess harshness special types of frost proof equipment were used, including some new types of rails that didn’t deform in extra cold weather and permafrost.

Geologists in action.

And even the divers to help build bridges, etc. They say the total cost of the road was over $13B, yes thirteen billion dollars.

And because there were plenty of young people it was sort of very romantic.

But very cold, too.

This guy is from Minsk – capital of Belarus. Also his shirt is sort of traditionally Belarussian.

The nature around was untouched and nice looking.

Even artists were coming to take photos and paint pictures of the giant construction site.

Local berries.

Numerous tunnels were made.

And then the first trains started arriving.

I guess locals were pretty overwhelmed with all this going on around their lands.

Ice road on Baikal Lake leading to the construction site 290 km away.

Also new buildings started appearing along the road.

New families formed, new stores opened.

Kids went to schools.

Even more weddings.

And kids.

Taking kids to work in those days was not considered unprofessional.

A pre school teacher.

Studying was happening right in the middle of the forest sometimes.

Then the cultural program and training was intact, too.

Physics and chemistry.

And clubs for the grown ups.

It’s all gone now 🙂

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