Stalins failed GULAG: The Trans Polar Railway ( Construction No. 501)
The TransPolar is also referred to variously as Dead Road, and Stalinbahn, is an incomplete railway in Northern Siberia. The railway was a project of the Soviet Gulag system that took place from 1947 until Stalin s death in 1953. Construction was coordinated via two separate Gulag projects, the 501 Railroad beginning on the River Ob and 503 Railroad beginning on the River Yenisey, part of a grand design of Joseph Stalin to span a railroad across northern Siberia to reach the Soviet Union s easternmost territories. The purpose of the railway was threefold: to facilitate the export of nickel from neighboring Norilsk; to provide work for thousands of postwar prisoners; to connect the deepwater seaports of Igarka and Salekhard with the western Russian railway network. With the Soviet industry relocated to western Siberia during World War II, it was seen as a strategic advantage to use the northwardflowing river systems to deliver supplies to Arctic Ocean ports. Salekhard was on the Ob River, d
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