Posted on 06/08/2012 4:24:18 PM PDT by Olog-hai
In the Russian Arctic lies buried an unfinished railway built by prisoners of Stalin's gulags. For decades, no-one talked about it. But one woman is now telling the story of the thousands who suffered there—and there is talk of bringing back to life the abandoned railway itself. …
Lyudmila (Lipatova) and I had uncovered a tiny section of one of Joseph Stalin's cruelest and most ambitious projects—the Trans-Polar Main Line. It was (Stalin's) attempt to conquer the Arctic—part of what he called his Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature.
The scheme was supposed to link the eastern and western parts of Siberia with a 1,000-mile (1,609-km) railway stretching from the city of Inta, in Komi Autonomous Republic, through Salekhard to Igarka, on the Yenisei River. …
The labor force was almost entirely made up of "enemies of the people"—prisoners convicted of "political" offenses. Gulags 501 and 503 were created specially for the railway, and every 6-8 miles (10-12 km) along the track, there were camps. Prisoners built their own wooden barracks, but the unlucky ones in the front units had to take shelter in canvas tents. …
According to some estimates, 300,000 prisoners were enslaved on the project and nearly a third of them perished in the process. But Lyudmila says that the real death toll and exact number of camps and prisoners are not known since no accurate records were kept.
By the time Stalin died in 1953, over 370 miles (600 km) had been built, but it was never completed. … The tracks sank back into the tundra. The railway to nowhere, with its huge cost in human lives, became known as the Dead Road. …
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Translation: “Railway” = “Railroad” in American English
I would have called him "tireless" myself.
Hmm. As in “Norfolk & Western Railway”, “Southern Railway”, “Chicago and North Western Railway” . . . ?
I’ve said for years, in fact, so long that I can almost claim I’ve said for decades; “The world is awash with oil”.
The evidence for the truth of that statement keeps piling up.
Goddamn that is one bigass country in landmass. How are these idiots ever going to defend every inch of that 50 years from now given their imploding birthrate?
Kindly old Uncle Joe, FDR’s buddy and Alger Hiss’ idol, also built canals to hell, gold mines to hell, factories to hell, etc., etc.
But "Ivan" is a 2-evening read -- maximum -- and it is a remarkable book.
Given the political climate in Hollywood, you'll likely hear the Dixie Chicks sing I'm No Communist before you see that movie made. That's why Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler's novel about Stalinist repression, Out of the Night, Jan Valtin's riveting account of his life as a Communist agent, and the story of Whittaker Chanbers and Alger Hiss were never made into movies.
You are correct. Long week and blurry brain is my temporary affliction.
In this country, rail companies tend to use the term "railway," probably because it's a broader term that covers street cars, subways, monorails and other forms of rail transportation.
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/pearl/www.geocities.com/Pentagon/6315/fdr.html
Thanks Olog-hai.
From the National Guardian
March 16, 1953
On Stalin
By W.E.B. DuBois
Joseph Stalin was a great man; few other men of the 20th century approach his stature. He was simple, calm and courageous. He seldom lost his poise; pondered his problems slowly, made his decisions clearly and firmly; never yielded to ostentation nor coyly refrained from holding his rightful place with dignity. He was the son of a serf but stood calmly before the great without hesitation or nerves. But also - and this was the highest proof of his greatness - he knew the common man, felt his problems, followed his fate.
Stalin was not a man of conventional learning; he was much more than that: he was a man who thought deeply, read understandingly and listened to wisdom, no matter whence it came. He was attacked and slandered as few men of power have been; yet he seldom lost his courtesy and balance; nor did he let attack drive him from his convictions nor induce him to surrender positions which he knew were correct. As one of the despised minorities of man, he first set Russia on the road to conquer race prejudice and make one nation out of its 140 groups without destroying their individuality.
His judgment of men was profound. He early saw through the flamboyance and exhibitionism of Trotsky, who fooled the world, and especially America. The whole ill-bred and insulting attitude of Liberals in the U.S. today began with our naive acceptance of Trotsky’s magnificent lying propaganda, which he carried around the world. Against it, Stalin stood like a rock and moved neither right nor left, as he continued to advance toward a real socialism instead of the sham Trotsky offered.
Three great decisions faced Stalin in power and he met them magnificently: first, the problem of the peasants, then the West European attack, and last the Second World War. The poor Russian peasant was the lowest victim of tsarism, capitalism and the Orthodox Church. He surrendered the Little White Father easily; he turned less readily but perceptibly from his ikons; but his kulaks clung tenaciously to capitalism and were near wrecking the revolution when Stalin risked a second revolution and drove out the rural bloodsuckers...
http://www.mltranslations.org/Miscellaneous/DuBoisJVS.htm
Good find!
““One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich””
People can say what they will about Putin, but he’s requiring all high school students to read that book. I only wish that American kids were also required to read it.
The book is absolutely legendary. Once it came out (when Khrushchev backed off a bit on censorship), it ended the concept of the Gulag (at least on anything near the scale that Stalin did it). The people now knew the truth and simply would not put up with that crap anymore.
>>>>>>>>>>>I knew a girl from Salekhard. She said that during the commie days there were active coal mines up there, past the Arctic circle. Another girl I knew in Omsk grew up in a city in the Kolyma, also way up north. She said the only way in and out was by aircraft and in the wintertime the stores were often bare. Once the CCCP went belly up, everyone got the heck out.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
In fact Russian North is alive and well. Salekhard is a capital of Yanao federal district, one of the wealthiest in Russia in both average corporate and household income.
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