The 20th century was a time of incredible breakthroughs of mankind, innovative technical solutions that divided the world into 2 parts: the primitive past with wooden carriages and kerosene lamps and the digital future, which the inventors so sought, bringing its discovery after discovery.
The USSR accounted for a large number of grandiose achievements of technological progress, often the country was in this or that industry “first in the world”. However, there were large-scale projects in the Soviet Union labeled “secret”, which for some reason could not be fully implemented, and they remained on the drawings or the initial stage of construction. One of such “construction projects of the century” was the tunnel to Sakhalin (photo and information about it - in the article).
The history of the idea and the first idea
The very first mentions of connecting Sakhalin Island with the mainland by transport (not air) date back to the end of the 19th century. However, then the idea was quickly rejected because of the lack of the necessary amount of funds, and also because of inexpediency from an economic point of view. The next time, the topic of building a tunnel to Sakhalin under the Tatar Strait was raised at the turn of the 20-30s. last century, and again the idea was crowned with nothing. And so, in the beginning of 1950 they started talking about the crossing again, this time - in earnest, officially and in the main office of the country.
Comrade Stalin
Iosif Vissarionovich personally came up with the idea. It was supposed to railway communication through the construction of a bridge or tunnel on Sakhalin. At about the same time, the first secretary of the Sakhalin Regional Committee of the CPSU (B.) D. N. Melnik was urgently called from Sakhalin to Moscow. Of course, the diplomat collected all reports on the situation in the region and ongoing work, but he did not know the real reason for such an urgent call. However, Comrade Melnik had nothing to worry about, because his presence at the meeting held on March 26, 1950 in the Kremlin walls became a formality. The question of whether to build a tunnel or not was already resolved positively, moreover, at that moment when Stalin was only visited by the thought of this.
The purpose of the meeting was to draft a project. Nevertheless, a question was raised from the lips of the leader. After listening to Melnik’s report, Joseph Vissarionovich asked: “How do you feel about connecting Sakhalin to the mainland by rail?” The stunned secretary, of course, knew what should not be said, but nevertheless tried to hint to Stalin that the construction would require tremendous resources, both human and financial. Needless to say, the leader took the answer as "unconvincing" by Melnik ... Can you imagine what the regional secretary had to say to Stalin so that he could convincingly, and at the same time carry his head on his shoulders? The question is rhetorical.
Mystery of the century
The practical part of the grandiose construction was not long in coming, and on May 5, 1950, the USSR Council of Ministers issued a secret resolution on the construction of the Komsomolsk-on-Amur-Pobedino railway line, which was to become part of the tunnel to Sakhalin Island. The secrecy was not only due to the fact that the implementation of such an idea in the 50s was on the verge of something fantastic, the mystery also covered the strategic component of the construction. Indeed, from a military point of view, the tunnel section of the highway would be a very profitable object, being an invulnerable "artery". In particular, the resolution included a clause requiring the mandatory construction of false landmarks of an imaginary tunnel within a radius of 50 kilometers from the construction of the present tunnel.
Project
Events developed very rapidly, and already in September the USSR Council of Ministers approved technical regulations for the design and construction of the Stalin tunnel to Sakhalin with adjacent railways. From the side of Sakhalin, the length of the track under the project was 327 kilometers. The beginning of the tunnel was supposed to be in the area of Cape Pogibi. While on the mainland it was planned to build a railway from Cape Lazarev to the Selikhin station, which is near Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Accordingly, the tunnel itself was supposed to connect the closest points to the island and the mainland, its length according to the project was about 10 kilometers. The cost of grand construction was estimated at 723 million rubles. The deadlines for the work set the most severe. According to the plan, the first loaded train was supposed to travel through the tunnel at the end of 1955, and this despite the fact that detailed engineering studies, as well as geological surveys in the territory of the future tunnel were not carried out. However, in those days it was not customary to discuss orders from above, which means that the approved project would certainly have been implemented on time, regardless of what human and material resources would be required for this.
Who carried out the construction, and in what conditions was the implementation
Let's go back a little. Literally a week after the publication of the secret resolution, on May 12, 2 units are created under the code names "Construction 506" and "Construction 507", with centers on both sides, in Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky and in De-Kastri, respectively. To implement the construction and laying of the tunnel itself, a special unit was formed, which was called "Construction No. 6 of the Ministry of Railways of the USSR".
The construction crews, which were supposed to lay the railway tracks to the tunnel, consisted mainly of Gulag prisoners, while the "Construction No. 6" consisted of military, parole, hired specialists, as well as distribution engineers. Due to the catastrophically short timeframes, the first stages of implementation began as soon as the prisoners were brought to their place. The project has not yet been finalized, and sometimes builders simply had nowhere to live. However, when housing and basic conditions appeared, it did not become sweeter from this. Everything was equipped, as if people had been brought for a week, and not for 5 years. Plywood, tent-type buildings, where the roof often leaked, the lack of the proper number of dining rooms, warm clothes, baths and washbasins created the conditions of this hard labor. Dirt and dampness in the barracks often led to workers getting scurvy. Not surprisingly, as a result of all this, mortality among prisoners was high.
What managed to build
Stalin personally controlled the implementation of his idea, periodically calling from the Kremlin and reminding construction managers of the timelines and their personal responsibility. However, Joseph Vissarionovich was not destined to see the grandiose idea embodied in life. March 5, 1953 it became known about the death of the leader. By that time, about 120 kilometers of the railway had been built from the mainland, at the site of the alleged beginning of the tunnel (Cape Lazarev), it was possible to dig a mine shaft, and an artificial island was poured at a distance of 1.5 kilometers from the coast. From Sakhalin, for almost 3 years, it was not possible to build even a kilometer of railways. This is due to worse working conditions than on the mainland. All that was possible to do was the dirt road with the message “Kill - Nysh.”
The fate of the tunnel
Together with Stalin, the implementation of a large-scale project, which, if successfully completed, could become one of the significant world events of the twentieth century, died. On March 27, 1953, a massive amnesty was announced, during which the Construction 506 unit very quickly lost a significant amount of labor.
However, the main reason for the freezing, and subsequently termination of construction, was the statement of the Minister of Internal Affairs L.P. Beria, which stated that the construction of large-scale projects, such as railways and enterprises, was not caused by the needs of the national economy. The USSR Council of Ministers approved the application, and on May 20 of the same year, the construction of the Komsomolsk-on-Amur-Pobedino railway line was completely closed. The project was curtailed at the same lightning speed that it was deployed.
Memoirs of the participants
The most famous published memory of the construction of the Sakhalin tunnel belongs to Yu. A. Koshelev. Then, during the implementation work, he was a young engineer sent by distribution, and served as master of the main work. In his statement, Yuri Anatolyevich enthusiastically narrates about big plans for construction and very regrets that the gigantic project has sunk into oblivion. He tells how after Stalin's death they wrote to Moscow, literally asking for permission for further work. And if there were about 12 construction crews subordinate to Koshelev, how interesting it would be to read the recollections of ordinary workers forced to live and work in inhuman conditions! Would they just as happily tell us about the "construction of the century"? Again a rhetorical question.
More than 60 years later
Today, Sakhalin’s communication with the “big land” is still carried out only with the help of aviation and a ferry. Of course, such means can hardly cope with the transport load of the region. However, there is no evidence that the construction of the tunnel on Sakhalin will be resumed. There is only a project according to which a bi-directional railway bridge will connect the island with the mainland . Dates for the implementation of this project are not indicated.