Road to death: 17,000 road workers froze to death and were buried under permafrost road
Construction of roads in cold regions is a big project, and it is a test for current technologies and construction workforce of this country, especially for Russia, which has a vast high mountain territory, and even more difficult for Siberia. There is not only a very high latitude, but also cold weather and a large area of frozen land.
However, Russians built roads in this environment and paid a high price. One of roads is even known as death road, littered with human bones. This is Kolyma death road.
This highway was designed and built in former Soviet Union.Because it was built along Kolyma River, it was called Kolyma Tract, but it is more commonly known as Road of Bones< /strong>.
Just by name alone, you can tell that this road has a special origin. This is road that ends in Magadan. Most importantly, this road was built by labor prisoners in nearby concentration camps< /strong> strong>.
In former Soviet Union in Siberia, there were a large number of concentration camps or forced labor camps specially created for work of coolies.
They built many things in extremely difficult conditions, including roads and mine excavations. It can be said that they sacrificed a lot for industrialization of former Soviet Union.
Most of prisoners in these camps were war criminals during Great Patriotic War, and they happened to meet a period when industrial production was booming in post-Soviet space. These people deservedly became best victims.
Since Siberia is most difficult environment in former Soviet Union, resources and basic public facilities were not developed or mined, so this place became the best place for these labor camp inmates.
Many labor camps have been built in Siberian forests or along rivers. Prisoners are sent here for imprisonment and labor. Due to harsh climate and poor living conditions of prisoners, countless people died on this land.
If prisoner can survive, he can immediately remain in area as an immigrant after his sentence expires. It can be said that development of every piece of land in Siberia and construction of each section of road were built at that time with lives of labor prisoners.
In terms of historical status, Magadan is undoubtedly very important for former Soviet Union in Siberia. Historically it was an outpost that could support Tsarist Russian colonies, and now it has also become an important port of entry and exit for former Soviet Union.
Some shafts have been dug out of forest and supporting main residential cities have been built around them, so a road needs to be built here to facilitate transportation of materials and better control of city.
This highway has been under construction since 1932 and took over 20 years to complete. Initially, only a few prisoners were allowed to build this road, but later, because conditions became too harsh, almost half of prisoners managed to escape.
The other half of people died of exhaustion and froze to death due to poor living conditions and poor protection from cold.Thus, three groups of people /strong> were sent to build road, plus subsequent maintenance and mining, there were a total of about 20,000 people to complete construction of this road.
The complexity and construction conditions of this road are epic. First, complexity of road construction. This road was built in Siberia, where not only long-term cold and heavy snowstorms, but also a large area of permafrost in lower layer of earth, in conditions of that time It is incredible to build a road on frozen ground.
Prisoners have to wear thin clothes during a blizzard to dig roads. Hard and unstable permafrost increases likelihood of freezing to death or injury. Secondly, construction of roads at that time could be carried out only by one force, without any kind of large-sized machines now.
We can only rely on prisoners to use pickaxes to slowly complete a building project, which leads to prisoner exhaustion. In addition to cold weather and lack of logistical security, almost majority of road workers died on road. The road is under construction.
Now this road is still preserved on mainland of Siberia, and it is still working, but even with development of mechanical engineering, this road still does not dare to go through.
But it may seem to you that you are afraid to pass in winter. In fact, most difficult thing is summer, because in summer it will be very hot on Siberian plateau, and permafrost will warm up. Canvas on road everything turned into a quagmire.
Besides, river next to it is also very rough, vehicles carrying supplies are unlikely to dare to pass, they will definitely get stuck in the mud.
However, with continuous improvement of technology, this road is also gradually being repaired. Most importantly, Magadan, an important city, has built its own airport. There is a road, but existence of this road is still an indispensable infrastructure for Magadan.