Today we are looking at a panoramic postcard folder from 1980 that celebrated the remarkable building of the Baikal–Amur Mainline (BAM) railway in the USSR between 1975 and 1979. While the BAM would not be fully completed for a few more years, during this time great progress was made.
The BAM sought to open up vast areas of Siberia economically. Many new communities were planned (and were built) for its route. (Numbers of these, tragically, became ghost towns with the collapse of the USSR). It was to also provide another rail access to the Pacific via ports like Komsomolsk-on-Amur.
In order to expedite construction the Communist Party called on its youth wing, the Komsomol, to send volunteers to help plan, engineer and build the line. Volunteer brigades from the whole of the Soviet Union were formed, often along republic lines, and tens-of-thousands of young workers went into action across the route.
These volunteers and the workers on the BAM projects were celebrated as soldiers and their efforts were framed in very heroic terms.
Along with the photos we have translated all of the text which tells the story of this largely forgotten tale of socialist construction and achievement.
(Click on images to enlarge)
From the folder's flap:
Taiga to the horizon. Fresh dirt. Steel track. A train. This is BAM - the most massive project of the USSR in terms of its economic and socio-political importance. The party has entrusted the Komsomol to carry out this construction program.
What had been achieved on the BAM in 1979? On the western branch of the railway line, Nizhneangarsk saw its first train. The builders of the Baikal tunnel covered about one thousand one hundred and fifty meters. There was work on the Severo Muisky tunnel. The commissioned line Tynda - Berkakit opened. In the central section, the rails came to Chilchi. In the east Vostochny port received delivery of the first tons of Yakut coal.
"From year to year the pace of construction of this railway increases, with trains to new sites, with growing cities and towns. BAM is already manifesting itself as the mighty accelerator of socio-cultural transformations of vast uninhabited territories", Secretary General of the Central Committee. CPSU, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme USSR Council Comrade. L.I. Brezhnev said to the participants in the construction of the Eastern section. Here the main event of the year was the completion of the Urgal - Komsomolsk-on-Amur line.
1. Komsomolsk-on-Amur BAM
It seemed that all the history of this city had been written. It seemed that all that was to heard was the industrial rhythm of one of the most powerful of the Far East industrial centers. But here the young star with the word "BAM" has risen over the city, and volunteer detachments again moved here to show the glory of Komsomol labour. They came to pave the way and tie Komsomolsk with future industrial areas of the BAM, to build a bridge and make Komsomolsk a gateway to the great ocean. This will give a new impetus to the development of the legendary city and the Komsomolsky territorial production complex.
2. THE BIGGEST ON BAM
It was September 26, 1975. The wind howled in the openwork bindings of the new railway bridge. There it is: the bridge over the Amur, the largest in the whole of the Baikal-Amur track! The opening of traffic on a new bridge has an important economic value as it provides another route to the Pacific coast, allows the USSR to significantly increase the carrying capacity of the existing port of Komsomolsk-on-Amur. No wonder the bridge over the Amur River is called the eastern gate of BAM.
3. FIRST TRAIN
"We will come to you, Komsomolsk!" This catchy inscription was on one of the cars of the first BAM trains. One year ahead of schedule the eastern section of the Baikal-Amur Mainline began. The best
of the best took seats in the train. The workers. The foreman of the installers A. Boyko and the head of detachment number 26 A. Avakimov, brigadier of the Komsomol Youth Noah Brigade. V. Vlasov, bricklayer, A. Lysochenko, carpenter, N. Mirchuk, dredger driver, V. Shevtsov, K. ’Choban and a lot of others. They dreamed of the day when they when they would ride the first train. This day came.
4. NO MORE JUST NAMES ON CARDS
Alonka, Dzhamka, Soloni, Berezovka-these names still were not on the map of the Soviet railways, but the train went there now. More and more places across the taiga Increasingly, the vigorous whistles of locomotives are being blown by the best drivers of the route S. Likhachev, N. Tsopkov, I. Drapak, A. Matusevich. Over the years working on the eastern sector, they transported more than a half million tons of cargo, significantly more than projected.
5. STEP THROUGH AMGUN
Eleven large bridges are to be built by builders on the Eastern section of the highway. Completed was construction of a half-kilometer bridge across the Amgun River. Much work was ahead of time, thanks to the E. Stavitsky led brigades. Experience gained in hard work was successfully applied.
6. PEACEFUL FRONT
"BAM - to the service of the motherland!" Under this slogan they live and the warriors are working today. They have the honour of laying this climbing road to the ocean. There is a plan of attack on the taiga. Railway divisions of construction troops build bridges, dig through the earth, and lay the rails. From Urgal to Komsomolsk-on-Amur , there is a soldier's "red star" quality mark on the rails. So, on the initiative of the platoon leader, Communist winner of the Lenin Prize of the Komsomol, Lieutenant E. Zuev, groups began to celebrate each accurately completed "red star" link..
7 OUR HOUSE - NATURE
"This is a mixture of Switzerland, the Don and Finland," - wrote A.P. Chekhov, passing through the places where now is the BAM. The writer was struck by the beauty of Baikal, the taiga and the rivers. But what would he say if he saw the quicksand of the Charsky Kotel, the Kodar glaciers, the fells of the Badzhal Range, the Stanovoi highlands, covered with thick evergreen cedar. And the animal world! In the valley of Amguni live brown bears and moose, wolves and foxes; in the foothills of the mountain ranges - sable, squirrel, ermine. In the cedar forests of Gorina are hidden Himalayan bear, Harza, deerfish. There are also many spawning grounds for valuable fish species.
As rich as the nature of these places is, it is also fragile. In the BAM zone, a set of measures is planned to protect the environment. Much work is being done here in Siberia. Seventeen species of animals and birds of the country districts are listed in the Red Book of the USSR, and the black crane
and the red wolf- in the international. And the builders of BAM do everything to preserve the local nature in all its beauty.
8. SOLONI
It has become a tradition to send the Komsomol troops to the hardest tasks. In the history of the Baikal-Amur Mainline are firmly inscribed their names. The handwork of the detachments - the envoys of the Union republics, will be seen by a passenger in the form of stations such the Georgian Niya, the Armenian Tayur, the Belarusian Zolotinka, the Lithuanian Kunerma. Village Soloni is being built by envoys from Tajikistan. They will build a large trade and public center. It will house shops, a post office, telegraph, a cinema, a gym, a cafe, a library, a hotel. A new complex is designed by Dushanbe architects. Decorated modeling from comes from national Tajik material. These buildings will fit beautifully in the taiga landscape.
9. PAGES OF HISTORY
The first survey and design work on the Urgal- Komsomolsk began back in the thirties. In 1941 there was construction of the tunnel on the right shore of the Amur. On November 7 of the same year, the way was opened on lrshii Urgal - Izvestkovaya. But then came the war, and after two years, at a rapid pace, was built the strategically necessary line of Komsomolsk-on-Amur-Soviet Harbor, with rails removed from the Urgal - Izvestkovaya line. After the war again began construction works which are now being brought to a conclusion.
10. FAR EASTERN RING
Urkaltu. It's not even a station — just a junction. So why the white-winged ten-meter proud obelisk Right wing - Urgal. Left Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The gap between them is connected by a narrow plate with the inscription: "Urkaltu" - a symbol of the "silver link”, which closed the ring.
Its southern half is the Trans-Siberian Railway. Now the BAM. In a single system, necessary for our economy, are such large railway junctions as Khabarovsk, Izvestkovaya, Urgal, Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The reliable BAM, will relieve the Trans-Siberian, overloaded with trains, by taking on part of the traffic.
11. JUNIOR BROTHER OF DONBASS
So is called the village of Urgal-‚the main stronghold of the eastern section of the new coal basin, which will produce almost a million tons of coal a year. But not only coal makes big Donbass and small Urgal. What builds the new Urgal construction and installation train "UkrstroyBAM", is a large detachment of the Donbass Komsomol.
From scratch, where the first detachment arrived in 1974, grew a real city with clubs and cinema theaters, schools and kindergartens. During the trip to Siberia and the Far East, Secretary General of the CPSU Central Committee and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council USSR, Comrade L. I. Brezhnev said: “In the areas of construction it is necessary to create good conditions for life, to pay more attention to the construction of housing, clubs, schools and do it with the necessary scope and technical level, taking into account climatic conditions. This task is deeply important to the party".
12. STORK AND ALONKA
Thousands of kilometers from native rivers and gardens to distant cedar and pine forests flew a moltsavsky stork with a bunch of grapes in its beak. Here in the Far East the Alonka village is now his new home. Multi-story houses, a club, shop, stadium - all this is done by the hands of the volunteers from Moldavia. On the square, in front of the school, a six-meter figure of the hero of the civil war Sergey Lazo. Also built by the project teachers is a Polytechnic Institute named after S. Lazo.
There are the Moldovan decorations of the hall of the Alonka House of Culture where you can hear echoes of Moldavian melodies of "Brotherhood". Here, also, came amateur singers and dancers from Urgal in the spirit of socialist competition. There was an exhibition of volunteer creativity and art. Much of it about the heroic work and unique romance of life building the BAM.
See also: Trams and buses in the USSR -- A look at public transit in the Soviet Union, 1976
See also: Khabarovsk -- Images of the Soviet Far East, USSR 1975
Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project
