History of Construction. White Sea-Baltic Canal. History and description - Traveler's page White Sea-Baltic Canal - structures

Construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal, connecting the White Sea and Lake Onega, began in 1931 on the initiative of Joseph Stalin. To build the canal, the so-called Special Committee for the Construction of the Baltic-White Sea Waterway was established under the Council of Labor and Defense. It was decided “when determining the cost of work... to take into account the possibility of involving criminal labor in this work.” In this regard, “when designing the construction, great attention was paid to reducing the cost of all structures and minimizing the consumption of scarce imported materials.” According to Stalin's instructions, the 227-kilometer-long canal was to be built in twenty months, from September 1931 to April 1933.

Construction was carried out mainly by Gulag prisoners, whose total number was about 280 thousand people.
Each forced construction worker was called a “prisoner canal soldier,” abbreviated z/k, from which the slang word “zek” came.
The Gulag unit on the canal was called the White Sea-Baltic Camp ("BelBaltLag"). Most of the prisoners were transferred to the new camp mainly from the Solovetsky special purpose camp.

During the construction of the canal, hand tools were used: shovels, picks, crowbars, chisels, hand saws, stretchers and wheelbarrows. Stones, peat, wood, and earth were used as building materials; there were no additional supplies.

The main means of influencing and stimulating prisoners was the so-called “pot” - unequal nutrition. The less the prisoner worked, the less food he received. Those prisoners who did not comply with the norms received a “penalty ration.” During the construction of the canal, the administration used various methods to increase the efficiency of the work performed: competition between teams, labor collectives, and locks. General days of records were announced.
The construction was overseen by Deputy Chairman of the OGPU Genrikh Yagoda and Head of the Gulag Matvey Berman. The construction of the canal from 1931 to 1933 was led by Naftaliy Frenkel. It is he who is credited with the idea of using cheap prison labor to work on large national economic construction projects.

In the spring of 1932, a provision was introduced according to which the managers of the canal construction were given the right, administratively, to individually increase the term of imprisonment in the camps for persons violating the established order and discipline. The list included 15 specific violations. At the same time, it was possible to use such a measure for other offenses. The decision to increase the prison term was not subject to appeal.

In May 1933, Yagoda reported to Stalin about the readiness of the White Sea Canal. On June 25, 1933, the Chekist steamship passed along the entire canal from beginning to end. In July of the same year, Joseph Stalin, Kliment Voroshilov and Sergei Kirov took a boat trip along the new man-made waterway. The channel received the name of Stalin.
On August 2, 1933, the construction of the White Sea-Baltic waterway was completed, and the official opening of the first shipping navigation took place on August 30, 1933.

According to official data, during the construction of the canal in BelBaltLag, 1,438 prisoners died in 1931 (2.24% of the number of workers), in 1932 - 2,010 people (2.03%), in 1933 - 8,870 prisoners (10.56%) due to hunger in the country and the rush before the completion of construction. According to other sources, from 50 thousand to 200 thousand people died at the construction of the White Sea Canal.

In connection with the completion of the construction of the White Sea-Baltic waterway, the USSR Central Executive Committee decided to early release a significant number of prisoners who had special merits in construction. 12,484 prisoners were released, and sentences were reduced for 59,516 prisoners.

After completion of construction at the White Sea-Baltic Combine, 71 thousand prisoners were employed in the operation of the canal.

The canal united the waterways of the northwestern and then central parts of the USSR with the navigable rivers of the White Sea basin - the Northern Dvina, Onega, Mezen. The canal route, 227 kilometers long, runs from the village of Povenets on Lake Onega to the city of Belomorsk on the White Sea. This structure is still considered one of the unique: a canal with an average depth of 5 meters includes more than 100 complex hydraulic structures: 15 dams, 19 locks, 49 dams, 12 spillways and other devices.
The creation of this transport route made it possible to eliminate the need to deliver the natural resources of the Kola Peninsula and Karelia to processing points by a long, roundabout route, bypassing the Scandinavian Peninsula, and made it possible to begin the widespread exploitation of forest, mineral ore, fish and other natural resources of this region.

During the Great Patriotic War, the canal, as a strategically important object, suffered destruction; its southern part was completely destroyed. After the war, the damaged facilities were restored and the canal was reopened in July 1946, and work began on electrifying its structures and mechanisms in the 1950s.

Today the canal is the largest hydraulic and transport structure, part of a single deep-water system in the European part of Russia.
In 1976, the first stage of large-scale reconstruction of the White Sea Canal began. By 1983, 13 sluice chambers on rock foundations had been reconstructed, 27 of 38 sluice gates (hydraulic retaining wall or overpass) had been rebuilt, and 7 pairs of riveted sluice gates had been replaced with all-welded gates. When the canal was deepened, new working and repair gates with increased traction were installed, and the locks of the sluice chambers were improved.
In November 2011, it was announced that the Russian government would build the White Sea-Baltic Canal.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

The history of the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal is tragic. The White Sea Canal became one of the first great construction projects in the country of the Soviets and the first great construction project to use prison labor. The most famous of all Russian canals, thanks to the immortal cigarettes of the same name, the White Sea-Baltic Canal remains, nevertheless, the most unknown..

The idea of building a canal was born in ancient times. In 1702, Peter I cut a six-meter wide clearing, the famous “Osudarev Road” - its traces were visible even at the beginning of the last century - along which they built a deck of logs and along them, in ten days, military ships were dragged from the White Sea to Lake Onego . In 1798, the Pudozh merchant Bakinin applied for the construction of a canal from Lake Onega to the Onega River through Vodlozero. He expected to recoup the costs by cutting down valuable larch forests in the area. Almost simultaneously, a project arrived from Petrozavodsk signed by three merchants and the director of the Olonets plant, the Englishman Adam Armstrong.

The canal route ran from Povenets on Lake Onega to the village of Soroka (present-day Belomorsk) - that is, it almost coincided with the current route. The government became interested in the project and sent the best specialist to find it - General de Volan, the builder of the Mariinsky canal system. However, after examining the area, he rejected the project: there were too many rocks, waterfalls and other obstacles... There were proposals in the middle of the 19th century, and in 1900 Professor V. E. Timonov was even awarded gold medal at the Paris Exhibition. But as a reminder of all these events, according to Mikhail Prishvin, who visited these parts in 1906 and wrote a book about the trip, “In the Land of Unfrightened Birds,” only two stones remained near the village of Maselga with the inscription: “Onega-White Sea Canal.”

According to the instructions of I.V. Stalin, a canal 227 km long was to be built in twenty months - from September 1931 to April 1933 (for comparison: the Panama Canal, 80 km long, took 28 years to build, the Suez Canal, 160 km long, took 10 years). It should also be taken into account that no currency was allocated for the construction of the White Sea Canal; the OGPU had to ensure the construction of the canal without unnecessary material costs. People didn't count. Echelons of prisoners continuously arrived at the “great construction site.” The faithful Stalinists were entrusted with managing the construction of the canal...” (L. Rasskazov. The role of the Gulag in the pre-war five-year plans. Economic history: Yearbook. 2002. - M.: Rosspen, 2003. pp. 269-319). The curators of the construction were the future Stalinist People's Commissar Genrikh Yagoda and the head of the Gulag Matvey Berman. Lazar Kogan is appointed head of construction. Another famous “Solovetsky figure”, Nathan Frenkel, also became famous on the White Sea Canal.

Head of Belmorstroy works Frenkel and other construction managers.

In the spring of 1932, Genrikh Yagoda, then still deputy chairman of the OGPU, and his accomplice, deputy prosecutor of the Supreme Court of the USSR Katanyan, approved the “Regulation on the special rights of the head of the Gulag, comrade. Kogan L.I. and assistant chief of the Gulag comrade. Yakov Rapoport. on the construction of the White Sea-Baltic waterway, carried out by prisoners.” In accordance with the Regulations, they were given the right to administratively unilaterally increase the term of imprisonment in the camps for persons violating the established order and discipline. The list included 15 specific violations. At the same time, it was possible to use such a measure for other offenses. It is important to emphasize that the decision to increase the prison term was not subject to appeal.

The history of the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal is a story of the suffering of a huge number of Soviet people. By May 1, 1932, 100 thousand workers were employed in the construction of the canal, of which 60 thousand were housed in barracks. The rest lived in tents and other temporary buildings. Without modern technology, without sufficient material support, the construction management achieved “for many objects... production standards exceeding the uniform all-Union standards”27.

In May 1933, G.G. Yagoda reported to I.V. Stalin about the readiness of the White Sea Canal. In July of the same year, I.V. Stalin, K.E. Voroshilov and S.M. Kirov took a boat trip along the new man-made waterway. And in August, a landing party of 120 writers and journalists is sent to the White Sea Canal to familiarize themselves with the miracle of the socialist economy. They talk with prisoners, who, of course, praise the party and the great leader for giving them the opportunity to atone for their guilt by hard work on a great construction site, with the leaders of the construction of the facility, and take walks along the canal.

As a result of this trip, 36 writers (among them Maxim Gorky, V.P. Kataev, V.V. Ivanov, V.M. Inber, A.N. Tolstoy, M.M. Zoshchenko, etc.) published a book about the history of construction White Sea Canal and the heroic work of its creators and dedicate it to the XVII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). The writers told the readers of the Soviet country about the unusually high growth rates of the socialist economy, about the hard work of production workers on the construction of the canal, about the inferiority of European-American capitalism, about the heroic efforts of the security officers to organize work and to “reforge” prisoners. Nothing is said about the cruelty of the regime, about hunger, about the cold, about the death of thousands of people, the humiliation of their human dignity. However, many authors, as well as editors L. L. Averbakh and S. G. Firin were subsequently arrested. After 1937, almost the entire circulation of the book, on the orders of Glavlit, was confiscated from libraries and destroyed.

The ration of a working drummer was 500 grams of bread per day and a bowl of seaweed gruel.

During the construction of the canal, the administration used various methods to increase the efficiency of the work performed: competition between teams, labor collectives, and locks. General days of records were announced. This was facilitated by a sophisticated propaganda campaign praising the state penitentiary policy...

Dance of prisoners.

The transport route of the White Sea-Baltic Canal has a length of 227 km with approach canals from Lake Onega to the White Sea, of which 37.1 km are artificial tracks. The conditional direction of the current is considered to be the direction from Lake Onega to the White Sea, all navigational signs (buoys, lighthouses
) are equipped in accordance with this rule. The canal begins near the village of Povenets in Povenets Bay of Lake Onega. Immediately after Povenets there are seven locks located at a short distance from each other (the so-called “Povenchanskaya staircase”). Together these locks form the southern slope of the canal. Between the seventh and eighth locks is the canal's watershed. In the north, the canal flows into the Soroka Bay of the White Sea, and the city of Belomorsk is located at the mouth of the canal. The following large settlements are located on the banks of the canal: Povenets, Segezha, Nadvoitsy, Sosnovets, Belomorsk.

During the first navigation, 1.143 thousand tons of cargo and 27 thousand passengers were transported. In 1940, traffic volume was about a million tons, representing 44% of capacity. The peak of cargo transportation through the canal occurred in 1985. At that time, 7 million 300 thousand tons of cargo were transported along the White Sea-Baltic waterway. Such volumes of traffic remained over the next five years, after which the intensity of shipping along the canal decreased significantly. At the beginning of the 21st century, the volume of cargo transportation along the canal began to gradually increase, but it still remains much lower than before. For example, in 2001, 283.4 thousand tons of cargo were transported through the canal, in 2002-314.6 thousand tons.

From a strategic point of view, the canal provided an opportunity to connect the White and Baltic Seas. Already in 1933, the White Sea Canal made it possible to create reliable protection of the northern borders of the state. Until this time, the North Arctic coast was practically unguarded and was not protected from possible invasion. The first ships to sail along the new waterway were warships. The White Sea-Baltic Canal is a promising route for tourist ships. Guaranteed minimum dimensions of the ship passage: depth 4 m, width 36 m, radius of curvature 500 m. The dimensions of the chambers of all locks are 135x14.3 m. The speed of vessels in artificial sections of the canal is limited to 8 km/h. In conditions of limited visibility (less than one kilometer), vessel movement through the canal is prohibited. The average duration of navigation on the canal is 165 days.

The White Sea-Baltic Canal is not just a shipping canal connecting the White Sea with Lake Onega. And also not just an important transport facility, providing access from the White Sea through the Volga-Baltic Canal to the Baltic and Caspian Sea (via the Volga, respectively), but through the Volga-Don Canal to the southern seas. This is a whole story, the beginning of the great camp construction projects of outstanding Soviet-era facilities. During construction, not only reservoirs and locks appeared. New words were added to the slang speech by the canal builders, for example, bullshit and zek. There are three periods in the history of the canal: construction - the 30s, restoration after the war - the 50s and the present. I'll try to tell you a little more about them.

For those who have not smoked Belomorkanal cigarettes, on the pack of which its location was marked, I provide a map. And judging by the request popular in Yandex - White Sea-Baltic Canal on the map- Many people face this question.

The channel did not come out of nowhere. The White Sea-Onega connection has been known since ancient times, and the first written descriptions of this portage route date back to the 15th-16th centuries. For the first time, the idea of building a shipping canal arose during the Northern War and belonged to Tsar Peter I, but the detailed development of the canal project was undertaken only in the mid-18th century. In 1922, based on all previous materials, a canal construction project was developed. Two main routes of the canal were considered - the western option and the eastern one. Both of these options are shown on the map on the right: the western one is yellow, and the eastern one, along which the canal was eventually built, is blue.

The length of both options was almost the same; they differed in the height of the watershed pool (the western one is higher than the eastern one) and its water supply (the eastern one is poorer in water and needed additional nutrition). All structures according to the 1922 project were designed to be concrete, the sluices were single-chamber, and their gates were metal double-leaf. The eastern version was eventually built. The locks were single-chamber, but instead of concrete and iron, wood was used. The cells and gates were wooden. Only by 2009 did all the canal lock chambers become concrete.

Construction of the canal began in April 1930. The term was allotted 3 years. To speed up the work, the dimensions of the locks and the depth of the canal were changed. The dimensions of the chambers were planned to be 312x20x7 meters, as was planned before, but only 133x14.3x4 meters (length, width, depth).

In September 1930, a decree was issued on the possibility of involving prisoners in the construction of the canal - the OGPU took control of the construction. And away we go.

The labor was manual. There were entire camps of workers. The forest is taken with an axe, the track is taken with a shovel.

Nature endowed Karelia not only with rich forests and lakes, but also with rocks: they were blown up again and again by hand.

The construction of the canal also made its mark on slang folklore. The words bullshit and ammonal were added: “We won’t build a canal without bullshit and ammonal.” Ammonal is an explosive. Bullshit is a slang word for the Fictitious Labor Accounting Technique. The word convict also appeared. In the original it sounded like an abbreviation for the abbreviation s/k - “Prisoned Canal Army Man”.

White Sea-Baltic Canal named after. I.V. Stalin (it retained this name until 1961) was opened in August 1933. According to official data, 10,936 prisoners died during construction (1931-1933). According to other sources, from 50 to 200 thousand people. After construction was completed, 71 thousand prisoners were employed in operating the canal.

During the Great Patriotic War, the canal, as a strategically important object, suffered destruction: its southern part was completely destroyed. This happened because during the war the western bank of the canal was captured by the Finns. In 1944, the Soviet side blew up 7 locks in the Povenets area. After the end of the war, the damaged facilities were restored and the canal was put back into operation in July 1946.

In 1950, a decision was made to overhaul and reconstruct the canal. According to the projects, some locks should be rebuilt, and monuments in honor of the victory in the Great Patriotic War will appear on the canal route.

This is what lock No. 1 from Lake Onega should have looked like.

pylons at the upper chamber of gateway No. 7 and an obelisk in memory of the fallen at gateway No. 5.

But the plans were never destined to come true. The theme of memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War was subsequently implemented on the building under construction. On the Belomor, by the mid-50s, the gates were replaced from wooden to iron, the canal was deepened to 5 meters (in the beginning it was 3 meters deep), and by the end of the 50s, the canal infrastructure was electrified.

It is curious that in the 30s a project was developed for the construction of a second branch of the canal, accessible to large sea vessels, with a guaranteed depth of at least 6.4 meters.. Initially, it was supposed to be built by the end of the 30s, but no command for construction was received and the project remained unimplemented. It is noteworthy that its implementation required not only an increase in the supply of reservoirs, but also a rise in the level of the Svir with the flooding of most of Petrozavodsk and coastal villages.

A kind of continuation of the White Sea Canal was supposed to be the Kola Canal, the project of which was also developed, but not implemented. This canal was supposed to connect the Kandalaksha and Kola bays through the Kola Peninsula. The canal was planned to be accessible to sea vessels and was supposed to shorten the route between Leningrad and Murmansk by 1000 kilometers. This waterway would provide access for cargo to the central regions of the Kola Peninsula directly on sea vessels. 110 structures were designed on the Kola Waterway, including 26 locks, 33 dams, 36 canals, 8 dams and 7 spillways. The difference in levels between the highest point of the watershed section of the Kola Canal and sea level is 147 meters, so the average pressure at the locks would be 10-13 meters. The average duration of navigation on the channel would be 5 months.

With the opening of the Volga-Baltic waterway in the 60s, connecting the Volga and Don with the Baltic, freight traffic along the White Sea Canal increased. New series of cargo ships were built taking into account the existing chamber dimensions. In the 1970s, another reconstruction of the canal was carried out. During this reconstruction, the guaranteed depth of the shipping channel was increased to four meters, and the canal became part of the Unified Deep-Water System. The peak of cargo transportation occurred in the mid-80s.

But in the 90s, with the collapse of shipping companies and transport lines, when thousands of ships were laid up, sold, or cut up, the cargo flow on the canal dropped incredibly. In the late 90s, the most frequent vessels were caravans of cargo ships coming from Siberia (Lena, Yenisei, Ob) to work and sell in Europe. But it was a one-way flow. In the other there was almost no cargo.

Since 2002, oil transportation through the canal began from the Volga and Kama to the White Sea, where oil was pumped from river tankers to sea tankers. It ended with an oil spill and pollution of the White Sea. The deliberate bankruptcy of the largest river shipping company engaged in oil transportation - Volgotanker (together with YUKOS) - put an end to this too.

But passenger shipping began to develop. The first voyage of the ship with tourists took place in 2001 and today cruises to the Solovetsky Islands are offered from St. Petersburg, Moscow and the Volga cities. With the development of new oil fields in the North (Varandey), transportation of equipment from Europe through the White Mokanal began. There are lines for transporting wood to the Segezha Pulp and Paper Mill.

I was on the channel twice: in 2001 and in 2010. I suggest you see what the channel looks like in our time. Let's start with the Povenchanskaya Stairs, located in the southern part of the canal, near Lake Onega. Here begins the staircase of locks - the ascent from the lake to the watershed. In 4 hours the ship passes through 7 locks, following each other. In the photo: view of Lake Onega and locks No. 1-4. A lighthouse in the lake at the entrance to the canal is also visible. You can compare it with what you planned to do.

And this is a view of the other part of the “stairs”, from the side of the lake. Gateways No. 5-7.

Hydroelectric power station at gateway No. 9

Exit to Vygozero - the largest lake on the canal route. View from the southern part.

Vygozero - view from the town of Nadvoitsa.

After hundreds of kilometers of coastlines, cliffs and forests, it is unusual to see such signs of “civilization”. Aluminum plant in Nadvoitsy, operating since 1954.

Also Nadvoitsy.

Gateway No. 10 in Nadvoitsy.

Gateway No. 11 underwent reconstruction this year. Until that time, it was the last one to have wooden walls. Now they have been replaced with ones decorated with the inscriptions “Do not go down the hill”, “Do not push during maneuvers” and others on this topic.

The motor ship is at the roadstead of the village of Sosnovets, below lock No. 15.

Canal route between locks No. 11 and 13

In the city of Povenets, behind lock N2, for the 70th anniversary of the LBC, a church was built in memory of the builders of the canal.

There are no suspended road bridges over the canal - the road passes through the gates of the locks:

There is only one railway bridge here, but what a one! About the unique drawable Shizhensky railway bridge, located in the Belomorsk region. This is a drawbridge of a sliding-opening system. It was put into operation in 1952. There are only two similar structures in the world - one in Canada, and the other is this very bridge in Belomorsk.

At this point, acquaintance with the White Sea-Baltic Canal can be considered completed. The next stories will be about Belomorsk and the Solovetsky Islands.

This is not just a shipping canal connecting the White Sea with Lake Onega. And also not just an important transport facility, providing access from the White Sea through the Volga-Baltic Canal to the Baltic and Caspian Sea (via the Volga, respectively), but through the Volga-Don Canal to the southern seas. This is a whole story, the beginning of the great camp construction of outstanding objects of the Soviet era. During construction, not only reservoirs and locks appeared. New words were added to the slang speech by the canal builders, for example, “bullshit” and “zek.” There are three periods in the history of the canal: construction - the 30s, restoration after the war - the 50s and the present. I'll try to tell you a little more about them.

For those who have not smoked Belomorkanal cigarettes, on the pack of which its location was marked, I provide a map. And judging by the popular request in Yandex - the White Sea-Baltic Canal on the map - many people are faced with this question.

Construction of the canal began in April 1930. The term was allotted 3 years. To speed up the work, the dimensions of the locks and the depth of the canal were changed. The dimensions of the chambers were planned to be 312x20x7 meters, as it had been planned before, but they were only 133x14.3x4 meters (length, width, depth).

In September 1930, a decree was issued on the possibility of involving prisoners in the construction of the canal - the OGPU took control of the construction. And away we go.

The labor was manual. There were entire camps of workers. The forest is taken with an axe, the track is taken with a shovel.

White Sea-Baltic Canal named after. I.V. Stalin (it retained this name until 1961) was opened in August 1933. According to official data, 10,936 prisoners died during construction (1931-1933). After construction was completed, 71 thousand prisoners were employed in operating the canal.

During the Great Patriotic War, the canal, as a strategically important object, suffered destruction: its southern part was completely destroyed. This happened because during the war the western bank of the canal was captured by the Finns. In 1941, the Soviet side blew up 7 locks in the Povenets area. After the end of the war, the damaged facilities were restored and the canal was put back into operation in July 1946.

This is what lock No. 1 from Lake Onega should have looked like.

...pylons at the upper chamber of airlock No. 7 and an obelisk in memory of the fallen at airlock No. 5.

But the plans were never destined to come true. The theme of memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War was subsequently implemented on the Volga-Don Canal that was under construction. On the Belomor, by the mid-50s, the gates were replaced from wooden to iron, the canal was deepened to 5 meters (in the beginning it was 3 meters deep), and by the end of the 50s, the canal infrastructure was electrified.

With the opening of the Volga-Baltic waterway in the 60s, connecting the Volga and Don with the Baltic, freight traffic along the White Sea Canal increased. New series of cargo ships were built taking into account the existing chamber dimensions. In the 1970s, another reconstruction of the canal was carried out. During this reconstruction, the guaranteed depth of the shipping channel was increased to four meters, and the canal became part of the Unified Deep-Water System of the USSR. The peak of cargo transportation occurred in the mid-80s.

* * *

And this is a view of the other part of the “stairs”, from the side of the lake. Gateways No. 5-7.

Hydroelectric power station at gateway No. 9.

Exit to Vygozero - the largest lake on the canal route. View from the southern part.

Vygozero - view from the town of Nadvoitsa.

After hundreds of kilometers of coastlines, cliffs and forests, it is unusual to see such signs of “civilization”. Aluminum plant in Nadvoitsy, operating since 1954.

Also Nadvoitsy.

In the mid-30s of the twentieth century, the whole world knew about the White Sea-Baltic Canal. Newspapers in Europe and America wrote about him. It was visited by world-famous journalists and writers - Marin Andersen Nexo, Maxim Gorky, Alexey Tolstoy and others.

However, the endless series of military conflicts and wars, for which the 20th century remains notorious in the memory of mankind, splashed out on the pages of newspapers with new sensations. And they forgot about the channel. Already at the end of the 30s, when tensions in relations between the USSR and Finland reached the stage of war, the White Sea-Baltic Canal, the shipping route of which was laid less than a hundred kilometers from the Finnish border, was closed to the public. After the Soviet-Finnish war, World War II began, and people were already worried about completely different problems. However, the White Sea-Baltic waterway itself continued and continues to operate. Moreover, interest in its history only increases from year to year. Now the BBK is increasingly called a “monument to the era of Stalinism.”

However, not everyone agrees with this definition. Some believe that there are enough monuments to Stalinism on Lubyanka Square in Moscow and on the Bolshoi Solovetsky Island in the White Sea. And the BBK should be recognized as a monument to Russian designers, engineers and workers. It was they who designed and, in just 20 months, cut through the rocks and rocky northern soil an artificial shipping route 227 kilometers long.

Whatever opinions may exist now, the White Sea Canal remains a unique phenomenon in world history. Until now, he attracts historians who use his example to study the transformation of power in relation to their own people. The BBK is unique in an engineering sense, as a hydraulic structure. Never before has wood been used on such a massive scale in the construction of the most important dams and waterworks. The White Sea Canal is of interest to specialists as a “visual aid” on the history of the punitive authorities of the USSR at the beginning of the century. The “GULAG Archipelago” (as defined by Nobel laureate A.I. Solzhenitsyn) began here. All this gives reason to talk about the White Sea-Baltic Canal as a phenomenon of the twentieth century that has passed into history, the study of the history of which continues and does not lose its relevance.

During the years of perestroika, when the archives of the NKVD were opened, the book “Canal Army Men” was published by police lieutenant colonel I. I. Chukhin, who passed away early, in which the author examines materials on the history of the construction of the White Sea Canal in 1931-1933 on the territory of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic by 126 thousand prisoners BelBaltLAGA OGPU.

The role of prisoner labor in the economy of the USSR in the 30s. The article by L. Rasskazov “The Role of the Gulag in the Pre-War Five-Year Plans” is devoted. The White Sea - Baltic Canal had a significant influence on the development of Karelia.

About the formation of the White Sea-Baltic Combine and its role in the development of the White Sea Canal and in the development of Karelia in 1933 - 1941. is described in the article by V. G. Makurov “BBK in Karelia. 1933 - 1941.”

Naturally, the great Russian writer A.I. Solzhenitsyn, author of the famous “GULAG Archipelago,” could not ignore this page of Soviet history. In our work we used his book “Two Hundred Years Together”. Having worked on the history of the Russian revolution for half a century, A. I. Solzhenitsyn many times came into contact with the issue of Russian-Jewish relations, which he explores in this book. Among other Jews who participated in the Russian revolution were the leaders of the White Sea-Baltic Canal, about whom the author writes.

Karelian historians K. A. Morozov and S. G. Verigin write about the evacuation of BBK workers at the beginning of the war and their labor contribution to the country’s economy, about the restoration of the canal after the liberation of Karelia from the enemy. Konstantin Gnetnev, a famous Karelian journalist, member of the Union of Writers of Russia, a man who lived on the canal for the first 25 years of his life, dedicated his books to the history of the White Sea-Baltic Canal.

In 1983, the Karelia publishing house published a book by this author, “Staircase to the White Sea,” dedicated to the canal. However, at that time the archives were closed, a lot of information was classified, and all published literature was subject to strict censorship. In 2003, Konstantin Gnetnev’s new book “Channel” was published, dedicated to his 70th anniversary. This is not a continuation of the first edition, not a “remake” of a book twenty years ago, this is a completely new look at the history of the greatest engineering structure of the Soviet era, built in record time - in just 20 months. The author of the book, based on his own life experience and newly discovered information, talks about the history of the canal itself, and not just about its legendary construction. After all, the LBC is, first of all, a huge unique enterprise, born of human thought and hands, it is 227 kilometers of water space, it is the most important object of the state’s economy. And, of course, these are people, thousands of destinies associated with the channel. The history of the canal did not end with the advent of the new century. He continues to work for the country's economy.

There are many documentary and personal sources devoted to the history of the White Sea-Baltic Canal. Access to those of them that talk about the construction of the canal indicates that it was built on the blood of tens of thousands of prisoners and appeared during the years of perestroika, when the NKVD archives were declassified.

Many declassified documents can already be found on the Internet on the Official website of the Federal Archive Agency (Rosarkhiv). Thus, in our work we used documents from this site: Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR "On the use of labor of criminal prisoners" dated July 11, 1929; Order for the construction of the White Sea - Baltic waterway and the White Sea - Baltic camp of the OGPU No. 111 of November 6, 1932, Resolution of the USSR Central Executive Committee of August 4. 1933 “On providing benefits to participants in the construction of the White Sea - Baltic Canal named after. Comrade I.V. Stalin."

In the National Archive of the Republic of Karelia for the Soviet period in 1988-1991. Documents of no small importance for historical science from the Foundation “Administration of the White Sea-Baltic Combine of the NKVD of the USSR” were declassified. These documents were published in various publications, including the collection "The Gulag in Krelia".

Among the published documents are many memoirs of the canal builders. In our work, we used the memories of such an outstanding canal soldier as D.S. Likhachev, as well as an unknown “convict”, whose last name we don’t even know.

The work also used:

Memoirs of Belomorsk residents who worked at the BBK at various times: I.G. Sverchkov, who took part in the evacuation of the shipyard from Polenets in 1941, the story of T. Sokolova, who preserved the memories of her grandmother T.N. Novikova about life on the LBC at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War and about evacuation on the “ice caravan”.

An important source is the book “The White Sea-Baltic Canal named after Stalin. History of Construction" was first published 64 years ago - in 1934. And 61 years ago, in 1937, the entire circulation of this book was withdrawn from circulation and destroyed. Only a few copies have survived. Since then, the book “White Sea-Baltic Canal” has not been published.

One of the greats said that books, like people, have their own destinies. Today this expression is almost a cliche, but the fate of this book is truly tragic. It was written by order (or rather, by order) of the OGPU and the Communist Party. By their order, it was destroyed after the execution of G. Yagoda, one of the main “heroes” of the book. This book was written by talented people, the cream of the Soviet intelligentsia, they wrote with passion, and somehow I can’t believe that they did it “under pressure.” It is symbolic that not only the characters in the book, but also many of its authors did not survive 1937-38.

This book talks about the construction of the first shipping canal in the USSR. But its main value is that it is a document of the era, that it describes the time through the eyes of the people who lived in it. You can have different attitudes towards that time, that social system, this book and its authors - this is everyone’s right. But in order to at least somehow relate to all this, you need to at least know something about all this.

The book “White Sea - Baltic Canal named after Stalin. History of Construction" has not been published for 60 years. In our work we used its 1998 reprint.

The chronological framework of our research covers the period from 1930 to 1964. This chronological framework is determined based on the purpose and objectives of our work. In 1930, a decision was made to build the White Sea-Baltic, and in June 1964, after restoration and reconstruction, the modern Volga-Baltic waterway was put into operation.

Construction of the White Sea - Baltic Canal. BBK in the 1930s

The route from the White Sea to the central regions of the country through a natural system of rivers and lakes has been known to trading people since the 16th century. In the 16th-17th centuries, this path was used by pilgrims going to the shrines of the Solovetsky Monastery.

For the first time, the idea of building a shipping canal that would connect the White and Baltic seas arose during the Northern War and belonged to Peter I.

The authorship of one of the first projects of the White Sea Canal belongs to a merchant from the Pomeranian city of Kem, Fyodor Antonov. F. Antonov, whose ashes now rest in the fence of the Assumption Cathedral in the city of Kem, was not only the first to accurately indicate the direction of the future shipping route. He rightly noted that the further development of the entire Russian North depends on the construction of the canal.

However, detailed development of the canal project was undertaken only in the 19th century. Then, by order of the government, four construction projects were developed: the first - the project of F. P. Devolan in 1800, the second - the project of Count A. H. Benckendorff in 1835, the third - the adjutant wing of Loshkarev in 1857, the fourth, which received the gold medal of the Paris in 1900 World Exhibition, - Professor V. E. Timonov. However, all construction options were rejected by the tsarist government due to their high cost.

In the 1930s, the Soviet government addressed the issue of building a canal. The initiator of the construction of the White Sea Canal was Joseph Stalin.

In this case, reasons of both a political and economic nature were of particular importance. The White Sea region remained defenseless against any aggression. This was shown by the intervention of 1918 - 1920. From a strategic point of view, it was necessary to build a canal that would connect the White and Baltic Seas and would create reliable protection for the northern borders of the state. But in the 20s. It was not possible to find funds for the construction of the canal.

In the mid-20s, the country's population experienced famine. Peasant uprisings spontaneously arose in a number of central black earth regions of Russia. They were brutally suppressed by regular army units. However, this circumstance allowed the new Bolshevik government to formulate its policy towards peasants, especially wealthy, independent ones, as openly hostile. A new concept was introduced into the official lexicon - “fist”. A massive propaganda campaign began in the press to “destroy the “kulak” as a class.”

As a result of such a policy, with the help of repression, the Bolsheviks got rid of real and imaginary enemies within the country. They filled prisons and concentration camps with them. But this did not make the life of ordinary citizens any better. If earlier this circumstance could still be explained by propaganda by the presence of many “enemies” - in the Kremlin, in ministries, in factories, factories and in agriculture, now a serious problem has arisen. The Soviet government found it vitally important to achieve economic success. Without real victories in the development of transport, metallurgy, without the economic development of new territories of the huge state, the Bolsheviks could not count on strengthening their authority in the world community.

Under these conditions, the idea of building the White Sea Canal came in handy. It was on the White Sea Canal that the Bolsheviks decided to show the world their ability to solve grandiose economic problems. Another major international goal was also set. It was to demonstrate the capabilities and advantages of the new socialist system.

The global economic crisis did not leave the Soviet Union aside either. The trade balance deteriorated, and great difficulties arose with paying for imported goods necessary for industrialization. At the same time, it was necessary to show the world that the Soviet Union could industrialize on its own, without resorting to imports from the West. The country needed labor victories, global achievements, but without unnecessary costs. Therefore, in order to save foreign currency funds necessary for industrialization and defense, it was decided to use exclusively manual labor in the construction of the White Sea Canal - the labor of prisoners.

The BBK, in addition to being intended to symbolize the successes of the socialist system, was of enormous strategic and economic importance. It was supposed to provide the country with access to the World Ocean, reliable communication with the West, and direct sea communication between the European part of the USSR and the Far East. Thanks to the canal, the route from Leningrad to Arkhangelsk was shortened by 4 times and became a river route. The canal was supposed to pass through an area rich in minerals and forests and contribute to the economic development of the northern region.

On June 3, 1930, a decision was made to begin work on the construction of the canal; July 1, 1931 - the first preliminary construction projects were submitted for consideration.

In 1931, a group of engineers led by S.Ya. Zhuk developed a project for the first inter-basin connection - the White Sea - Baltic Canal, and for its implementation the construction organization Belomorstroy was created. Construction began in the same year, 1931. All orders were carried out at domestic plants “Krasny Putilovets”, “Russian Diesel”, etc.

Professor V.N. showed talent and creativity during the design. Maslov, who proposed the design of wooden gates and shutters, K.M. Zubrik - the design of the Shavan dam from inclined wooden ridges, O.V. Vyazemsky - who performed calculations of the entire canal route and proposed an unusual design for a high-pressure dam on the river. Vyg et al.

Although the final design was approved only in February 1932, construction began at the end of 1931. The White Sea Canal became the first great construction project for prisoners.

Back in 1929, the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR "On the use of labor of criminal prisoners" was issued. However, the labor of not only criminals was used in the construction of the White Sea Canal. For its construction, the so-called Special Committee for the Construction of the Baltic-White Sea Waterway was established under the Council of Labor and Defense. On June 3, 1930, it was decided “when determining the cost of work... to take into account the possibility of involving prisoner labor in the work.” In this regard, “when designing the construction, great attention was paid to reducing the cost of all structures and minimizing the consumption of scarce imported materials.”

The OGPU had to ensure the construction of the canal without unnecessary material costs. People didn't count. Trains of prisoners continuously arrived at the great construction site.

In addition, since 1920, a forced labor camp was located on the Solovetsky Islands - the first forced labor camp in post-revolutionary Russia.

By 1930, Solovki was turned into a huge production plant of 12 branches, spreading throughout the Russian North, in the territories of the present-day Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions, as well as the Republic of Karelia.

“Solovki was an experimental ground where norms and methods were developed that were later widely used in the Gulag. The organization of work and life of prisoners, types of punishment, sophisticated methods of interrogation and psychological suppression, security regimes, how to shoot and hide corpses - all this evil machinery was invented there. The scale of the landfill is impressive. From 1920 to 1939, before its disbandment on the orders of Beria, nearly a million people passed through the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp and the associated Karelian camps. Only a select few were lucky enough to return, and almost all of those who survived could not resist remembering. Apparently, this burden turned out to be heavy for the memory..." writes A. Rappoport.

Academician Dmitry Likhachev served his time in the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp (SLON) as a counter-revolutionary.

D. S. Likhachev recalled his life in the Solovetsky camp: “...At first, on Solovki, I lived in the 13th company, the general works company. There I had a place under the bunks, because there were no more places on the bunks - the barracks were overcrowded. After general labor with all its horrors, I began working in the criminological office, where I began studying juvenile delinquents and selecting them for a labor colony.

The cream of the St. Petersburg intelligentsia gathered in the criminological office of Solovki. It was headed by the former tsarist prosecutor Alexander Nikolaevich Kolosov. Working with him were the former revolutionary, philosopher Alexander Alexandrovich Meyer, who was arrested in the sensational case of the circle of philosophers "Resurrection", teacher at the Herzen Pedagogical Institute Alexander Petrovich Sukhov, Ksenia Anatolyevna Polovtseva, doctor of the Sorbonne University, Yulia Nikolaevna Danzas, former maid of honor at the court of Alexandra Fedorovna and There are also a number of very interesting people...

Among the prisoners there were many poets - Pankratov, Kazarnovsky, Evreinov. Some of them returned from White Guard emigration to their homeland and, of course, were immediately arrested. Including the first-class poet Vladimir Kimensky. Poetic youth then lived in the poems of Baratynsky and the just published collection of O. Mandelstam “Stone”.

The intelligentsia did not give up under those conditions. She lived her own, often hidden from prying eyes, spiritual life, gathering and discussing various philosophical problems. I remember the speeches of A.A. Meyer, the memories of Yu.N. Danzas about the imperial family, later on the White Sea - Baltic Canal stories by A.F. Losev. These were very interesting people. The prisoners supported each other and helped. These were exceptional, wonderful people, and I consider it my duty to remember them and talk about them.

I saw Gorky in the Solovetsky camp and I know very well that he saw everything and knew what was happening there. One boy told him about the torture, about the horror that was happening...”

The curators of the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal were the future Stalinist People's Commissar Genrikh Yagoda and the head of the Gulag Lazar Kogan. The construction of the canal was led by N.A. Frenkel, who came up with the idea of transforming hard labor into a huge enterprise that would bring large revenues to the state, which Stalin liked so much. The management of BelBaltLag at the construction stage also included E. I. Senkevich, P. F. Aleksandrov and S. G. Firin.

In the spring of 1932, Genrikh Yagoda, then still deputy chairman of the OGPU, approved the “Regulations on the special rights of the head of the GULAG, comrade L.I. Kogan, and the assistant head of the GULAG, comrade Yakov Rapoport, in the construction of the White Sea-Baltic waterway, carried out by the forces of prisoners.” In accordance with the Regulations, they were given the right to administratively unilaterally increase the term of imprisonment in the camps for persons violating the established order and discipline. The list included 15 specific violations. At the same time, it was possible to use such a measure for other offenses. The decision to increase the prison term was not subject to appeal.

The White Sea Canal was built from start to finish by GULAG prisoners. Each forced construction worker was called a prisoner canal army soldier, abbreviated as “z/k”, from which the slang word “zek” was derived. The Gulag unit on the canal was called the White Sea-Baltic Camp (“BelBaltLag”). Most of the prisoners were transferred to the new camp mainly from Solovki. The convicted designers created drawings and found extraordinary technical solutions (dictated by the lack of machines and materials). Those who did not have an education suitable for design spent day and night digging a canal, waist-deep in liquid mud, urged on not only by supervisors, but also by members of their team: those who did not fulfill the quota had their already meager ration reduced. There was only one way: into concrete (those who died on the White Sea Canal were not buried, but were simply poured haphazardly into holes, which were then filled with concrete and served as the bottom of the canal). The main tools for construction were a wheelbarrow, a sledgehammer, a shovel, an ax and a wooden crane for moving boulders.

By May 1, 1932, 100 thousand workers were employed in the construction of the canal, of which 60 thousand were housed in barracks. The rest lived in tents and other temporary buildings. Without modern technology, without sufficient material support, the construction management achieved “for many projects... production standards that exceeded the uniform all-Union standards.”

In general, during the entire construction period, the Canal Army men carried out excavation work with a volume of 21 million cubic meters, built 37 km of artificial tracks, and moved the Murmansk railway, which interfered with the excavation work.

Prisoners, unable to withstand the unbearable conditions of detention and backbreaking work, died in the hundreds. At times, deaths reached 700 people per day. And at this time, newspapers published editorials dedicated to the “reforging by labor” of seasoned recidivists and political criminals.

During the construction of the canal, the administration used various methods to increase the efficiency of the work performed. The main means of stimulating prisoners was the so-called “pot” - unequal food. The less the prisoner worked, the less food he received. Those prisoners who did not comply with the norms received a “penalty ration.” Naturally, such measures led to instant exhaustion and death. And of course, the rations for the “shock workers” who exceeded the quota did not cover the physical costs.

To increase the efficiency of the canal men's work, competition between brigades, labor collectives, and locks was also used. General days of records were announced. This was facilitated by a sophisticated propaganda campaign praising the state's penitentiary policy.

Thus, the most typical propaganda video was the feature film “Prisoners” about the quick and miraculous transformation of criminals into advanced builders of a new society.

“To you, the builders of the Belomorstroy, who have realized their crimes against Soviet power and are atoning for their guilt through generally useful work, this day should also be dear to you, like every citizen of the USSR,” said the Order for the construction of the White Sea-Baltic waterway and the White Sea-Baltic OGPU camp No. 111 of November 6, 1932

According to the recollections of a prisoner, whose name remains unknown, during the construction of the White Sea Canal, early-released “advanced workers” often spoke out, who “from a piece of paper” read statements similar to the following: “I stole all my life, never got out of prison, and now thanks to the Soviet government, thanks to comrade Stalin, who taught me to work honestly and become a useful person. I decided to stay in my native brigade for another month in order to prove to all the bastards, enemies of the people, that none of their sabotage will prevent us, the working class, from successfully carrying out the plan and completing the great construction of communism - our dear White Sea Canal! I urge everyone not to lose their vigilance and expose the saboteurs who are lurking here and wanted to thwart our plans. Long live Comrade Stalin! Long live our construction chief, Comrade Rapoport!"

About 280 thousand prisoners took part in the construction of the canal, of whom about 100 thousand died.

Brute physical strength by itself could not lead to success in complex hydraulic engineering. Accurate design and engineering calculations were required. To do this, they searched throughout the country, arrested and took any specialists needed here to the construction camp. A third-generation traveling engineer, a representative of the noble Russian Vyazemsky family, Orest Valeryanovich Vyazemsky recalled how after his arrest, during the investigation, he asked the investigator what exactly he was accused of. “You were not a Soviet person,” the NKVD investigator replied. “Yes,” agrees Vyazemsky. - I don’t like meetings, I don’t read Soviet newspapers and I don’t go to rallies. This means that I am not a Soviet person.” And this was enough for Vyazemsky to be sentenced to five years in a camp.

After completing work on the construction of the White Sea Canal, O. V. Vyazemsky, like other designers and engineers, was awarded the order and released from the camp.

Another engineer K. M. Zubrik, who also became an order bearer and became famous for his original design developments on the White Sea Canal, did not know his sentence or even the period he was assigned to spend in the camp for a year and a half after his arrest (December 1930). They forgot to tell him. For the NKVD this was unimportant. And only in June 1932, at the request of his wife, did he find out what he was sentenced for and for how long. K. M. Zubrik also received the order and was released from prison immediately upon completion of the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal.

According to the instructions of I.V. Stalin, a canal 227 km long was to be built in twenty months - from September 1931 to April 1933 (for comparison: the Panama Canal, 80 km long, took 28 years to build, the Suez Canal, 160 km long, took 10 years).In record time, more than 100 complex engineering structures were built, 2.5 thousand km of railway tracks were laid. In the construction of the canal, mainly local, non-scarce building materials were used: wood, stone, soil, peat.

In May 1933, G. G. Yagoda reported to I. V. Stalin about the readiness of the White Sea Canal. Construction was completed on June 20, 1933, the canal was named the “Stalin Canal.” In July of the same year, I.V. Stalin, K.E. Voroshilov and S.M. Kirov took a boat trip along the new man-made waterway. Stalin was pleased. The entire leadership of the OGPU was awarded orders.

In connection with the completion of the construction of the White Sea-Baltic waterway, the USSR Central Executive Committee decided to release ahead of schedule and without any restrictions a significant number of prisoners who “particularly showed themselves to be shock workers, having special merits in this construction.” Never before has such a practice of mass release of prisoners been used in the USSR.

The opening of the channel was accompanied by a powerful information campaign. Newspapers such as Pravda or Izvestia published feature articles, propaganda cartoons, and portraits of workers. Soviet propaganda presented the experience of building the LBC as “the world’s first experience in reforging the most hardened recidivist criminals and political enemies with labor.”

In the summer of 1933, shortly before the opening, the LBC was visited by a group of 120 writers and artists led by Maxim Gorky (among them were such famous writers as Alexey Tolstoy, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Viktor Shklovsky, Ilf and Petrov, Bruno Yasensky, Valentin Kataev , Vera Inber, D.P. Svyatopolk-Mirsky and others) to get acquainted with the miracle of the socialist economy. The writers traveled by steamship along an unfinished canal, visited camps specially prepared for the visit, talked with prisoners, who, of course, praised the party and the great leader for giving them the opportunity to atone for their guilt by hard work on the great construction site, with the leaders of the construction of the facility, and took walks around channel.

The writer Alexander Ovdienko was so amazed that he later recalled: “I was stunned by the wealth of the Kanstroev drummers I saw. Sturgeon fish lay on large dishes under the transparent thickness of the aspic. On narrow plates, pieces of tesh, salmon, and balyk were swimming in fat. A large number of plates were piled high with rings of sausage, ham, and cheese. Fresh radishes were flaming..."

As a result of this trip, 36 writers (among them Maxim Gorky, V.P. Kataev, V.V. Ivanov, V.M. Inber, A.N. Tolstoy, M.M. Zoshchenko, etc.) published a 600-page book “White Sea - Baltic Canal named after Stalin” about the heroic work of the creators of the White Sea Canal and dedicated it to the XVII Congress of the CPSU (b). The writers told the readers of the Soviet country about the unusually high growth rates of the socialist economy, about the hard work of production workers on the construction of the canal, about the inferiority of European-American capitalism, about the heroic efforts of the security officers to organize work and to “reforge” prisoners. Nothing was said about the cruelty of the regime, about hunger, about the cold, about the death of thousands of people, the humiliation of their human dignity. “This is one of the most brilliant victories of the collectively organized energy of people over the elements of the harsh nature of the north. At the same time, this is a very successful experience in the mass transformation of former enemies of the proletariat-dictator and the Soviet public into qualified employees of the working class and even into enthusiasts of state-mandated labor. The quick victory over a nature hostile to people, accomplished by the united onslaught of thousands of heterogeneous, multi-tribal units, is amazing, but even more amazing is the victory that people, anarchized by the recent, bestial power of the autocratic philistinism, won over themselves” - this is the assessment given to the opening of the LBC in this publication.

A.I. Solzhenitsyn wrote about this whole propaganda bacchanalia: “The world-famous BelBaltlag absorbed hundreds of thousands of Russian, Ukrainian and Central Asian men in 1931-1932. Having opened the August 1933 newspaper dedicated to the end of the canal, we read the list of those awarded. Concrete workers and reinforcement workers receive lower orders there, but the highest order, the Order of Lenin, is only given to eight people, with large photographs of each, and it is given only to two engineers themselves, but to the entire senior management of the channel (according to the Stalinist understanding of the role of the individual). And who is in charge there? Genrikh Yagoda, People's Commissar of the NKVD, Matvey Berman, head of the Gulag, Semyon Firin, head of BelBaltlag (by the time of the award he was already the head of Dmitlag, and the whole picture will repeat there again), Lazar Kogan, head of construction (he will also go to the Volgokanal as such), Yakov Rapoport , Deputy Head of Construction, Naftaliy Frenkel, Head of Work at Belomorstroy (and the evil spirit of the entire Archipelago).

And all their portraits were again large-scale repeated in the solemnly shameful book “White Sea Canal” - formatted like a church Gospel, like the Millennium Kingdom ahead. And so, 40 years later, I repeated these six portraits of scoundrels in “Archipelago” - from their own exhibition I took, and not selectively, but all the stewards who were placed.”

The White Sea-Baltic ITL operated from November 1931 to September 1941, its administration was initially located in the city of Medvezhyegorsk, from July 1933 to September 1935 - in the village of Nadvoitsy, and then again in Medvezhyegorsk. The number of prisoners in the camp reached 108,000 people, who were initially employed in the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal, and later in its operation, logging, transport, hydraulic engineering and industrial construction. On August 17, 1933, the Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars “On the White Sea-Baltic Combine” was adopted.

“In order to develop the White Sea-Baltic Canal named after. Stalin and the adjacent areas” the White Sea-Baltic Combine (Belbaltkombinat) was formed, the direct management of which was entrusted to the OGPU. Belbaltkombinat was an independent economic unit.

Ivan Solonevich, who was sent to the plant in 1933 for attempting to escape from the USSR, and who later managed to carry out this attempt, wrote about the BBK: “The White Sea-Baltic Combine - abbreviated BBK - is a whole kingdom with a territory from Petrozavodsk to Murmansk , with its own logging operations, quarries, factories, factories, railway lines and even its own shipyards and shipping company. It has nine “branches”: Murmansk, Tuloma, Kem, Sorokskoe, Segezhskoe, Sosnovets, Watershed, Povenets and Medgorskoe. In each such department there are from five to twenty-seven camp points ("lagpunkts") with a population of from five hundred people to twenty-five thousand. Most camps also have their own “business trips” - all kinds of small enterprises scattered throughout the territory of the camp.

At the station Bear Mountain ("Medgora") is where the administration of the camp is located - it is also the actual government of the so-called "Karelian Republic" - the camp absorbed the republic, seized its territory and - according to the well-known order of Stalin on the organization of the Baltic-White Sea Combine - usurped all economic and administrative functions of the government . This government has only “representation” left, running on orders from Medgora, and the role of decoration for the national autonomy of Karelia.”

The authors of “History of Karelia from ancient times to the present day” note: “The sawmill and woodworking industries developed within the Belbaltkombinat system. In addition to the Medvezhyegorsk and Segezhsky timber mills, taken over from the Karellesdrev trust in 1934, BBK built the Pindushsky, Sunozersky and Letnerechensky timber mills. In addition, the plant had two furniture factories in Medvezhyegorsk and Nadvoitsy, 10 single-frame mobile sawmills and 19 sleeper cutters. Timber chemical production was developed: resin, tar, and coal were collected. Prisoners produced more than a third of the sawmill industry in Karelia."

After completion of construction at the Belomoro-Baltic Combine, 71 thousand prisoners were employed in the operation of the canal.

In 1948, with the beginning of the construction of the subsequent “great construction projects of communism” (the Volga-Don Canal, the Volga-Baltic Waterway, the Kuibyshev and Stalingrad hydroelectric power stations and other objects), the authorities used an already proven method: they built large forced labor camps that served the construction sites. And finding those to fill the vacancies of slaves was easy. Only by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of June 4, 1947, “On criminal liability for theft of state and public property,” hundreds of thousands of people were brought into the zone. Prison labor was used in the most labor-intensive and “harmful” industries.

On March 23, 1939, by Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR No. 321 “On the transfer of the White Sea-Baltic Canal named after Stalin to the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat of Water Resources,” the canal was removed from the structure of the BelBaltKombinat of the OGPU of the USSR and became an independent enterprise.

The creation of the White Sea-Baltic Canal gave birth to Belomorsk, as well as other cities of Karelia from the White Sea to Lake Onega. After the canal began operating, industry began to develop in the republic. On the basis of the canal, a cascade of Vyg hydroelectric power stations was built, providing cheap electricity, which made it possible, for example, to build aluminum and pulp and paper mills.

During the first navigation, 1.143 thousand tons of cargo and 27 thousand passengers were transported. In 1940, traffic volume was about a million tons, representing 44% of capacity.

Thus, the history of the construction and activities of the White Sea-Baltic Canal during the Stalinist period is the history of the suffering of a huge number of Soviet people.

The idea of using mass prison labor, proposed by N.A. Frenkel, and tested during the construction of the White Sea Canal, was repeatedly implemented by the USSR authorities in the future. After the White Sea Canal in Karelia, construction began on the Baikal-Amur Railway, the Moscow-Volga shipping canal and dozens of other plants, factories and cities.

BBK during the Great Patriotic War and in the post-war period

On June 12, 1941, by Order No. 54 on the LBC signed by the Deputy Head of the Directorate - Chief Engineer A.I. Vasilov, the last pre-war navigation was opened in the basin.

And already on June 23, 1941, the day after the start of the Great Patriotic War, the head of the “MPVO facility,” as the Office of the White Sea-Baltic Canal began to be designated in documents, A. I. Vasilov issued order No. 1 “On the introduction of a threatened situation on the White Sea - Baltic Canal named after. Stalin." Round-the-clock duty at intercoms and telephones and constant wearing of gas masks were introduced. Waterworks workers and residents of sluice villages spent 4 hours a day digging cracks to provide shelter from raids.

Nevertheless, the canal staff continued to do their job: they maintained the waterway and hydraulic structures, and locked ships going from south to north, even under continuous enemy bombing.

At the beginning of the war, the NKVD of the USSR gave the order to the Gulag to evacuate into the interior of the country all BBK forestry enterprises, and then the entire plant. However, on July 19, 1941, the Republican Evacuation Commission decided to prohibit the BBK Directorate from dismantling and removing telephone lines, since both the front and Karelia needed them.

The backbone of the workforce of the White Sea-Baltic Canal at that time was mainly made up of people from the organizational recruitment. They came here from villages and forest settlements. They were promised a job, an apartment, and allowances. For example, Taisiya Nikolaevna Novikova came to Karelia in the late 30s voluntarily. The fate of this woman was not easy. At the age of twenty she got married. The husband was at that time the chairman of the village council. In 1932 she completed pedagogical courses in the town of Poshekhonovo, Volodarsky district, then worked as an accountant and teacher. In 19936, the husband was arrested under Art. 74 of the Criminal Code (slander of the social system) and was taken to prison for two and a half years. Somehow his wife managed to find out that he was exiled to the LBC. Taking two children, she followed him. In Karelia, the family stayed in the village of Povenets. The woman got a job as an accountant at a ship repair plant.

The premonition of an approaching military thunderstorm was especially felt at the LBC. A formidable order appears at the canal facilities regarding the state of official discipline and vigilance. Women studied chemical protective equipment in courses and learned to provide medical care.

On July 1, 1941, on the basis of a decree of the NKVD of the USSR, the evacuation of prisoners who worked in the BBK system began. Among the first to be evacuated were “the most dangerous elements”: those convicted of counter-revolutionary activities, foreign nationals, as well as “persons of certain nationalities” (Germans, Finns, etc.). 24,880 prisoners were transported by water and rail to Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Kirov, Yaroslavl and other regions.

Navigation in 1941 was difficult; planes were constantly flying from the Finnish border. The enemy was well aware of this artificial waterway. On June 28, the first bomb fell on airlock number six. Raids were also carried out on other hydraulic structures. In total, there were 5 bombings of the canal in June 1941. 1941, on August 28, the enemy launched the last (fifth) bombing of the 1941 navigation. Gateway No. 7 was attacked. No damage was found.

In August 1941, the Administration of the BBK and technical sections was evacuated to Belomorsk, to lock No. 19. Of the 800 workers, 80 remained on the canal. The rest were evacuated.

After the surrender of Petrozavodsk, our troops retreated to the north. At the end of October 1941, a decision was made to evacuate the Povenetsk shipyard to Belomorsk. By that time, this enterprise had grown from semi-handicraft workshops into a modern, well-equipped production facility. The main equipment of the plant was dismantled and loaded onto ships. Barges were loaded with materials and everything necessary for work at the new location. Workers and specialists were sent from Povenets to Belomorsk along with the equipment. In addition, the caravan included barges with employees of the factory’s labor supply department, medical service specialists, among them was T.N. Novikova. They were accompanied by tugboats. The director of the plant, I. Sh. Faizulin, was appointed head of the caravan.

In November, a caravan of passenger ships with evacuated families of Povenets water workers and residents of surrounding villages, as well as equipment, froze into the ice of Vygozero. T. Novikova’s granddaughter T. Sokolova recalls: “My grandmother often told us that the caravan was sent when the canal was already covered with ice. The locking went with great difficulty. The gates and mechanisms froze. Ice interfered with the operation of hand winches. Nevertheless, the caravan made its way to the village of Sosnowiec and stood at gateway number fifteen. It was not possible to reach the White Sea, but the workers did not sit idly by. They built a diesel engine, a generator and made lighting. The machines were connected and production of hand grenade parts began. Thus, the ship turned into a floating factory-workshop. Later, an icebreaker was allocated and part of the caravan was brought to Belomorsk." Here the plant began to operate at full capacity. Workers and specialists of the Povenetsky shipyard produced mines for mortars, machine guns and pistols. For exactly a year the Povenets worked near Belomorsk. T was in charge of accounting for all work and finances .N. Novikova In 1942, the floating plant was transferred from Karelia to Veliky Ustyug, and Taisiya Nikolaevna remained with the children in the village of Vodnikov. She worked as an accountant for the material part of the BOP management.

“My grandmother recalled,” says her granddaughter T. Sokolova, “that during the war they lived in dugouts, which were located on the site where the seaport entrance is now. Then they were moved to barracks, and only in the 50s the family received an apartment. All my life my grandmother was demanding and honest. For her work during the war, she was awarded the medal “For Valorous Labor in the Second World War.” She did not tell anyone about her fate. She never met the husband she came to the canal to pick up. When we asked her about her grandfather, she said that she received news that he died in the Far East on Victory Day. We have not seen any documents about his death. Only after my grandmother’s death did they find old photographs in her bag, an extract from the registry for 1904, as well as a 1917 certificate of her graduation from the city school. It was then that we realized that there were many interesting things in our grandmother’s life that were unknown to us. But the fact that she linked her destiny with the channel is for sure.”

Belomorsk resident I.G. also took part in the evacuation of the ship repair yard from Povenets. Sverchkov. In 1933, while still a teenager, he began working on ships as a fireman, and later became a mechanic on the steamship Karl Marx. In an interview with the newspaper “Vodnik Karelia”, Ivan Grigorievich described in detail how in September 1941, caravans of ships on which the plant’s equipment was loaded headed for Belomorsk. With great difficulty, under bombing, the ships moved forward, despite the fact that the canal was already covered with ice. “We had to pick up people in the villages for evacuation,” the veteran recalled. – And on Vygozero the ice already reached 20 cm. The steamships “Karl Marx”, “Pyatiletka”, “A.” were sailing along one lane. Zhdanov”, “Sacco and Vanzetti”, “Northern Commune” and two boats. In Vygozero it became clear: further advance was impossible. All passengers and part of the ship's crew were taken to Segezha. Only eleven people, among them I.G. Sverchkov remained to protect state property. Firewood had to be delivered from the shore, which was 20 km away. It was also difficult to obtain food. Later, the steamship Karl Marx was placed at the disposal of the military; it delivered food, ammunition, and transported the wounded to the front. Ivan Grigorievich celebrated the victorious May 1945 in Belomorsk, at which time he worked in repair shops.

On the night of November 12-13, another caravan of ships froze into the ice of the Zaonezhsky Gulf in the Megostrov area and was captured by units of the Finnish army. The captain of the steamship "Metallist" Egor Ivanovich Zaonegin fulfilled his professional duty to the end. He destroyed the ship's property and documents and was shot.

On December 5, 1941, units of the Finnish army captured Medvezhyegorsk. On December 6 - 11, fierce battles took place in the area of locks No. 1 - 7 BBK.

On December 7, by decision of the leadership of the Karelian Front, a plan was implemented to decommission the BBK hydraulic structures: 7 locks of the Povenchanskaya Stairs were blown up, and water was released from most of the pools of the southern slope in the direction of Lake Onega to flood the area adjacent to the canal. Finnish troops were stopped at the canal line until June 1944.

Already on March 3, 1942, the Board of the People's Commissariat of River Fleet of the USSR decided to begin preparations for the restoration of the LBC, and in May 1944, the Canal Route Administration developed the first plan for its reconstruction.

On June 22, 1944, Finnish troops were expelled from Povenets and from the southern slope of the canal. It became possible to assess the damage caused by the war and begin restoration work. On September 6, 1944, the “Act on the damage caused by the Nazi invaders and their accomplices to the White Sea-Baltic Canal Route Administration named after comrade” was signed. Stalin."

The structures of seven waterworks were completely or partially destroyed, including 7 locks, 4 spillways, 1 dam, 4 dams, as well as lock villages, residential buildings of the administration, a military camp in Povenets, lighthouses and coastal signs remaining in the territory occupied by the enemy . The total cost of restoration is determined at 92 million 650 thousand 210 rubles.

In October 1944, the first group of leaders and specialists from the Belomorstroy Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR arrived in Medvezhyegorsk under the leadership of engineer-Colonel V.P. Busygin, who was entrusted by the government with work to restore the southern slope of the canal.

In May 1945, full-scale restoration work began on the southern slope of the canal. The restoration was completed on July 28, 1946. Costs amounted to 77 million 780 thousand 489 rubles. 69 kopecks Through navigation was officially opened along the entire length of the LBC. In honor of the completion of the restoration work, J.V. Stalin sent a welcoming telegram to the builders of Belomorstroy. In memory of the fallen defenders of the canal, monuments of grief were erected at Lock No. 9, which are carefully guarded by the workers of the waterworks.

On August 22, 1946, the BBK Track Directorate moved from Gateway No. 19, where it was located during the war, to Medvezhyegorsk and was located in buildings transferred by Belomorstroy.

On November 18, 1947, the technical section of the Belomorstroy Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, which was engaged in the operation of the waterworks of the southern slope of the canal after their restoration, was liquidated. The operation of the LBC along its entire length was once again completely entrusted to the Rope Route Administration.

In the 1950s, after the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR on the overhaul and reconstruction of the BBK hydraulic structures was adopted on February 2, 1950, work began on the gradual electrification of the canal’s structures and mechanisms. The first own construction organization was created on the canal - Remstroykontor under the leadership of N.P. Ivanova.

On August 10, 1952, the channel changed its name. The Basin Route Directorate of the Stalin LBC became known as the Stalin LBC Directorate.

In 1953, electricians were included in the staff of the waterworks. At the BBK, work began on converting the mechanisms to an electric drive. At the First Conference on the Operation of Hydraulic Structures of the USSR Ministry of River Fleet, held on February 2-6, 1954 in Kalach, the work of the LBC operators over the first 20 years was highly appreciated.

By 1957, work on the electrification of waterworks on the northern slope of the canal was largely completed, and in 1959, all coastal and floating situation lights were switched to electric power. As of this year, there are no longer beacon attendants at the LBC.

On August 2, 1958, the BBK team solemnly celebrated the 25th anniversary of the commissioning of the White Sea-Baltic Canal. The deputy head of Belomorstroy in 1931 - 1933, Ya. D. Rapoport, took part in the celebrations.

During these years, literate, knowledgeable people came to work for the canal: LIVT graduate V.V. Gudzansky, who became the chief engineer of the BBK, Yu. Ya. Sholokhov, V.A. Aleksandrov, who at different times became the head of the BBK, young graduates of the Leningrad River School Evgeny Fedorov, Evgeny Volkov, Vladimir Ivanov, Evgeny Stankevich, Anatoly Stekolshchikov, Vladimir Sidorov, Vladimir Voynov, Yuri Shalin, Vasily Aldoshkin and others.

Young hydraulic engineers of the 50s - early 60s, who had the difficult task of modernizing the shipping route, making work on its hydraulic structures and services consonant with the renewal processes taking place in the national economic complex of the country, for the most part were not only highly qualified specialists, but also versatile, talented people. E.V. Stankevich was an excellent connoisseur of nature. Artistic photographs of Yu. V. Shalin are known throughout the northern slope of the canal. The poetic work of V. A. Aldoshkin is also known to the residents of Karelia.

From December 6, 1961, the White Sea-Baltic Canal, which bore the name of the “leader of the peoples,” lost the name of Stalin in its name.

In 1963, the first ships carrying export cargo passed along the LBC from points on the White Sea.

The importance of the White Sea-Baltic Canal especially increased after the commissioning of the modern Volga-Baltic waterway in June 1964. The freight line Kandalaksha - Cherepovets was opened. The canal's capacity and the actual volume of cargo transportation have increased several times.

Thus, during the Great Patriotic War, the canal staff continued to do their work: they served the waterway and hydraulic structures, and locked ships going from south to north, even under continuous enemy bombing.

For almost three years, the southern slope blocked the enemy’s path to the east, while the northern slope operated continuously. Ammunition and weapons, troops and food were transported along the locked route. During the Great Patriotic War, the canal, as a strategically important transport artery, was destroyed.

The importance of the White Sea-Baltic Canal especially increased after the commissioning of the modern Volga-Baltic waterway in June 1964.

Conclusion

The White Sea - Baltic Canal continues to work for the country's economy for more than 70 years. And its importance is difficult to overestimate. The waterway, which the Pomeranian merchant Fyodor Antonov once dreamed of, supplies the largest enterprises of the Kola Peninsula and the Arkhangelsk region from the industrial and trade centers of Russia.

The White Sea Canal changed the economic map of the North-West of the Russian Federation and made adjustments to the economic and military doctrines of a number of Northern European states.

The channel has a complex, sometimes tragic history. It was on the White Sea Canal that the Bolsheviks decided to show the world the advantages of the socialist system.

The idea proposed by N.A. Frenkel about the use of slave labor of prisoners, was tested during the construction of the White Sea Canal.

After the White Sea Canal, construction began on the Baikal-Amur Railway, the Moscow-Volga shipping canal and dozens of other plants, factories and cities.

The creation of the BBK gave birth to Belomorsk, as well as other cities of Karelia from the White Sea to Lake Onega. After the canal began operating, industry began to develop in the republic. On the basis of the canal, a cascade of Vyg hydroelectric power stations was built, providing cheap electricity, which made it possible, for example, to build aluminum and pulp and paper mills.

New cities and settlements also grew - Medvezhyegorsk, Segezha, Nadvoitsy. The town of Povenets became a large port, and Belomorsk became an important industrial center.

During the Great Patriotic War, the canal staff continued to do their job: they maintained the waterway and hydraulic structures, and locked ships going from south to north, even under continuous enemy bombing.

After the expulsion of the occupiers, the borders of the canal were restored, the destroyed structures were rebuilt, and transit traffic of ships along the entire route was opened.

During the Soviet period, it was actively used for transporting domestic cargo.

In the 1970s, the canal was reconstructed. In the early 1970s. After building up the crests of dams, dikes, structures of hydraulic structures and lifting mechanisms on the LBC, a guaranteed depth of the navigation channel was established at 4 meters. The canal became an equal link in the Unified deep-water system of the European part of the RSFSR. In the mid-1970s. At all waterworks, the emergency repair gates were completely replaced, then the replacement of the riveted metal gates of the sluice chambers with new, all-welded ones began. On January 1, 1976, full-scale work began on the reconstruction of the BBK hydraulic structures at the expense of centralized capital investments from the country's budget. This became possible thanks to the decision of the XXV Congress of the CPSU, which included in the program of the most important works of the upcoming five-year period the beginning of the reconstruction of the canal without decommissioning it.

On July 30, 1983, the channel staff solemnly celebrated the 50th anniversary of the launch of the BBK into operation. For its great contribution to the development of the national economy of the European North, the canal was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. The peak of cargo transportation through the canal occurred in 1985. At that time, 7 million 300 thousand tons of cargo were transported along the White Sea-Baltic waterway, and 62,030 locks were made during navigation. Such volumes of traffic remained over the next five years, after which the intensity of shipping along the canal decreased significantly.

With the beginning of perestroika, many enterprises in the country stopped, and others reduced production volumes several times - accordingly, the volume of cargo transported along the White Sea Mainline also sharply decreased.

In the 90s, the White Sea-Baltic Canal fully felt the negative consequences of the changes taking place in the country. Thus, in 1995, for the first time in the entire period of reconstruction of the canal, work on the shipping route was suspended at the most inopportune time due to lack of funding. At the end of the 90s. ships on the canal route could be seen, at best, 2 - 3 times a week. Young people left the area around the canal and went to Petrozavodsk. Gateway villages fell into disrepair. The lack of funding also affected the technical condition of the canal structures. There were even proposals to close the channel as unnecessary.

At that moment, the canal was defended by the military - they needed it to transport submarines that were being built and repaired in St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod to the White Sea, to the northern borders of Russia. Actually, the canal was created in the thirties primarily as a strategic, military facility, although it was officially stated that the construction was organized in order to boost the national economy.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the volume of cargo transportation along the canal began to gradually increase, but it still remains much lower than before.

However, at present, the White Sea - Baltic Canal is the largest inter-basin connection in the north-west of the country - a reliable water transport route, which is part of the Unified deep-water system of the European part of Russia, connecting five seas, and allowing the operation of large-capacity vessels of the mixed "river-sea" navigation and carry out non-transshipment transportation of export and import cargo. Today, nearly a thousand qualified specialists work at its waterworks. All ship passage processes here have long been automated

Certifies ship officers;

Organizes work to eliminate oil and oil product spills on inland waterways.

Of the total length of the system (227 km), artificial canals account for 43 km and lakes, reservoirs and impounded rivers account for 184 km. The canal structures include 19 locks (of which 13 are double-chamber and 6 are single-chamber), 15 dams, 51 dams, 12 spillways for regulating the pools. The length of the pressure front is more than 50 km.

A cascade of five hydroelectric power stations operates on the canal structures, which supply energy to the Republic of Karelia. Unlike other canal structures, the hydroelectric power station does not belong to the state, but to the private company OJSC TGC-1.

Continuous modernization and reconstruction of the canal continues today. Thanks to the channel, the Republic of Karelia is developing.

The channel allows you to speed up the exchange of goods throughout the Russian North. In addition to transport and cargo purposes, the canal today is a route for tourist ships going from Moscow and St. Petersburg to Belomorsk and further to the Solovetsky Islands. Modern workers of the White Sea Canal know and remember their history. They publish various essays and articles, create a museum, and commemorate the builders with Orthodox churches and memorial crosses.

Today, on the basis of the canal there is a historical and cultural complex “White Sea - Baltic Canal”, which is a system of hydraulic structures, residential and administrative buildings, and memorial sites for the construction of the canal. Along the canal there are several monuments to prisoners who died during construction. In Povenets, a wooden memorial church (Church of St. Nicholas) was built in memory of the victims.

The reconstruction of the White Sea Canal hydraulic structures is prescribed in the subprogram of the Ministry of Transport “Inland Waterways”.

Legendary Thirty, route

Through the mountains to the sea with a light backpack. Route 30 passes through the famous Fisht - this is one of the most grandiose and significant natural monuments of Russia, the highest mountains closest to Moscow. Tourists travel lightly through all the landscape and climatic zones of the country from the foothills to the subtropics, spending the night in shelters.

Seal

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