Bam…Siberia's Northern Railway
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shet to Bratsk during those years. To build the By 1984, the western and eastern sections railway, Stalin used mostly forced labor from of the BAM were connected, though the line the Soviet Gulag system, a network of forced was only open to the Soviet military at that labor camps during the Soviet era that held time. Finally, in 1991, the BAM’s track was mostly political dissidents and prisoners of declared available for civilian use. The BAM war (POWs). had cost Moscow US $14 billion to build. When the easternmost section of the BAM According to Finn-Olaf Jones in a New was constructed from 1944-1946, many of the York Times article (Aug. 12, 2012), the BAM gulag laborers were German and Japanese is much less touristy and far less plush than prisoners of World War II. Estimates show the Trans-Siberian Railroad. The line serves a that only 10 percent of those POWs working mainly utilitarian purpose—it was primarily BAM…SIBERIA’S on the BAM returned home and as many as built for freight and people who have busi- 150,000 might have died of starvation and ness in the Siberian wilderness. When Jones NORTHERN overwork while constructing the rail line. rode the BAM for a week through the Sibe- When Joseph Stalin died in 1953, almost all rian countryside, he found that many of the RAILWAY construction on the BAM ceased. It was not people on the train were workers and manag- initiated again until 1974 under the direction ers going to Siberia’s lumber camps and oil Many people have heard of the famous of Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev. and gas fi elds. Others were people working Trans-Siberian Railway, a line that runs the Brezhnev felt it was imperative to fi nish the on the train line itself. length of southern Russia, but few know the BAM as relations between China and the The scenery from the BAM, however, can more northern alternative, the Bakal-Amur U.S.S.R were strained at the time. The Soviet be spectacular. The railway ascends into the Mainline. The BAM, as it is known, runs government feared that any Chinese attack Kodar Mountains, which at about 9,000 feet through few towns and near fewer paved on the Trans-Siberian railway would have (2,743 m) are called “the Siberian Alps,” and roads. It provides an undeniably scenic expe- dire consequences, halting all transportation passes by Lake Baikal’s northern unpopu- rience of the Russia’s Siberia. to the Russian Far East. Brezhnev vowed to lated and undeveloped shore. Much of the The Trans-Sibe- countryside through rian Railway, com- Trans-Siberan Railways which the BAM pleted in 1916, is a passes is pristine 5,000-mile- (8,047- Source: http://www.waytorussia.net/TransSiberian/Route.html BAM route and uninhabited, km) long rail line © 2012 says Jones. ARCTIC OCEAN Trans-Siberian Route that stretches from The BAM is a qui- Other routes Moscow to the Rus- NORWAY eter substitute for the Trans-Siberian sian port city of SWEDEN 0 500 mi Vladivostok on the Murmansk Railroad. While the Sea of Japan. FINLAND 0 500 km BAM’s very exis- The BAM departs tence is almost a from the Trans-Si- St. Petersburg miracle given its his- berian line west of RUSSIA tory, it is a valuable . Y Moscow R e Lake Baikal, crosses b asset to Russia. As n O i the Amur River and Kirov s the Asian demand e . i R a ends at the deepwa- R en for Siberian lumber, . L Sovetskaya ter port of Sovets- Volgograd Ekaterinburg Tynda gas and oil increas- (Stalingrad) Gavan kaya Gavan on the Samara Tyumen es, the Russian gov- Pacifi c Ocean. At Omsk Tayshet A Khabarovsk ernment continues LAKE m 2,678 miles (4,324 u r to refi ne the BAM to I R. A r Novosibirsk BAIKAL E t km) long, it runs S KAZAKHSTAN y Kharbin SEA meet that demand, s Ulan-Ude N h OF parallel to and about R thus making the rail A . Vladivostok I JAPAN 380-480 miles (610- P MONGOLIA NORTH line indispensable. S JAPAN 770 km) north of the A Ulanbataar KOREA Although per- C Almaty Beijing Trans-Siberian Rail- SOUTH ceived military way. The line has 21 N KOREA threats from China tunnels with a total CHINA have largely di- length of 29 miles minished, the BAM Geography in the News 9/28/12 M. Shears (47 km) and more continues to be a than 4,200 bridges, strategic second with a total length of more than 260 miles complete the BAM “with clean hands,” with- transportation link for Russia to the Pacifi c. (400 km). out the use of forced labor. And that is Geography in the News™. Sep- The BAM’s current route was fi rst pro- Brezhnev enlisted the help of students, en- tember 2, 2012. posed in the 1880s as an eastern option for gineers, artists and workers to fi nish what he Co-authors are Neal the Trans-Siberian Railway. Joseph Stalin termed “the construction project of the cen- Lineback, Appalachian envisioned building the BAM to protect the tury.” Many were volunteers from the Young State University Professor Soviet Union from an attack on the Trans-Si- Communist League. The Soviet government Emeritus of Geography, built settlements to house the workers near berian Railway by the Chinese. and Geographer Mandy Stalin began construction on the BAM in the central section of the rail line to be com- Lineback Gritzner. the 1930s, completing the section from Tay- pleted. University News Director Jane Nicholson serves as Sources: Jones, Finn-Olaf, “The Other Siberian Railroad,” New York Times, Aug. 12, 2012; technical editor. and http://www.geographia.com/russia/trasib01.htm.