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Mertvaya Doroga – a railroad as the backbone of Soviet defence in the Arctic, 1943–54

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

Florian Mildenberger
Florian Mildenberger
Affiliation:
Dachauer Straße 186, 80992 Munich, Germany
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Abstract

During World War II, the threat of a German invasion along the north coast of Siberia led to the Soviet High Command developing a plan to build a railroad through the Urals to the port of Salekhard and beyond. Following the War, these plans were reworked to defend against the threat of American aggression. The ‘Mertvaya Doroga’ or great Stalin railroad or polarmagistral was intended to run from Chum, a small station on the Vorkuta railway, through the northern Urals to Salekhard and from there through Nadym to Igarka and Noril'sk. A second railway was to go from Vorkuta to the port of Amderma, while a third included a great net of railroads around Arkhangel'sk. Slave labour was used to construct these railroads, but despite massive programmes run by the Soviet secret police, the railroads were never completed or efficiently constructed. The death of Stalin in 1953 signaled the end of the construction of the Arctic railroads.

Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 37 , Issue 200 , January 2001 , pp. 49 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2001

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