Brief description of the construction of the North Pechora highway. Pechora Railway Local soils turned out to be unsuitable for filling the roadbed

Syktyvkar, 1999. vol.2.

PECHORSKAYA RAILROAD, a highway connecting the Pechora coal basin with the Center and North-West of the country. The following were accepted into permanent operation: the Kotlas-Pechora section in August 1942, the Pechora-Vorkuta section in July 1950.
The Pechora Railway runs through the entire territory of the Komi Republic from the South-West to the North-East. Construction began according to the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated October 28, 1937, with commissioning in 1945.

Construction was carried out through the settlements of Konosha, Kotlas, Knyazhpogost, Ukhta, Kozhva, Abez, Vorkuta. The first kilometers of the road were laid in 1938. The first train to the station. Kozhva arrived on December 25, 1940. Through train traffic began on the Kotlas-Kozhva section (728 km).
The highway was built by the Sevzheldorstroy administration for 730 km from Kotlas to Kozhva (since 1938) and by the Pezzheldorstroy administration (Pechorstroy) - 461 km from Kozhva to Vorkuta (since August 1940). The total length of the highway is 1191 km.
Since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the pace of its construction has been intensified; construction was carried out with the labor of Gulag prisoners. The country needed Vorkuta coal, Ukhta oil and petroleum products.
On December 29, 1941, the first through train arrived in Vorkuta. The opening of goods traffic on the highway had important military-strategic and economic significance. Hundreds of thousands of tons coal was sent in trains for the needs of the front, besieged Leningrad and naval ships.

Throughout the years of the war, the highway was completed and improved, because... the roadbed was very unstable, many temporary bridges required completion, it was necessary to build residential buildings, technical structures for locomotive and carriage services.
The Pechora Railway, like the Pechora Coal Basin, was created by prisoners under the auspices of the NKVD mainly during the Great Patriotic War. The highway had a positive impact on the development of the economy of the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, incorporating it into a single national economic complex of the country, connecting geographically and economically disparate regions of the Komi Republic. The construction of the Pechora railway was directly related to the problem of creating the northern coal and metallurgical base of the USSR on the basis of Vorkuta coking coals and Kola iron ore concentrate, with the creation of the Cherepovets metallurgical complex (1955).
Lit.: Dyakov Yu.L., Northern coal and metallurgical base of the USSR: emergence and development, M., 1973. Author of the article M. Dmitrikov.

"PECHORZHELDORSTROY" (1940-50), construction organization of the NKVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs) of the USSR, which built the northernmost section of the North Pechora railway. Kozhva-Vorkuta road (461 km). Prison labor was used in construction.
A winter road (700 km) was built to deliver materials and equipment. The work unfolded on a wide front. The builders laid the path from several points at once, moving towards each other, connecting the sections into a continuous highway.
The laying of the track was completed on December 28, 1941, and on December 29 the first through train arrived in Vorkuta. Trains of coal began to be sent for the needs of the front, besieged Leningrad. During 1942-44, 723 thousand tons were sent. coal
Completion of the site continued during the Great Patriotic War and the post-war five-year period. In 1950, Pechorzheldorstroy put the Kozhva-Vorkuta section into permanent operation.

"SEVZHELDORSTROY" (1938-46), construction organization of the NKVD of the USSR, which built the Kotlas-Pechora section (730 km) Sever.-Pechora with the help of prisoners. zhel. roads. Sevzheldorstroy was entrusted with the task of opening temporary train traffic on this section in 1940.
During the construction of railway Prisoners' forces built settlements, logging roads were laid, and along the route - wheeled roads for the transport of materials, rails and other goods.
A motorized road (235 km) was built between Ukhta and Kozhva, along which the route was supplied with everything necessary. In November 1939, the track was laid on the Aikino-Shezham-Ukhta section, and in October 1940, Sevzheldorstroy finished laying the track at Kotlas.
For the first time in history, the Komi Republic received a permanent connection with the center of the country. On December 25, 1940, train traffic was opened on the entire Kotlas-Kozhva section, which was put into permanent operation in August 1942.
During the Great Patriotic War, Sevzheldorstroy carried out work on the reconstruction of large railways. bridges.
Lit.: Dyakov Yu.L., Construction of the North Pechora Railway in the pre-war years (1937-1941), in the collection: Questions of the history of the working class of the Komi ASSR, Syktyvkar, 1970.

"PECHORSTROY", "Pechora Construction", JSC. Organized in August 1940 as the Pechorzheldorstroy trust of the NKVD of the USSR for the construction of the North Pechora railway. roads on the Kozhva-Vorkuta section. Until 1954 he was part of the Main Directorate of Railways. construction of the NKVD-MVD of the USSR (GULJS).
During construction The labor of prisoners was used on the roads, the number of whom on January 1, 1942 was 50 thousand people. Construction work was accompanied by great loss of life.
Severo-Pechorskaya railway the road on the Kozhva-Vorkuta section was put into permanent operation in 1950, railway. bridge over the river Pechora in 1942. “Pechorstroy” carried out industrial and civil construction along the entire railway line. roads, incl. in the cities of Pechora, Inta, Vorkuta.
In 1954, “Pechorzheldorstroy” of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs was reorganized into the “Pechorstroy” Department as part of the “Glavzheldorstroy” of the North and West of the USSR Ministry of Transport. Trust "Pechorstroy" carried out the construction of railway. roads Chum-Labytnangi (1947-59), Mikun-Syktyvkar (1958-61), Sosnogorsk-Troitsko-Pechorsk (1963-77), Mikun-Koslan (1961-74), Synya-Usinsk (1974-80). Built Pechora River port, Kozhvinsky crushed stone plant, airports in the cities of Pechora and Salekhard.
Pechorstroy has made a great contribution to the socio-economic development of the Komi Republic. During its activity, Pechorstroy built: 121 railways. station, hospitals with 1,520 beds, schools with 20,520 beds, housing 1 million 822.4 thousand m2, 3309 km of new railways. lines, 260.6 km of secondary and station tracks, 257 km of access roads.
As of January 1, 1998, the former Pechorstroy consisted of 9 independent divisions: SMP-234 (Kozhva village), SMP-235 (Syktyvkar), SMP-242 (Vorkuta), SMP-258 (Sosnogorsk), SMP -331 (Troitsko-Pechorsk village), SMP-562, reinforced concrete products plant, commercial center, mechanization department (Pechora).

Original taken from Belaya V

Original taken from alchemik87 to Moscow-Vorkuta: Arkhangelsk and Pechora highways.

If you travel from Moscow to Vorkuta by train, you can see a lot of interesting things outside your window. The train route runs along two famous northern highways - the Arkhangelsk Mainline, built by the merchant Savva Mamontov and Pechora highway, built mainly by prisoners in the unbearable conditions of taiga, tundra and permafrost.

During the two-day journey, the train crosses the Moscow, Yaroslavl, Vologda, Arkhangelsk regions and almost the entire Komi Republic...

The road from Moscow to Vorkuta starts at Yaroslavsky railway station, where the Trans-Siberian Railway officially begins. A stylized kilometer post tells about this:

The track adjacent to the Moscow-Vorkuta train is occupied by the Moscow-Blagoveshchensk train, which is crowded with tourists.

This is exactly how much it costs to travel from the capital to the far north. In principle, the price is quite reasonable. You can also get to Vorkuta by plane, the flight takes about 3 hours, but the prices for the plane represent the height of idiocy: 15,000 rubles one way. For those who value it, there is a budget reserved seat with the traditional smell of socks and drunken shift workers, and crazy people can use a seated carriage for a trip to Vorkuta for a ridiculous 1,500 rubles.

The train starts moving and begins to move in a northerly direction. During the first hours of the journey, a landscape characteristic of central Russia flashes outside the windows:

The carriage is empty - there are very few people willing to travel north in the summer. Looking ahead, we note that it will remain just as empty until the very end of the journey. No one ever got into our compartment.

The carriage is a very ordinary brown Ammendorf with authentic windows that you could open and lean out of.

Sterile toilet. Conscientious guides washed him two or three times a day throughout the journey. I never expected such service from a “five hundred oar” train...

While the train is traveling along Yaroslavl region. This is perhaps the fastest section of the route - the train covers almost 300 kilometers from Moscow to Yaroslavl in 4 hours. Along the road you come across small stops with stations built in the style typical of the Arkhangelsk Mainline, along which the first part of the route passes.

Right up to Yaroslavl, the area outside the window does not undergo any significant changes: forests and meadows.

Finally, the train reaches Yaroslavl, crossing the Kotorosl River within the city:

Yaroslavl-Glavny is the first long-term stop of the train, it takes almost 40 minutes. This is just enough to quickly get acquainted with the station and its surroundings. Here is the station itself:

And here is a monument to Savva Mamontov, who built the Arkhangelsk Mainline, against the background of a map of the Northern Railway drawn on the wall of the nearest station building.

A closer look at the map reveals glaring inaccuracies. From Kotlas to Mikuni, according to this map, it takes almost 15 minutes, the authors of the map moved Sosnogorsk to the middle of the branch leading to Troitsko-Pechorsk... Shame and disgrace!

And this is what the station square of Yaroslavl looks like. Apparently, since I served military training in this city in 2009, it has changed very little.

Beyond Yaroslavl, the railway crosses the Volga on a bridge.

Quite northern stops in small villages. However, some kind of infrastructure in the form of platforms with railings is present here. A few passengers are waiting for the evening train to Yaroslavl:

And the train continues to move north.

The next stop is Danilov, a docking station and also a junction station, where a branch departs from the Arkhangelsk Mainline to the latitudinal route "St. Petersburg - Kirov", the so-called northern route of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Apart from this detail, there is nothing remarkable in this town, and this is clearly evidenced by the view from the station crossing bridge:

The long stop of all trains without exception gives rise to a lot of street vendors. They sell literally everything - from boiled potatoes and pickled cucumbers...

To plush toys. Although it’s hard to imagine that someone buys plush toys along the way on the train.

A local resident looks with curiosity at the train leaving further. Apparently he reads the name of the route on the sign..

Meanwhile, outside the window, the Vologda region begins with neatly plowed and sown fields.

A section of forest where a tornado swept through in 2010. More details are written at varandej in this post. As we can see, since then no one has even scratched the surface to somehow put this place in order.

But here they are proud of their Russian citizenship! The most ordinary village house at Baklanka station carries a proudly waving Russian flag:

And then the train reaches Gryazovets station. It was here, on the platform of this station, that the opening scene of the famous Soviet trash film “City Zero” was filmed. It is also noteworthy that the hero of the film disembarked from the train heading to Vorkuta (visible on the train route board).

But in general - the most ordinary linear station in an ordinary provincial city.

It's getting dark. At the entrance to Vologda, fantastic mushroom-shaped clouds grow in the distance:

Despite the fact that we are traveling north, the forests for some time give way to almost continuous fields.

There are very few trees here; the area is more similar to the forest-steppe in the Voronezh region.

Directly before Vologda, the train passes without stopping a huge marshalling station with the idiotic name Losta (remember the TV series Lost on Channel One?). Losta station is one of the largest marshalling stations in the European part of Russia: here the Arkhangelsk Mainline is crossed by the latitudinal route St. Petersburg - Kirov, or rather, it does not completely cross, but at some point these roads turn out to be combined. There is also a locomotive depot (TC-11), opened in 2004.

Vologda itself looks very ordinary from the train, if not sadly: five-story panel buildings interspersed with brick high-rise buildings...

One of the types of products from these regions is timber in logs:

Vologda Station is quite large by provincial standards:

On the roof of the station there is a small but beautiful weather vane with the inscription "Vologda"

Bell. I immediately remember the famous “Give me back my bell, bl#”... There is nothing else to see at the Vologda station.

Upon departure from Vologda, the buildings of the Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery are visible on the left along the train. The Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery was founded in 1371 by Saint Dmitry of Prilutsky, a student and follower of St. Sergius of Radonezh. In 1812, the treasures of the patriarchal sacristy, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and a number of other Moscow monasteries and cathedrals were kept here. After the revolution, it housed a colony for street children and a transit camp for the dispossessed, and later a military unit. What was not here... Currently, the monastery operates for its intended purpose.

Enchanting evening Vologda dawns, which gave the name to the signature Moscow-Vologda train:

Hay is collected in the fields:

At night the train reaches Konosha-I station in the Arkhangelsk region. At this station there is a farewell to the Arkhangelsk Mainline: then the route turns east. At the same time, electrification is ending - the Pechora Mainline is completely diesel-powered.

Notice how light it is here at night - at three o'clock in the morning the sky is only slightly dark.

And inside the station we will see an impressive exhibition of children's drawings. Students from local art schools painted. There are scribbles and some impressive drawings.

Among the railway artifacts, it is worth noting the gorgeous typesetting schedule from the times of the Ministry of Railways (and, possibly, the USSR).

The most beautiful section of the road from Konosha to Valdeevo was not possible to photograph due to darkness. The morning began at this station:

The station is located in a village of the same name, surrounded by forests and impassable swamps. There are no roads to the outside world (except for the winter road), you can only drive a tractor. Well, on the train. In the village itself there is terrible dirt, puddles and dull barracks. But there is store number 21.

Pechora highway in the vicinity of Sengos station. It is worth noting that the curves on this road are an exception; it mainly consists of arrow-straight segments.

All around are harsh northern villages, gray and shriveled with time, with the broken eye sockets of unpainted houses. These landscapes evoke incredible melancholy...

The depressing impression of northern devastation is slightly diluted by the relatively decent barracks of railway workers at rare stops. But they are also surrounded by rickety sheds and toilets:

And severity and poverty inexorably remind us of themselves. Here Urban-type settlement Udimsky.

The only thing that is “urban” in it are two-story barracks.

The railway turns north in small portions, revealing long straight sections. The wind carries smoke and the stench of diesel fuel to the end of the train...

The floodplain of the Northern Dvina begins:

The river itself. Even in the middle reaches it is huge - the width of its channel is in no way less than the width of the Volga channel:

Having crossed the bridge over the Northern Dvina, the train arrives at the Kotlas-Uzlovoy station:

The diesel locomotive is coupled to the tail of the train in order to drive the train to the Kotlas-Yuzhny station.

Then the diesel locomotive will again be hooked to the head of the train and the train will go further to Vorkuta, passing Kotlas-Uzlova again. All these driving back and forth are due to the lack of opportunity to turn onto Kotlas-Yuzhny directly from the bridge over the Northern Dvina. Although they could have built a loop from Kotlas-Uzlovoy to the Kotlas-Kirov branch a long time ago. But, apparently, it is cheaper to waste the time of passengers and drivers and diesel fuel.

Kotlas-South. The repair of the station goes on and on, and there is no end to it:

Station square with a steam locomotive monument and infernal puddles on the crumpled asphalt. Behind the scenes there are the most terrible abandoned wooden barracks, if you don’t know about them, then, in principle, it looks within the acceptable limits, of course adjusted for the Russian outback:

Seagulls shit on the head of bronze Vladimir Ilyich:

TO bus stop loaves from the PAZ plant are arriving...

Next to local towns and villages, deprived of such a blessing of civilization as the railway:

In general, life is in full swing. And we drive back past a tattered and abandoned elevator. Apparently, this is the vicinity of Mostozavod station:

The next train stop is Solvychegodsk. The real Solvychegodsk is still about twenty kilometers from here, however, the station looks much more decent than the station of a large city and the regional center of Kotlas:

Here stands a monument to the victims of the builders of the Pechora highway - hundreds, thousands of nameless prisoners who built the road in inhuman conditions among the taiga, tundra, permafrost, in a snowstorm and thirty-degree heat, suffocating from cold and vileness. A chill creeps through the skin at the sight of this simple, austere monument...

Pyrsky. This is the name of the station a little further from Solvychegodsk:

To the east of Kotlas, huge impassable swamps stretch along the railway. This is, for example, the Rada swamp:

It was not possible to find out the name of this swamp.

“Russians call the place where they are going to pass a road” - this quote involuntarily comes to mind when looking at what serves as a road here. Only a logging truck, a tractor, or a shift truck can pass along such a road...

In general, this is the main transport here - the main product of the Arkhangelsk region is timber. Forest, forest, forest, nothing more. The beggar area sits on a wooden needle.

The south of the Komi Republic, which suddenly begins outside the window, looks similar: pine whips piled to the skies at Madmas station:

There are also eerie ruins here, similar to those already seen in the Arkhangelsk region: if you do not know the location of the border, it is difficult to determine where one region ends and another begins. The rotten barn bears the proud sign “ELECTRIC SHOP”:

If the administrative border of the Arkhangelsk region and the Komi Republic passes somewhere near the Madmas station, then the difference becomes obvious to the eye after crossing the Vychegda River. By the way, the river is no less impressive than the Northern Dvina:

The train here goes to the northeast, and the nature outside the window begins to gradually change. Beyond the Vychegda the southern taiga begins with a predominance of coniferous trees:

Deserted landscapes are occasionally interrupted by traces of human activity:

Mikun is a large junction station in the southern part of the Komi Republic. The train here takes about 20 minutes and a large number of passengers get on and off. "Usy" depart from the station to Vendinga and Syktyvkar, people transfer here to local trains.

View from the bridge. Our train will go there after a while:

A paddy wagon of the Federal Penitentiary Service is also waiting for its passengers:

Station Square. Compare with what you saw in big city Kotlas. Here the difference in income of neighboring regions is especially striking:

North of Mikuni, the train crosses the Vym River on a bridge:

And then neat houses appear in the forest. This is the city of Emva, in which the Knyazhpogost station is located.

The station itself. There is exactly the same station in Sosnogorsk, further along the train route.

The most peeling houses in the city. Remember the town of Udimsky...

Another river, its name could not be established. At a distance you can see the place where it flows into the Vym:

A typical linear station on a highway: an electrical center post, also known as a train station, a barn (or a toilet?), a transformer booth and some kind of platform. However, passenger traffic here is so small that more is not needed.

The road continues to turn north.

By evening the train reaches Ukhta.

A large marshalling yard in a large city. Behind the station you can see Mount Vetlasyan, on which Lenin’s head is located. Once upon a time this head also glowed in the dark, then the illumination was stolen.

Private sector of the city. These very comfortable houses are present here.

The railway passes here directly under the slopes of the mountain.

On the right is the mountain, and on the left is the valley of the Ukhta River.

Sosnogorsk. Also a large station, from which a branch departs to Troitsko-Pechorsk. Unlike the fantasy of the map compilers on the wall in Yaroslavl, Sosnogorsk is located directly on the highway. True, there is still a Sosnogorsk-II station, but it is doubtful that it was discussed there.

I took pictures of the Sosnogorsk station on the way back, but in fact the sun was already setting:

The distance to Moscow is already the same as from Adler, however, there are still almost 700 kilometers to go to Vorkuta.

People walking around reserved seat carriage. Meanwhile, no more than 5 people remained in our carriage.

The road north of Sosnogorsk goes through continuous taiga.

Kerki station. Kerki in the Komi language means “huts”, “houses”. Several houses actually exist here, along with an ancient “Cossack” on a platform made of old sleepers. I wonder where you can drive it here?

Because civilization here has already completely ended.

The huge Pechora River near the city of the same name. A train crosses it at night.

Taiga. Pay attention to the shape of the spruce crowns, how different it is from the fluffy Central European trees we are used to.

Well, the sun has already come out. The picture was taken at 3 o'clock in the morning? morning?

A tributary of the Pechora is the Usa River. Even this river is not inferior in size to the Volga in its middle reaches. The photo was taken on the way back, that's why it's so dark.

Suddenly, swampy bald spots appear in the taiga, behind which you can see the peaks of the Polar Urals mountains:

There are no longer any signs of human activity here.

Along the road there are wired communication lines, which, of course, have not been working for a long time. But it is extremely unprofitable to remove wires from these fucking places to hand them over for recycling. So it all rots.

Railroad workers' barracks at the Shore crossing. Or Pyshor. Or Pernashor. Or maybe Amshor? I don’t remember which one, they are all so similar. Judging by the time of filming, it seems that this is still Pernashor...

Seyda is the last long-term train stop before Vorkuta. Despite the fact that the junction is formally the Chum station, from which the only “live” section of the transpolar highway Chum-Labytnangi departs, the local train “Vorkuta - Labytnangi” runs with a mandatory stop at Seyda, having unimaginable stops there for an hour and a half to two hours . The Vorkuta train stops here for 23 minutes, during which passengers storm the local store.

After Seida, the taiga ends and the forest-tundra begins:

Bridge over the Seyda River. In a few minutes the train will travel along it. Interestingly, all the railway bridges here are unguarded.

On the right along the way you can see the already familiar Usa River

The conductor brought a guest book. There was this mention in it. Drunk shift workers are not a myth!

And outside the window there is already tundra.

Because of the permafrost, the path is constantly swollen. The speed at which here there's a train coming, does not exceed 60 kilometers per hour.

We were just driving somewhere there. The path is on an embankment that offers an impressive view of the local "roads" - ruts in the mud that a crawler bulldozer would barely pass.

Kykshor junction. Railway workers don’t live here, everyone works on a rotational basis. Simply because it is impossible to live here - there is nothing around. Absolutely nothing.

Another bridge over some tundra river, of which there are a great many:

The Arctic fox crossing.

Basically, the name of the station says it all. No comments here...

This barn still remembers the times of the Ministry of Railways of the Russian Federation, judging by the sign.

Finally the train arrives in Vorkuta.

The train is immediately washed from dirt and soot.

This is how the trip along the Pechora Highway ends. The highway itself does not end there, but goes to the village of Severny, where the Ayach-Yaga station is located, but there is no longer a public passenger service there. Our journey of 2264 kilometers is complete.

The road was formed in June 1942, until 1947 it was called North Pechora Railway. The total length of the road in 1954 was 1953 km. The road administration was located in the city of Kotlas.

The road included the Konosha - Kotlas - Vorkuta line and the Girsovo - Kotlas section.

Oddly enough, life in our camp became easier by the end of 1942.

Famine was raging in the country. The camp stopped receiving rye flour and even oats. But Vorkuta coal became more and more necessary. Therefore, as soon as American Lend-Lease products began to arrive, they flowed to Vorkuta. There were periods when, due to the lack of black bread, the entire camp was fed with fluffy American white bread. There was so much of the famous American stew that all the metal utensils for the camp - bowls, mugs, all the lighting fixtures, and in some places even roofs began to be made from cans. Whole wagonloads of beautifully packaged, albeit rancid, stale American oil were brought in. They imported tons of ascorbic acid and almost survived scurvy. They dressed the prisoners in some kind of American sports suits and yellow shoes with soles two fingers thick.

Life in our camp was, perhaps, better than in the wild. At the end of 1942 or at the beginning of 1943, a train of Leningrad children was brought to us. Only here we saw with our own eyes what was happening in the country

P.129

The main cargo transported by road: coal, oil, timber, mineral building materials.

see also

Write a review about the article "Pechora Railway"

Notes

Links

This is a preliminary article about railways. You can help the project by adding to it.

An excerpt characterizing the Pechora Railway

“No, it seems that the sale will take place one of these days,” someone said. – Although now it’s crazy to buy anything in Moscow.
- From what? – said Julie. – Do you really think that there is a danger for Moscow?
- Why are you going?
- I? That's strange. I’m going because... well, because everyone is going, and then I’m not Joan of Arc or an Amazon.
- Well, yes, yes, give me some more rags.
“If he manages to get things done, he can pay off all his debts,” the militiaman continued about Rostov.
- A good old man, but very pauvre sire [bad]. And why do they live here for so long? They had long wanted to go to the village. Does Natalie seem to be well now? – Julie asked Pierre, smiling slyly.
“They are expecting a younger son,” said Pierre. “He joined Obolensky’s Cossacks and went to Bila Tserkva. A regiment is being formed there. And now they transferred him to my regiment and are waiting for him every day. The Count has long wanted to go, but the Countess will never agree to leave Moscow until her son arrives.
“I saw them the other day at the Arkharovs’. Natalie looked prettier and cheerful again. She sang one romance. How easy it is for some people!
-What's going on? – Pierre asked displeasedly. Julie smiled.
“You know, Count, that knights like you only exist in the novels of Madame Suza.”
- Which knight? From what? – Pierre asked, blushing.
- Well, come on, dear Count, c "est la fable de tout Moscou. Je vous admire, ma parole d" honneur. [all of Moscow knows this. Really, I'm surprised at you.]
- Fine! Fine! - said the militiaman.
- OK then. You can't tell me how boring it is!
“Qu"est ce qui est la fable de tout Moscou? [What does all of Moscow know?] - Pierre said angrily, getting up.
- Come on, Count. You know!
“I don’t know anything,” said Pierre.
– I know that you were friends with Natalie, and that’s why... No, I’m always friendlier with Vera. Cette chere Vera! [This sweet Vera!]
“Non, madame,” Pierre continued in a dissatisfied tone. “I didn’t take on the role of Rostova’s knight at all, and I haven’t been with them for almost a month.” But I don't understand cruelty...
“Qui s"excuse - s"accuse, [Whoever apologizes, blames himself.] - Julie said, smiling and waving the lint, and so that she had the last word, she immediately changed the conversation. “What, I found out today: poor Marie Volkonskaya arrived in Moscow yesterday. Did you hear she lost her father?
- Really! Where is she? “I would very much like to see her,” said Pierre.
– I spent the evening with her yesterday. Today or tomorrow morning she is going to the Moscow region with her nephew.
- Well, how is she? - said Pierre.
- Nothing, I’m sad. But do you know who saved her? This is a whole novel. Nicholas Rostov. They surrounded her, wanted to kill her, wounded her people. He rushed in and saved her...
“Another novel,” said the militiaman. “This general elopement was decidedly done so that all the old brides would get married.” Catiche is one, Princess Bolkonskaya is another.
“You know that I really think that she is un petit peu amoureuse du jeune homme.” [a little bit in love with a young man.]
- Fine! Fine! Fine!
– But how can you say this in Russian?..

When Pierre returned home, he was given two Rastopchin posters that had been brought that day.
The first said that the rumor that Count Rostopchin was prohibited from leaving Moscow was unfair and that, on the contrary, Count Rostopchin was glad that ladies and merchant wives were leaving Moscow. “Less fear, less news,” the poster said, “but I answer with my life that there will be no villain in Moscow.” These words clearly showed Pierre for the first time that the French would be in Moscow. The second poster said that our main apartment was in Vyazma, that Count Wittschstein defeated the French, but that since many residents want to arm themselves, there are weapons prepared for them in the arsenal: sabers, pistols, guns, which residents can get at a cheap price. The tone of the posters was no longer as playful as in Chigirin’s previous conversations. Pierre thought about these posters. Obviously, that terrible thundercloud, which he called upon with all the strength of his soul and which at the same time aroused involuntary horror in him - obviously this cloud was approaching.
“Should I enlist in the military and go to the army or wait? – Pierre asked himself this question for the hundredth time. He took a deck of cards lying on his table and began to play solitaire.
“If this solitaire comes out,” he said to himself, mixing the deck, holding it in his hand and looking up, “if it comes out, it means... what does it mean?” He didn’t have time to decide what it meant when a voice was heard behind the office door the eldest princess asking if she could come in.
“Then it will mean that I have to go to the army,” Pierre finished to himself. “Come in, come in,” he added, turning to the prince.

What does Russia look like from a train window? It is this question that I reveal to you in this photo project. On its pages we travel to the most interesting and picturesque corners of our Motherland.

The roads are far from being main roads, there is no smooth path, the carriage sways rhythmically to the good old “tyn-dynts, tyn-dynts”, the diesel locomotive sets the atmosphere with smoke, hot tea with a park in the glass holder gets cold on the table, the spoon rattles in the glass in time with the clatter of the wheels, and Russia is floating outside the window!

Today we are traveling along the Northern Railway and the Komi Republic from Mikun station to Vorkuta. We're going to the Arctic! Are we on our way? Take a seat by the window and...

The Pechora railway was built from 1937 to 1941 mainly by Gulag prisoners to new storerooms natural resources: timber, coal, oil and played a big role during the Great Patriotic War, supplying the country with Vorkuta coal.

3. Junction station Mikun-1 for 4 directions: Vorkuta, Syktyvkar, Koslan and Kotlas.

4. Honorary steam worker.

5. On the road to the Arctic Circle!

6.

7. Ukhta after the rain.

8. Ukhta station and Mount Vetlosyan.

9. On the mountain you can see orange metal structures, first you think about their technical purpose, but when you get closer you see nothing more than the outline of Lenin’s head.

10. And next to the railway is the Ukhta River.

12. Sunset catches us on the road next to the Ukhta-Pechora-Naryan-Mar highway. Chikshinka River

13. Pechora-Velikaya northern river, stretching from the Northern Urals for almost 1,800 km!

14. And in the morning the landscapes outside the window take on a more severe northern character.

Surprisingly, 21st century, Moscow is building tens of kilometers of underground metro tunnels, the most high skyscrapers in Europe, but there is still no road to Vorkuta! It would seem that there should at least be a gravel road, but no... There is no road to Vorkuta... You can look at road atlases, maps, but you won’t find a road to Vorkuta... There are only two ways to get to Vorkuta - by air: by plane and helicopter or by rail, which is the most important link connecting the city with the country.

What should people do if they want to drive their car to Vorkuta or go on a trip from Vorkuta? It's possible! A train with auto platforms periodically runs from Sosnogorsk to Vorkuta, but sometimes not everything goes smoothly there. At the time of the trip, the renter of the cars and the cargo carrier did not share something and the Vorkuta residents were stuck in Sosnogorsk for several days without any conditions...

It is precisely because of the lack of a highway that Vorkuta is a godsend for cinema. There are a lot of old Soviet cars in the city. Once a car gets to Vorkuta, it will most likely stay there forever...

15. It seems that excavators, which have fantastically found themselves in the tundra, are moving through impassable mud to Vorkuta, leaning on buckets...

16.

17. From time to time, shift camps flash outside the window...

18. There are no settlements here for many tens and even hundreds of kilometers... Only forest-tundra...

19. The outlines of the Polar Urals appear in the haze on the horizon.

20. Small and quiet Shore station waiting for rare passenger trains...

21. The outlines of the mountains of the Polar Urals become clearer, but the mountains remain to the side...

22. The weather here can change in just 15 minutes...

23. Silence...Silent rare silence...

24.

25.

26. The driver’s face is reflected in the mirror of the diesel locomotive; the diesel locomotive, occasionally puffing on smoke, pulls us across the tundra.

27.

28.

29. The Arctic Circle is behind us and outside the window there is endless tundra and cold...

30.

31. Arrow of Seyda and Mustache.

32. There’s an unpleasant drizzle outside, it’s time to warm up with a glass of hot tea in a shiny glass holder ^__^

33. Deserted station Khanovey, consonant with Khanymey in Yamal on the Sverdlovsk Railway... It’s just a short distance from Vorkuta...

34. A rare station house will flash outside the window... Along the entire route, the only living souls you meet are railway workers...

35. Our TEP70-0448 pulled us from by fast train No. 90/89 Nizhny Novgorod-Vorkuta to the far north our entire journey.

36. Here is Vorkuta. The train doesn't go any further...


Here we end our journey to the land of endless tundra along the Pechora road :)

Photos were taken from train No. 89/90 Nizhny Novgorod-Vorkuta

Previous parts :)

On May 10, 1938, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR L.P. Beria issued order No. 090 “On the division of the Ukhtpechtrest camps.” On its basis, the Northern Railway Camp of the NKVD was also organized. Sevzheldorlag was subordinate to Gulzheldor. It received the letter designation “ITL YAYA” or “PO Box 219.” Corps engineer Naftaliy Aronovich Frenkel was appointed head of this department. It is to him that the camp rumor attributes the words that became the ideology of the Gulag: “You need to take everything from the prisoners in the first three months, and then they are no longer needed.” “For fulfilling the government assignment for the construction of the Kotlas-Kozhva railway line” he was awarded the Order of Lenin and the “Badge of Honor”, ​​received the rank of major general... The camp administration primarily paid attention to solving production issues to the detriment of the organization of the camp itself, the organization of life and everyday life prisoners. For example, “lag point No. 55 is a camp type 1938: solid bunks, lice infestation is 50 percent. Prisoners don’t wash their faces in the morning, they don’t give them tea in the morning, only boiling water.”

PECHORSTROY

HISTORY OF CREATION

1940-2000

"Pechorstroy". History of creation. 1940-2000. - Pechora Time Publishing House, 2000. - 120 pages.

The book offered to readers is dedicated to the 60-year activity of Pechora Construction OJSC - the largest organization of transport builders in the Komi Republic. Based on historical research, memories of veterans, publications in the media, and archival materials, the history of the creation of Pechorstroy is shown, its role in the development of the transport network of the European North, in helping the front, in industrial and civil construction in the Komi Republic.

The book tells about the construction of the main transport route of the North Konosha - Vorkuta, the second tracks of railway lines, thanks to which access to oil, gas, and forests was obtained. Readers will see a whole gallery of names - these are the heroes of construction sites, people whose work is worth bending the knee to.

© Pechora Time Publishing House, 2000

The quality of the illustrations corresponds to the printing quality of this publication (note by site administrator)

PARTING

We are parting, we are with you

We say goodbye.

How many roads are there together?

we passed!

From dear Pechorstroevskaya

outskirts -

To Syktyvkar capital

land.

Or they didn’t like you here

Are we royal?

Or are the snowstorms here bad?

stranded?

What lured you away?

Syktyvkar

And they took my dear one away from Pechora?

We are parting. But we

We do not say goodbye.

We are all from Pechora forever.

We will reach each other with our hearts

Through kilometers and through years!

Vera MURASHOVA.

"PECHORSTROY" - 6 O YEARS OLD.

PAST PRESENT FUTURE

Born in 1940 in the depths of the NKVD - Gulag, the team of transport builders of the Komi Republic survived several socio-economic formations: the Stalinist dictatorship (40-50s), the economy of “developed” socialism (60-70s), perestroika and transition period from the economy of socialism to a market economy (80-90s).

The collective lived differently during these years. The 40-50s were war and post-war years, heroic and tragic. A huge number of people worked on the construction of the railway from Kozhva station to Vorkuta: 30 thousand people worked among the civilian population alone, except for prisoners. At the cost of many lives, at the cost of enormous suffering and hardship in the Arctic, this section of 460 kilometers was laid in one year. From 1941 to 1950, the movement of trains with coal from Vorkuta was carried out under temporary operation of the railway. This book tells about the conditions in which people worked and how much courage, will, and organizational skills the construction managers of that time needed to show in order to organize the work of tens of thousands of people and achieve their goal. I bow to the blessed memory of the leaders of those years: Vasily Arsentievich Baranov, who led until 1947, Abraham Izrailevich Borovitsky (1947-1950), Boris Petrovich Grabovsky (1950-1972). It was they who created and trained, one might say, raised a team of transport builders in our republic, a team of courageous, seasoned, easy-going professional builders. With their labor, 3.5 thousand kilometers of railways, 121 railway stations, more than 2 million square meters of housing, schools, kindergartens, hospitals and much more were built in the republic.

If in the war and post-war years Pechorzheldorstroy mainly built railways and adjacent facilities, then in the 60-70s the volume of general construction work increased sharply. I consider the 60-70s and the beginning of the 80s to be the best period of Pechorstroy. Its leaders at that time were Efim Vladimirovich Basin, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Linnik, Igor Evdokimovich Merkul. With the increased needs for industrial and civil construction in these years, the management of Pechorstroy obtained from the Ministry of Transport and Customers the necessary capital investments to expand its own base in Pechora. As a result, a reinforced concrete plant, a motor depot, and a mechanization department were built. Due to the introduction of new technologies and the widespread use of small-scale mechanization, labor productivity has increased. Party and trade union organizations played a role in carrying out activities to organize socialist competition among brigades, sections and units. Considerable credit for this goes to Nikolai Mikhailovich Klepcha, who worked for many years as chairman of the post-tropical committee of Pechorstroy.

During these years, many well-known people in Pechorstroy worked heroically on construction sites. They are also mentioned in this book. Many were awarded orders and medals for their work. Among them are Nikolai Ivanovich Chepurnykh - Hero of Socialist Labor, Eduard Aleksandrovich Petrashevsky, Ivan Trofimovich Trofimov, Nikolai Mikhailovich Vernigor, Nadezhda Davydovna Kirichenko, Nikolai Stepanovich Drozd, Nelli Aleksandrovna Savelyeva, Franz Friedrichovich Eret and others. During these years, the financial situation of people stabilized, many received comfortable apartments, wages increased, and working conditions improved.

In the last 15 years, the volume of railway construction has sharply decreased, although there was no shortage of volumes in industrial and civil construction until 1993. However, the loss of one of the most profitable and productive areas of activity could not but affect the results of Pechorstroy’s work. A sharp drop in volumes has been observed since 1993; it coincided with the beginning of reforms and the general crisis in Russia. I will provide statistical data for these years on the volumes of construction and installation works performed in 1991 prices in thousand rubles: 1991 - 42023, 1992 - 40942, 1993 - 31627, 1994 - 24750, 1995 - 21944, 1995 - 16303, 1997 - 8042, 1998 - 7948, 1999 - 13814. With the loss of volumes, the number of employees decreased. In 1998 it was less than a thousand people. Under these conditions, it was not possible to acquire or update anything, but they still managed to preserve fixed assets and avoid bankruptcy.

In 1999, volumes increased, construction of the Vendinga-Karpogory railway began, work was completed on a transshipment park for loading bauxite at the Chinyavoryk station, and volumes appeared for the overhaul of access roads of the Syktyvkar forestry complex. In 2000, a subcontract agreement was concluded with the Transstroy corporation to carry out work on the construction of the Chinyavoryk station - Rudnik railway with a length of 160 kilometers. In addition, for other customers the volume of work has increased compared to 1999. All this insures us against unemployment.

But our task is not only to increase the volume of work. We understand that we have entered a different era, a different world with different values. If 15 years ago “the party and the government” still thought for us, today we must think about ourselves. Think and decide how to maintain and increase the prestige and image of the company’s team, and the well-being of the workers will depend on this. We understand the challenges facing us. The main ones are the quality of the product we create and its competitiveness. We understand that railways will end sooner or later, but we need to continue to work, find other points of application of forces. In my opinion, today Pechorstroy has grounds and opportunities for growth. First of all, these are the people working in this team. We still have footage from those years, these are our veterans who say: “If necessary, we will do it.” I am the same age as Pechorstroy, but I think it is deeply wrong to think that a person of retirement age is necessarily a retrograde conservative. We have many veterans, and this is just as good and important as the influx of fresh, young forces. Vasily Tarasovich Novikov, a veteran who has trained more than one generation of Pechorstroy workers in Vorkuta, has been working next to me (or I’m next to him) for 15 years. SMP-242, where he is always remembered with a kind word by both workers and engineers. Even now, with his work, he shows young people an example of organization, diligence and efficiency.

Of course, younger and more experienced personnel are needed, and they are available. This Chief Engineer Alexander Richardovich Potapov, Deputy General Director for Economics and Finance Sergei Pavlovich Markovsky, who completed his studies under the presidential program. Valery Petrovich Kucherin, Nikolai Nikolaevich Mokhov, Valentin Viktorovich Shavlovsky, Nikolai Fedorovich Perfilyev and a number of other leaders who are quite well versed in the theory of market economics and practical work are young and full of strength.

We have an action program for the next two years, approved by the board of directors of Pechorstroy OJSC. There is great confidence that, despite major financial problems, we will preserve and enhance the glorious labor traditions of Pechorstroy.

Eternal memory to those Pechorstroy veterans who are no longer alive today. A low bow and great gratitude to the Pechorstroy veterans who are on their well-deserved retirement. I wish you health and longevity! I congratulate all the veterans of Pechorstroy, everyone working today on the 60th anniversary of Pechorstroy, I wish you further success in your work and prosperity, health and happiness in your personal life.

General Director of Pechora Construction OJSC Nikolai POTEMKIN.

DEAR PECHORSTROY EMPLOYEES AND VETERANS!

You are holding in your hands a book dedicated to the glorious labor history of your enterprise - joint stock company"Pechora construction".

Sixty years ago, in May 1940, the NKVD Pechorzheldorstroy trust was organized for the construction of the North Pechora Railway on the Kozhva-Vorkuta section. Already in December 1941, during the difficult days of the Great Patriotic War, the railway to Vorkuta was built in record time, and in 1950 it was put into permanent operation. The first pages of the history of Pechorstroy reflected the complex and contradictory history of our country in the 30-50s. The construction of the railway and the industrial development of the riches of the Pechora coal basin in those distant years were carried out by the hands of prisoners and were accompanied by great sacrifices.

The entire work history of Pechorstroy is closely connected with our republic. In the 60-80s, your company became a leader in the transport construction industry. The labor collective of Pechorstroevites made a great contribution to the socio-economic development of not only our republic, but also the entire European North of the country. You have built more than three thousand kilometers of railways to storehouses of coal, oil and gas, and carried out large-scale industrial and civil construction in Pechora, Vorkuta, Inta, Usinsk, Sosnogorsk, Ukhta, Syktyvkar.

But the main pride of Pechorstroy has always been the transport builders themselves, who with their labor laid steel highways and built new cities. In our republic, the Heroes of Socialist Labor Nikolai Chepurnykh and Efim Vasin, the Honored Builder of the RSFSR Galina Sandratskaya and many, many other Pechorstroevites are well known and respected.

I am sure that Pechorstroy has a great future. On October 5, 1999, the silver crutch of the new railway was hammered in - “Belkomur”, which will become a steel bridge between the White Sea and the Urals, giving an additional impetus to the development of all regions of the European North. This railway will also be built by Pechorstroy.

On the anniversary of your enterprise, I wish you good health, personal happiness and prosperity, new successes in your work for the benefit of the Komi Republic!

Head of the Komi Republic Yuri SPIRIDONOV

DEAR TRANSPORT BUILDERS!

Many of us who went through the Pechorstroy school of life remain grateful to this wonderful team with whom fate connected us. Here, hundreds of workers received recognition for their merits, and dozens of specialists grew into leaders on a republican and Russian scale. My work history began 32 years ago at the Pechorstroy repair and rental base. I received my working training and my first experience as a manager there. A special bow to the veterans of Pechorstroy, who are the golden fund of the joint-stock company. Among them are the holder of the Order of Lenin Sergei Fedorovich Sokolov, honorary transport builders - mason Angelina Petrovna Rocheva, plasterer Maria Fedorovna Ovchinnikova, Honored Builder of the RSFSR Gemma Aleksandrovna Vasilyeva, holder of the Order of the Red Banner of Labor carpenter Valery Vasilyevich Shemshin.

The history of Pechorstroy is the history of the creation of transport builders on the land of Komi and neighboring regions. They created transport network republics, provided conditions for the economic development of the European North of the country.

I sincerely congratulate you on the 60th anniversary of Pechorstroy and wish transport builders not to grow old in spirit, to remain necessary for the people, the republic, and Russia. Good health and happiness!

CHAPTER I

BY TUNDRA, BY RAILWAY...

“You go out to the embankment - a thin yellow thread stretches against the motley background of the summer tundra, and on both sides of it there is such an untouched mysterious wilderness, such an uninhabited space that you involuntarily hold on to this thread with your whole being, connecting you with life, with the past and with the timid hopes for the future."

Lazar SHERESHEVSKY,

writer,

participant in the construction of the North-Pechora railway.

Many years have already passed, but the song, the words from which are included in the title, is sung and sung by everyone - even the young. Maybe because of the romantic motive on which the “prisoner’s” text is based. Or maybe the reason for everything is memory. The memory of deeds so great in scale and tragedy that it has already become almost genetic. Although for nature, which is responsible for heredity, those 50-60 years that have passed since the construction of the North Pechora Railway are not a long time.

This is the memory of that Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which, along with Kolyma, Magadan, Norilsk and Karaganda, was in those years one of the most big islands"The Gulag Archipelago". Memory of prisoners, prisoners of war, soldiers and officers, Komsomol members and civilian specialists, voluntarily or forcibly brought to the construction camps of the NKVD, with whose hands the industrial development of the north of the republic began in the 30s - mid-50s - mining, construction of iron and steel roads, laying coal mines and oil wells, building cities and workers' settlements. They endured backbreaking labor, polar nights, frosts and a four-week summer.

FIRST RAILS

The idea of ​​​​building a railway in the Komi region, necessary for the industrial development of the European North-East of the country, arose during the civil war, when Donbass coal and Baku oil were in the hands of the White Guards. At the end of 1918, the Supreme Economic Council organized preliminary surveys on the Moscow-Ukhta line. In 1918-1922, reconnaissance survey work was carried out in the directions Koposha - Kozhva, Kostroma - Pinyug - Ust-Sysolsk. And in 1925, similar research was carried out by the People's Commissariat of Railways and the Ivanovo-Voznesensky Provincial Executive Committee along the Moscow - Yuryevets - Sheksna - Pinyug - Ust-Sysolsk highway. According to the decree of the USSR State Planning Committee dated June 8, 1929, the construction of the Pinyug - Ust-Sysolsk road with a length of 296 kilometers began with the help of two thousand prisoners of the Northern camp, which was part of the USEVLON (Office of Northern Camps for Special Purposes) of the OPTU of the USSR. But in 1931, work was suspended, and the prisoner builders were transferred to the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal.

In June 1932, the Executive Committee of the Komi Region achieved a decision to continue construction. Almost by hand, along the entire future route, the railway embankment was raised and wooden bridges were built. However, on March 7, 1933, by order of the People's Commissariat of Railways of the USSR, all work at the construction site was curtailed. The hard work of thousands of prisoners was in vain.

After the discovery of reserves in the Pechora coal basin and the Ukhta gas-bearing province, the question arose about the removal of mined minerals. The first tons of oil were produced in 1931 at the Chibyu field. In 1934, the first barge with Vorkuta coal was sent. Initially, preference was given to the waterway to Arkhangelsk along the Vorkuta, Usa and Pechora rivers or through the Yugorsky Shar Strait, for which in 1932-1934 surveys of the Vorkuta Yugorsky Shar railway line were carried out and the construction of a large seaport was planned. This idea was reflected in the Resolution of the Council of Labor and Defense of the USSR dated August 8, 1936 No. 308-73-C, which provided for the construction of two “island” (closed) railway lines Ust-Vym - Chibyu with a length of 250 kilometers and Ust-Usa - Vorkuta with a length 450 kilometers.

In 1936-1937, relevant research was carried out, after which the technical project was approved on January 28, 1938 by the People's Commissar of Railways L.M. Kaganovich. However, during further development of the project, it turned out that it requires large financial costs and does not solve the problem of coal removal, since navigation in these areas is too short.

“THE PATHS HAVE BEEN SHOWN BY OUR LEADER...”

For the industrial development of natural reserves in the north of the Komi region, by resolution of the Council of Labor and Defense of November 16, 1932 No. 1423/423, the Ukhto-Pechora Trust of the OGPU (Ukhtpechlag) was organized. This resolution defined the main tasks of the trust, including the exploration and exploitation of industrially important minerals in the Pechora Basin, and the construction of railways and dirt roads. In particular, it was planned to complete preparations for the construction of the Vorkuta - Yugorsky Shar railway in 1933 and build a narrow-gauge railway from Vorkuta to the pier on the Usa River with a length of 70 km. The general scheme of work of the Ukhtpechlag NKVD for the second five-year plan (1933-1937), developed by the planning department of the camp administration, provided for the construction of the Northern railway Arkhangelsk - Kozhva - Vorkuta - the coast of the Arctic Ocean, as well as the founding of a research institute in the new socialist the city of Krasnopechorsk, construction of the Kozhva - Chibyo - Ust-Vym oil pipeline, four oil refineries, two shipyards, radium and helium plants, three power plants and other industrial facilities.

Construction of the southern section of the Vorkuta-Yugorsky Shar railway has not yet begun. The northern section of this road was to be built by the Vaigach expedition of the NKVD. This project was not implemented either in the 30s or later.

The industrialization of the country caused an increase in the demand for coal and oil. On August 7, 1936, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a special resolution “On the industrial development of Ukhta, Pechora and Vorkuta,” which determined the main directions for the development of the Pechora coal basin and the Ukhta gas-bearing province. In accordance with this resolution, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR N.I. On August 13, 1936, Yezhov issued order No. 342 “On the production program for the Ukhta-Pechora trust for 1937-1939 and changes in the structure of the trust apparatus.” This order set new tasks in the field of railway construction:

a) build a normal gauge railway from Rudnik on Vorkuta to the village of Ust-Usa with a length of 450 km with a completion date of July 1, 1939;

b) build a normal gauge railway from Chibyu to the village of Ust-Vym with a length of 275 km with a completion date of October 1, 1938.”

To solve these problems, a special Transport Department was organized within the structure of Ukhtpechlag with a center in the village of Knyazhpogost under the leadership of V.N. Gendenreich.

The local party and Soviet leadership directly linked the further socio-economic development of Pechora with the production activities of the NKVD Ukhtpechlag. This was discussed a lot at the 1st Pechora District Congress of Soviets in November 1936: “Ukhtpechtrest, organized on the initiative of Comrade Stalin, covered the territory of the district with its significant, wide scope of work. Exploration work for oil, coal, precious metals, gold and other minerals has shown the presence of exceptional natural resources in the depths of the Pechora District.

The ways of economic development of the district were indicated by our Leader - Comrade Stalin: give more oil, more coal. In this direction, under the leadership of the district party organization, we must deploy the Soviets to this work and ensure the successful development of the coal and oil industries of Ukhtpechtrest.”

On August 12, 1937, the Pechora Regional Executive Committee allocated an area of ​​160 hectares for a “temporary base and berths for transport and warehouse operations of railway construction and station facilities (station, workshops, warehouses, depots, residential buildings, railway tracks, sidings) on the banks of the Usa River above air and radio stations of Ukhtpechlag". Already in August 1937, the First Department of Ukhtpechlag began construction of the Ust-Usa - Vorkuta railway, which was subsequently stopped as unpromising.

Throughout 1937, the Pechora District Executive Committee and the Ukhtpechlag NKVD department actively discussed the issue of the location of the construction of an industrial and transport complex on the Pechora River. The district party-Soviet leadership spoke out sharply against its construction in the area of ​​the village of Ust-Kozhva: “since the plant, designed to meet the needs of the District, and, above all, the District center, built in Kozhva, cannot meet the needs of the ongoing construction, and the delivery of lumber and other cargo from Kozhva is possible only in navigation for two to three months. The Presidium of the Okrug Executive Committee decides to ask the Regional Executive Committee of the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to resolve the issue of building a plant closer to the village of Ust-Usa, which will positively solve all the problems outlined.”

As a result of the calculations, the indisputable advantage of the Kotlas and Kozhvinsky options for constructing the railway was clarified and the main direction of the designed line was determined, which was the basis for the corresponding government decree.

A.I. Solzhenitsyn mentions this railway in The Gulag Archipelago: “The development of such a vast northern roadless region required the construction of a railway from Kotlas through Knyazhpogost to Vorkuta. This caused the need for two more independent camps, already railway ones - Sevzheldorlag (from Kotlas to the Pechora River) and Pechorzheldorlag (from Pechora to Vorkuta).”

“GIVE OUT THE VORKUTA COAL”

On October 28, 1937, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted resolution No. 1952-343 on the construction of the North Pechora railway through the settlements of Konosha - Velsk - Kotlas - Knyazhpogost - Chibyu - Kozhva - Vorkuta. Its significance was defined in the report “Construction of the Kotlas-Kozhva railway line” as follows: “For the national economy of our country, the importance of the Kotlas-Vorkuta railway can hardly be overestimated. Through impenetrable taiga and tundra, through permafrost areas, it opens access to enormous riches hidden in the depths of the far North. With the opening of traffic along the North Pechora Mainline, there is no need to import Donetsk coal, Baku oil and petroleum products to the northern and northwestern industrial centers and ports of the Baltic, Barents and White Seas.

To the heart of the country, to Leningrad, to the ports northern seas Trains carrying timber, coal, oil and other minerals will travel by rail.

For the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the North Pechora Mainline contains enormous opportunities for the further development of industry, agriculture, railway and water transport, which will create even greater preconditions for industrial and cultural development rich Northern Territory. The use of the richest subsoil, the maximum export of coal and oil along the North Pechora Mainline to the industrial centers of the country are the primary tasks of today.”

The planned railway had a length of 1,560 kilometers, including sections:

Vorkuta - Kozhva - 462 km,

Kozhva - Kotlas - 728 km,

Kotlas - Konosha - 370 km.

Simultaneously with the North Pechora Mainline, the long-term plan for the development of railway lines planned the construction of the Vorkuta - Khabarovo, Koposha - Volkhovstroy, Arkhangelsk or Mezen - Ukhta, Izhma - Solikamsk, Abez - Salekhard (via the Ural ridge), Kotlas - Kostroma, Shies - Syktyvkar railways. .

“There is no doubt that the current movement of the metalworking industry from the European part of the USSR to the regions of the Urals and the huge demand for coking coals presented in connection with this will create a need to supply the Ural factories with Vorkuta coals - the construction of the Ural line from the Izhma station of the North-Pechora railway through the Krutoy district - to Solikamsk, - noted in the same report. The Izhma-Solikamsk railway line, in addition to its transit significance, will also have great local significance, contributing to the development of the productive forces of the Krutoy region, thereby turning it into a powerful hub of the oil, gas and asphaltite industry.”

In 1938-1939, according to the new direction established by the government, technical research was carried out and technical projects were drawn up.

START

On July 7, 1938, the Economic Council of the USSR, in its resolution, determined the calendar dates for construction:

Kotlas - r. Vychegda: November 1, 1938, December 1, 1939, October 1, 1941.

Vychegda - Knyazhpogost: 06/1/1938, 05/1/1939, 05/1/1941.

Knyazhpogost - Chibyu: 1937, 12/1/1938, 11/1/1941.

Chibyu - Kochmes: 07/1/1939, 11/1/1941, 11/1/1942.

Kochmes - Abez: 07/1/1939, navigation. 40, 1.11.1942.

Abez - Vorkuta: 07/1/1938, navigation. 40, 1.11.1942.

Subsequently, these deadlines were postponed and construction was delayed. The issue of conservation of the Abez-Vorkuta and Chibyu-Kozhva sections has been raised more than once. The institutes "Hartransproekt" (Kharkov) and "Lentransproekt" (Leningrad) revised technical projects several times.

The Kotlas - Kozhva railway line was sought and designed by the Kharkov branch of Soyuztransproekt. On the Knyazhpogost-Ukhta section, 200 kilometers long, surveys were carried out from September 1936 to February 1937 under the leadership of the head of the expedition, engineer V.I. Levina. On the Kotlas - Knyazhpogost section with a length of 280 kilometers - from December 1937 to May 1938 under the leadership of the head of the expedition, engineer P.N. Yeshchenko. And on the 250-kilometer section Ukhta - Kozhva - from March 1938 to August 1939, under the leadership of the head of the expedition, engineer V.I. Petrova.

Each expedition included several geological and survey parties, evenly distributed along the line. As the surveyors found out, the North Pechora Railway had to be built in extremely difficult natural and climatic conditions. The areas along the route were very poorly populated, the area was completely forested and swampy (deep swamps occupied about 20 percent of the length of the designed line), the almost complete absence of roadways, and soil freezing in winter up to 1.4 meters. Among the largest swamps, prospectors included the Madmas swamp, a swamp in the area of ​​Sordyu station, the length of which reaches 3 kilometers and a depth of up to 3 meters, the Mezhogskoye swamp - about a kilometer long and 1.5 meters deep, and the Shezhamskoye swamp, about a kilometer long and more than deep. meters, as well as Kozhvinskoye and Intinskoye.

Local soils turned out to be unsuitable for filling the subgrade. Therefore, millions of cubic meters of soil had to be excavated in quarries and delivered to the dumping site at a distance of tens of kilometers.

The studies were carried out mainly in winter. And this helped the explorers note that “winter in the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic is characterized by deep snow cover, overall height which constitutes on the site Kotlas - Knyazhpogost about 80-100 centimeters, on the Knyazhpogost - Mesyu section - 100-130 centimeters, on the Ukhta - Kozhva section more than 100 centimeters.

Freezing of soils covered with snow reaches 120 centimeters; those not covered with snow - up to 200-220 centimeters.

A negative phenomenon of winter is also the short daylight hours, which is 4 hours 40 minutes in Kotlas, 3 hours 30 minutes in Ukhta, and 2 hours in Kozhva. The lack of lighting is aggravated by the predominance of cloudy days and low clouds..."

The main principles of the work carried out were the desire to lay the future route as close as possible to the overhead line, and, if possible, to reduce curves and detours of wetlands.

In the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic there were almost no local qualified personnel of civil engineers, railway workers, and workers. The party and state leadership of the country found an effective way out of this situation: build a railway with the hands of prisoners, organize construction camps in the north of the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

Construction of the highway began in the Knyazhpogost area 15,000 prisoners of the Transport Department of the Ukhtpechlag NKVD. For this purpose, three construction sites were organized. In December 1936, the prisoners cut the first clearing in the taiga, in April 1937 they began to build an earthen embankment, in January 1938 they laid the first rails to the Ropcha station, and in October of the same year - to the Chinyavoryk station. All earthworks in 1937 were carried out in gross violation of technical conditions.

On May 12, 1937, on the left bank of the Vym River, near Knyazhpogost, on a specially built coastal two-tier pier, two steam locomotives of the OD series No. 724 and No. 2228, as well as 63 platforms and 5 old covered ones, were unloaded from a barge delivered through high water after the ice drift cars brought from the Volga - Moscow canal. The next day, steam locomotive OD No. 724 was assembled and refueled, and on May 14, 1937, movement began on the North Pechora Mainline.

During the entire first year of construction, every morning at 5 o’clock the first steam locomotive departed from Knyazhpogost, pushing platforms loaded with sleepers and rails in front of it. This laying train passed to the end of the finished track. At 6 o'clock the second locomotive departed with platforms on which the workers were located and reached the site where the linen was laid.

In September 1937, a special railway section was organized, the headquarters of which was located in Knyazhpogost, and on December 12, 1937, the first passenger train, who delivered voters to the polling station for elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

In the winter of 1937/1938, several more disassembled steam locomotives were transferred along the highway from Ust-Vym to Knyazhpogost. At the same time, one passenger, two covered and one service carriages were built at the Knyazhpogost depot.

FROM SMUGGER TO LIEUTENANT GENERAL

By the end of the 30s, in the system of the Main Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps, Labor Settlements and Places of Detention (GULAG) of the NKVD, several specialized industry departments were organized that supervised various sectors of the camp economy, including the Main Directorate of Camps of the Mining and Metallurgical Industry (GULGMP) ), Main Directorate of Timber Industry Camps (GULLP), Main Directorate of Highways (GUShos-Dor).

On January 4, 1940, by order of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR L.P. Beria organized the Main Directorate of Railway Construction Camps (GULZhDS), under whose jurisdiction 9 railway camps were transferred. By the beginning of 1941, their number increased to 13. The main specialization of the new GULAG headquarters was the construction of railways in the Far East, in North of the European part of the USSR and in Transcaucasia. The number of prisoners in the GULZDS camps was 397,994 on January 1, 1940, 421,412 on January 1, 1941, and 355,123 on January 1, 1942.

On May 10, 1938, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR L.P. Beria issued order No. 090 “On the division of the Ukhtpechtrest camps.” On its basis, Ukhtizhemlag, Vorkutpechlag, Ustvymlag and Northern railway camp of the NKVD. The Sevzheldorlag of the NKVD was organized on the basis of the Transport Department of the Ukhtpechlag. The new camp was subordinate to Gulzheldor. For each new camp in accordance with industry specifics, the implementation of planned tasks previously carried out by the Ukhtpechlag of the NKVD was assigned. It received the letter designation “ITL YAYA” or “”.

Corps engineer Naftaliy Aronovich Frenkel was appointed head of this department.. Born in 1883 in Odessa into a family of a tradesman, at the age of fifteen he began working in various commercial firms in Odessa and Nikolaev. In 1918, he was actively involved in commercial activities and stock exchange transactions in Odessa. During the NEP years, he organized a private trading company that served as a cover for smuggling.

In 1924, Frenkel was arrested by the OGPU and sentenced to death, which at the last moment was commuted to ten years of imprisonment in the Solovetsky camps. While in custody, N.A. Frenkel showed organizational and commercial abilities and was released early in 1927, then appointed head of the production department of the Directorate of the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camps. On Solovki, he turns to the leadership of the OGPU with a proposal to involve prisoners in labor. It is to him that the camp rumor attributes the words that became the ideology of the Gulag: “You need to take everything from the prisoners in the first three months, and then they are no longer needed.”

ON THE. Frenkel developed a project for organizing a new type of camps, in which an educational and labor system for keeping prisoners was organized. This idea of ​​his was then used as the basis for the functioning of the entire Soviet penitentiary system. The prisoners began cutting down timber, laying mines, building factories and factories, and laying rails.

In 1931-1933 N.A. Frenkel is one of the leaders in the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal and serves as head of the construction department of the White Sea-Baltic Waterway. In 1932, “for success in socialist construction” he was awarded the Order of Lenin.

In August 1933 N.A. Frenkel is appointed head of the Bamlag (Baikal-Amur forced labor camp) department of the Gulag of the OGPU of the USSR. In 1934, prisoners who built the White Sea Canal were brought to this construction site. Here I.L. Frenkel organizes the construction of the Baikal-Lmur Mainline, which was supposed to connect Taishet on the Trans-Siberian Railway with Komsomolsk-on-Amur. In 1936 he received the rank of divisional quartermaster.

In May 1938 N.A. Frenkel is appointed head of the huge Railway Construction Department of the NKVD GullG in the Far East and at the same time - head of the Amur railway camp. In this capacity, he manages all railway construction in the Far East of the country. In 1940, but by personal order of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L.P. Beria receives the title of corps engineer and becomes the first head of the Main Directorate of Railway Construction Camps of the NKVD GULLG of the USSR, and is awarded the second Order of Lenin.

Frenkel spent months on the construction of the North Pechora Railway and directly reported to the USSR State Defense Committee on its progress. In October 1943, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general of the engineering and technical service and awarded the third Order of Lenin. In April 1947, he retired from the post of permanent head of GULZhDS.

He died in 1960 at the age of 77.

“EXCEPTIONALLY SENSITIVE COMRADE”

Tamara Vladimirovna Petkevich, who served a sentence in Sevzheldorlag, in her memoirs “Life is an odd boot,” painted a collective portrait of the camp administration like this: “Camp officials in good-quality ironed overcoats, polished squeaky boots.”

The heads of the Sevzheldorlag department in the 40s were career NKVD officers Semyon Ivanovich Shemena, Iosif Ilyich Klyuchkin, the deputy chief was Alexander Evstigneev, the father of the famous Soviet actor Evgeny Evstigneev, and the assistant chief was Philip Mikhailovich Gartsunov. The chief engineers of the construction were Khaidurov, Novoselov, Perekresten, the heads of the political department were state security lieutenant Alexey Mikhailovich Malgin, Nikolai Vasilyevich Shtanko, and the head of the operational security department was Gnedkov.

For most of these people, being sent to the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was a clear demotion, exile, disgrace. The Chekist cadres for the northern camps were mainly recruited from employees of the central apparatus of the OGPU-NKVD or other regions of the country who were guilty of something. All the camp commanders in the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic were career NKVD officers and had a long Gulag biography behind them. They were often transferred from one construction site to another, so they managed to serve in the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and in the Far East, on the Kola Peninsula, on Sakhalin, and in Mongolia. The fates of these people, as well as the fates of the prisoners, reflected difficult and controversial years in the history of the country.

S.I. also worked at the central office of the NKVD of the USSR in Moscow. Shemen, who, perhaps, can be called the most famous head of the Sevzheldorlag. T. Petkevich writes about him this way: “... was known among management workers as educated and good man, who knew how to see people in prisoners. Appointment to this position meant exile and punishment for him after his Polish wife was arrested in 1937 and he did not refuse her. Before this, S.I. Shemena was the military representative of the Soviet Union in Czechoslovakia.”

In fact, he was never the military attache of the USSR. But otherwise this beautiful legend has a basis.

Semyon Ivanovich was born on February 26, 1903 in the village of Novaya Osota near Kharkov, into a poor peasant family. He graduated from a higher elementary school, and in 1920 from a road construction technical school and a district party school. He worked on his farm. Since 1920, he served in the Cheka-OGPU-NKVD agencies in Ukraine (counterintelligence). “For active participation in the fight against. counter-revolution" was awarded the "Honorary Chekist" badge, and in 1929 - military weapons. In January 1930, he was accepted into the party by the Zhuravlevsky district committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the city of Kharkov (party card No. 1257526). In 1937, he worked as head of the GUGB department of the NKVD of the USSR in Moscow.

In February 1938, the party committee of the GUGB NKVD removed S.I. Shemena was “severely reprimanded with a warning for dulling the KGB and party vigilance.” This is due precisely to the fact that in 1937 S.I.’s wife was arrested. Shemeny Gavrilov in the case of her first husband Brezovsky (Brenzovsky).

“In June 1937, my wife was arrested in connection with the case of her first husband, Brezovsky,” S.I. himself later explained at one of the party meetings. Shemena. “I don’t know why my husband was arrested. I didn’t notice anything bad about Gavrilova, with whom I lived for four years, and she is not to blame for the actions of her ex-husband. After Gavrilova’s arrest, I submitted an application to the party committee and administration to find out my situation. They answered me that “You have nothing to do with your wife’s arrest, continue to work as you worked.” But after some time the question was raised at the party committee UG15 of the NKVD of the USSR, where I was accused of having to study it in four years. I was given a severe reprimand and a warning for dulling the KGB’s vigilance.”

About the meeting with S.I. Shemena in her book “The NKVD from the Inside. Notes of a security officer,” says NKVD employee M.P. Shrider: “Once his former colleague and comrade Semyon Ivanovich Shemena, whom Nikolai Ivanovich Dobroditsky introduced, came to visit him for one day. I learned from Dobroditsky that at that time Shemena’s wife was arrested allegedly as a spy, and he himself was in reserve and did not yet know where fate would take him.”

At the beginning of 1938, state security captain S.I. Shemena was transferred to work as deputy head of the 3rd department of the NKVD of the city of Rybinsk, then, on May 10, 1938, he was appointed the first head of the newly organized Sevzheldorlag NKVD.

According to communists, S.I. Shemena “restored discipline in our camp, improved work, brought the camp out of a breakthrough. An exceptionally sensitive comrade, a good leader.”

“In the camp, Comrade Shemena showed himself to be a communist: disciplined, politically self-possessed, possesses organizational abilities as a leader, and takes an active part in party political work. He is a member of the party bureau and a deputy of the District Council. The production plan for railway construction was fulfilled in 1939 by 102 percent.” Having noted this, the party commission at the political department of the NKVD SZhDL in February 1940 decided: “the party penalty - a severe reprimand with a warning - is lifted.”

Having worked as the head of the Sevzheldorlag until January 1944, he was recalled to Moscow to work in the Main Directorate for Prisoners of War and Internees of the NKVD of the USSR, and then sent for further service at Far East. In 1949 - 1951, General S.I. Shemena was the head of the Western ITL Dalstroy in the village of Susuman Magadan region, who was engaged in the development of gold mines and tin mines in Kolyma. In 1952-1954, he was the head of the ITL and the construction of the Krasnoyarsk-Yeniseisk railway, and in the mid-50s, he was the head of the Krasnogorsk ITL in Sverdlovsk, which carried out large-scale industrial construction in the Urals.

“For fulfilling the government task for the construction of the Kotlas-Kozhva railway line” he was awarded the Order of Lenin and the “Badge of Honor” and received the rank of major general.

“...FULLY EXECUTE

ORDER OF COMRADE BERIA..."

The main task of the Sevzheldorlag in the order of the NKVD of the USSR was the construction of the Kotlas - Vorkuta railway.

“If you could look at the construction site from a bird’s eye view, it would resemble an anthill stretching for hundreds of kilometers. Some of the builders are cutting down forests, uprooting stumps, some are transporting unusable soil, peat and swamp slurry in wheelbarrows, others are blowing up mountains and filling up ravines. Work went on around the clock, in two shifts. During the day - in the light of the sun, if there was any, and at night the light was provided by fire burners from a weak team,” this is how its participant E. Vaza describes the construction of the railway.

The production plan of 1938-1939 provided for the priority construction of two large sections of the Chibyu - Knyazhpogost - Aikino highway (268 kilometers) and Kochmes - Vorkuta (by the Abez construction region).

To solve the problem, about 30 thousand prisoners were concentrated on the route in 58 camps and four construction departments were organized:

the first - on the Kotlas - Chibyu section,

the second - from Chibyu to Kozhva,

third - from Kozhva to Abezi,

fourth - from Abezi to Vorkuta.

Subsequently, the number of departments and their locations changed as the construction plan was completed.

The number of prisoners in the new camp was: October 1, 1938 - 25,199 people,

January 1, 1939 - 29405,

January 1, 1940 - 26310,

July 1, 1941 - 66926,

January 1, 1942 - 53344,

January 1, 1943 - 27,741 people.

When dividing material base and the technical equipment of Ukhtpechtrest, the new camp received only two excavators, 17 vehicles and two steam locomotives in a very worn-out condition. Mechanization of construction work amounted to 11.7 percent. More than half - 64.4 percent - of all excavation work was carried out manually.

The highway was built at an accelerated pace. Construction departments covered short sections of the route of 20-30 kilometers. They had to build an earthen embankment and lay the rails as quickly as possible, after which they were immediately transferred through several squads in front along the road to a new section of the route. The remaining amount of work was carried out by stationary construction departments.

The construction of the railway on the Knyazhpogost - Chibyu section, cut off from railways and waterways, was difficult. For the first three years, equipment and tools had to be delivered exclusively by water along the Vychegda River, and then by road along the highway from Ust-Vym, Kotlas, and even from Murashi station through Syktyvkar. For example, steam locomotives to Ust-Vym, where a supply base was created, were transported disassembled in 1936 on cars or large sleighs in the winter. Subsequently, the base was moved to Aikino.

At the same time, a layover was built along the future railway track. It was a single-track road with sidings every one or two kilometers. It made it possible to transport necessary construction materials and food in a timely manner.

In 1939 they began construction works along the entire section from Kotlas to Chibyu. By the summer of 1939, the degree of readiness of the road departments for operation in the sections was:

Kotlas - Mezhog - 20%,

Mezhog - Knyazhpogost - 25.6%,

Knyazhpogost - Chibyu - 35.5%,

Abez - Vorkuta - 24.5%.

According to the 1939 plan, it was planned to commission 310 kilometers of the route; in fact, 268 kilometers were commissioned. As a result of the labor competition between the NKVD construction camps, Sevzheldorlag moved this year from 23rd place to a more honorable eleventh.

The camp administration primarily paid attention to solving production issues to the detriment of the organization of the camp itself, the organization of life and everyday life of prisoners. For example, “lag point No. 55 is a camp type 1938: solid bunks, lice infestation is 50 percent. Prisoners do not wash themselves in the morning, they are not given tea in the morning, but only boiling water,” stated one of the reports on the progress of construction. At a party meeting in September 1939, S.I. Shemena said: “Comrade Uralov proposed using prisoners for 18 hours. This question is of great fundamental importance, and the communist needs to think about it. The question is, what will happen in three days from such productivity? Comrade Uralov underestimates the issue of preserving the workforce. The same goes for days off for prisoners.” In 1939, four thousand people suffered from scurvy in the camp.

On November 1, 1939, train traffic was opened on the Aikino - Knyazhpogost section.

On May 27, 1940, the party and economic activist of Sevzheldorstroy discussed the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of May 10, 1940, “On accelerated high-speed construction.” Speaking at this meeting, S'.II. Shemena outlined the main prospects for construction as follows: “The People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs, Comrade Beria ita Sevzheldorlag, assigned the following tasks:

1. Lay 130 kilometers of track on the Kotlas - Chibyo section.

2. On the Chibyu - Kozhva section, 252 kilometers long, open work traffic.

3. Start construction of a large bridge on the Vychegda River.

The resolution of this party said: “The team of Sevzheldorlag builders will honorably justify the high trust placed in them, solve this most important task in a Bolshevik manner and ensure the opening of temporary train traffic from Kotlas to Ukhta-Kozhva by the given date.” The party-economic activist noted that the tasks of high-speed construction require a quick and decisive restructuring of the work of all levels of the management apparatus, divisions, party, Komsomol and trade union organizations and outlined a number of practical measures.

At the same time, the Komi Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (Bolsheviks) and the Council of People's Commissars of the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic provided assistance to the construction by allocating forests, allocating land plots for agricultural enterprises, sending workers to the construction site and establishing a challenge banner of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Komi.

However, the new stages of prisoners sent to construction were not sufficiently provided with tools. One of the reports on the progress of construction notes “an intensive supply of labor, not provided with tools, household supplies, in the absence of horses and insufficient food supplies.” Thus, on June 15, 1940, less than 11 percent of newly arrived prisoner construction workers were provided with axes and saws.

In the summer of 1940, the 6th Kozhva Construction Department was organized, which began to build a motorized road from the north, which made it possible to establish a transport connection between Ukhta and Kozhva on September 8, 1940. “The Kozhva department, in turn, sent people and equipment forward along the Kozhva and Chikshina rivers, organizing strongholds for setting up bases and expanding the scope of work.

By September 1940, a basically stable production and organizational structure of the Sevzheldorlag had emerged. It included 11 construction departments, which were divided into stages, several dozen columns, which included several hundred brigades. The brigades, in turn, were divided into units.

The first (Aikinsky) department built the railway from Kotlas to the Vychegda River.

The second (Izhemskoye) was deployed from the Shies station to the Mezhog station in the Ust-Vym region.

The third (Mikunskoe) carried out construction to the Mikun station.

The fourth, fifth and sixth sections built the route to the Knyazhpogost station.

The seventh and eighth - from Knyazhpogost to Iosser station.

The ninth, tenth and eleventh - from Iosser to Ust-Kozhza.

In total, from Koryazhma to Ust-Kozhva along the future railway route there were 27 construction and installation, logging, agricultural, and hospital separate camp centers.

In August-September 1940, to strengthen the operational management of construction, the Northern Management Headquarters were organized under the leadership of the head of the camp, State Security Captain S.I. Shemeny and the Southern headquarters of the department, headed by the deputy head of the department, state security captain I.I. Klyuchkin.

On October 6, 1940, a camp-wide gathering of shock builders was held at kilometer 103. On this day, the laying of the track was completed to the hundredth kilometer.

In the fall of 1940, the camp leadership was faced with the acute problem of preparing for winter. At a meeting in the political department in October 1940 it was said: “The camp is completely unprepared for winter. The construction of civilian and camp structures is shamefully being disrupted. The ensuing frosts trapped both civilians and prisoners in many departments in their summer tents. This also occurs in the village of Zheleznodorozhny.”

Let’s return to the report “Construction of the Kotlas-Kozhva railway line”: “The highway was built by the entire civilian team. After a hard day's work, soldiers and military commanders of many units exchanged a rifle for a shovel, stood in the face and did not leave the route until the day's task was completed. Administrative and technical personnel, wives, and family members of construction workers helped organize meals, living conditions, and cultural services for the camp inmates. The Lenin-Stalin Komsomol gave the construction a lot of enthusiasts who captivated those around them with their example. Hundreds of examples speak of exceptional enthusiasm, of a huge upsurge among construction workers...

November and December 1940 passed in an extremely tense atmosphere, where every day and hour was counted. Along with the decisive issues of transferring rails from south to north, eliminating bottlenecks in the 6th department, it was necessary to simultaneously deal with speeding up the construction of large bridges, pressing issues of arrangement of station tracks and premises, transfer of labor to Pechorstroy and Sevdvinstroy and a number of other issues ... "

Train traffic opened on the section from Kotlas to Knyazhpogost, and on December 25, 1940 - on the entire section Kotlas - Kozhva. “Thanks to the persistent energy of the builders of Sevzheldorstroy, who gave the floor to the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Comrade Beria, to open temporary train traffic within the period established by the Government, the laying of the last picket on the 728-kilometer Kotlas Kozhva line was completed on December 25 at 15:00.”

From November 1940 to May 1941, 135 thousand tons of cargo were transported along the new railway. In January 1941, the technical management of construction changed. P.P. Perekrestov was appointed chief engineer and deputy head of the camp administration.

The entire laid path needed major improvements. The roadbed laid across swampy areas was deformed in many areas during the muddy roads, which posed a threat to the continuity and speed of train traffic. The bypasses were built wooden temporary bridges that needed strengthening. The constructed railway did not have long-distance communications or signaling. At most stations and stages there were no permanent passenger, residential, utility or industrial buildings. Water supply The construction of steam locomotives was carried out on simple and temporary structures. The elimination of all these shortcomings was planned for 1941.

By the end of 1941, 45 bypasses were eliminated, including the most difficult ones, most stations were expanded, embankments were filled Vandyshsky, Green and Pechora swamps, the embankment on the Shezhamskoye swamp has been raised. As a result of these works, approaches to large bridges were completed in a timely manner and continuity of traffic was ensured during the most difficult spring period.

The tasks of 1942 were to connect the Kotlas-Kozhva railway line along the axis of the main track to the Kotlas-Konosha and Kozhva-Vorkuta lines and to increase the capacity of the entire line for the intensive export of Vorkuta coal, oil and timber. In connection with this plan, it was planned to build combined bridges across the Northern Dvina and Pechora rivers, as well as the construction of the Kotlas railway junction.

According to the order of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated June 29, 1942 No. 12111 PC “On the transfer of the constructed section of the North Pechora Mainline from Kotlas to Kozhva for permanent operation by the services of the NKPS of the USSR,” the NKVD handed over the facility to the railway workers.

From July 15 to August 21, 1942, a government commission worked on the Kotlas-Kozhva railway under the leadership of the deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Komi ASSR, N.A. Nefedov. The commission included representatives of the central apparatus of the NKPS, the apparatus of the GULZhDS NKVD, and the department of Sevzheldorstroy of the NKVD. Having studied how the condition of the road complies with the technical standards of the NKPS of the USSR, the commission accepted the road for operation.

After organizing an independent Pechorzheldorlag, the Northern Railway Camp continued the completion of the Kotlas-Kozhva railway, and from September 1, 1946, took over the Konosha-Kotlas construction site from the liquidated Sevdvinlag of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.

On September 15, 1943, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “On rewarding the builders of the North-Pechora Railway” was issued; on September 16, the Decree was published in the newspaper “Pravda”, and on September 18 - in the republican newspaper “For the New North”. Many engineering and technical construction workers received government awards, including chief engineers of construction departments A.N. Belyavsky. M.M. Zotkin, P.V. Zhemchuzhnikov, M.D. Krasheninnikov, I.M. Podorovsky, civil engineers S.A. Volovich, A.A. Georgievsky, A.M. Glukhov, L.V. Moroz , I.I. Livanov, I.L. Rivkin, bridge engineers L.V. Kim, O.V. Shchekin, track engineers A.S. Bugov, I.S. Gurgenidze, geologists A.V. Kazarov, I.M.Kanukov, B.G.Konovalov, N.V. Shmelev, engineers N.I.Berezovsky, O.F.Berzon, L.G.Blinova, A.I.Boikov, V.T.Dmitrievsky, A .V.Dobrovolsky, E.F.Linde, superintendents A.I. Balashov, S.M.Kolobov.