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White Sea- Baltic Canal is an artificial channel
that connects White Sea to Baltic Sea. Although the main purpose of
White Sea- Baltic Canal or simply Belomorkanal is a commercial one
it became a symbol of Communist oppression. During its construction
126,000 prisoners from GULAG concentration camps were forced to come
here. Over 12,000 to 25,000 of them died. History
of White Sea- Baltic Canal began in 1930 when Joseph Stalin ordered
planning of an artificial channel that would link White Sea that was
part of the North Arctic Ocean and the Baltic Sea that is part of
the Atlantic. In July 1931 Soviet government got first drafts for
the creation of this large construction project. In February 1932
construction plans were approved even though the construction began
in the late 1931. White Sea- Baltic Canal was built between 1931 and
1933. Despite the fact that Soviet government at the time lacked
large industrial potential to erect such grandiose building they
managed to construct White Sea- Baltic Canal in record time. Their
solution to lack of funds and technology was forcing slave labour of
inmates from GULAG (shortened version of the Main Administration of
Camps). They were armed with chisels, sledge hammers, shovels and
axes.
First row from right to left: Naftaly Frenkel, head of Gulag Matvei Berman and chief of the Southern part of White Sea- Baltic Canal Afanasyev.
The idea of creating a waterway, projects,
surveys
The water-land Onega-White Sea route connecting Povenets
with Pomorie has been known for a long time - it was used in the
16th-17th centuries by local residents, community members of the Old
Believer Vygoretsky monastery and pilgrims going to the shrines of
the Solovetsky Monastery. In the geographical description of Russia
"The Book of the Big Drawing" (1627) the White Sea water-land route
is indicated with the distances between the rivers and lakes that
were part of the route.
For the first time, the idea of
building a navigable canal arose during the Northern War and
belonged to Tsar Peter I, with whose personal participation in 1702
two frigates were delivered from the White Sea to Lake Onega, partly
by dragging.
In the 19th century, by order of the government,
several studies of the territory were carried out and several
projects for the construction of a navigable canal were developed:
the first was a project of a military engineer, Major General
F.P.Devolan in 1800, a project of Count A. H. Benckendorff in 1835,
a project of an adjutant wing Loshkarev in 1857, the project of
engineer A.F. Zdzyarsky in 1888. In 1900, Professor V.E. Timonov was
awarded the gold medal of the Paris World Exhibition for his own
project for the construction of a navigable canal. And although the
construction options were rejected by the government due to their
high cost, the development of the projects of the shipping channel
continued, due to its strategic importance for the Navy.
Construction
On July 31, 1930, under the Council of Labor and
Defense of the USSR (STO USSR), under the chairmanship of People's
Commissar of Water Transport of the USSR N.M. Yanson, a Special
Committee for the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Waterway
(BBWP) was created. The final decision on the construction of the
BBVP was made by the STO of the USSR on February 18, 1931. For the
construction of the BBVP, on November 16, 1931, the White Sea-Baltic
Forced Labor Camp (Belbaltlag) was organized on the basis of the
Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp (SLON).
On July 1, 1931, the
first draft designs were submitted for consideration, and a month
later design work began on the ground.
Although the final
project was approved in February 1932, construction began at the end
of 1931, it lasted 1 year and 9 months (according to other sources -
20 months). In record time, more than 100 complex engineering
structures were built, 2.5 thousand km of railway tracks were laid.
The construction was carried out without modern technology and
without supplies from the country, practically by hand. In the
construction of the canal, mainly local non-scarce building
materials were used: wood, stone, soil, peat.
The
construction was carried out mainly by the forces of the GULAG
prisoners. In different periods of construction, the number of
prisoners changed, reaching 108 thousand people by the end of 1932.
The division of the GULAG on the channel was called the White
Sea-Baltic camp ("BelBaltLag"). The prisoners who worked at the
construction site were called "canal army", by analogy with the Red
Army men - the organizers tried to give the construction the most
militarized form; the words "headquarters", "company", etc. were
also used.
The future People's Commissar of Internal Affairs
of the USSR Genrikh Yagoda and the head of the Gulag Matvey Berman
became the supervisors of the construction. The construction of the
canal from 1931 to 1933 was directed by N. A. Frenkel. It is he who
is credited with the idea of using the cheap labor of prisoners to
work on large national economic construction sites. EI Senkevich, PF
Aleksandrov and SG Firin were also included in the management of
BelBaltLag at the construction stage.
In general, during the
entire construction period, the canal army carried out excavation
work in the volume of 21 million cubic meters, built 37 km of
artificial tracks, moved the Murmansk railway, which interfered with
the earthwork. The food ration of prisoners for shock work
increased: those who fulfilled and exceeded the norm (in excavation
work 2.5 m³ per day) received a reinforced bread ration (up to 1200
g), a premium dish (for example, 75-gram pies with cabbage or
potatoes), and a cash bonus. Moral incentives were also used: giving
the team or phalanx a rolling Red Banner, announcing gratitude,
presenting letters of gratitude, placing the names of shock workers
on the Hall of Fame), as well as credit for 3 working days in 5
days, and for shock workers “a day in two”.
According to official data, 12,300 prisoners died
during the construction of the canal in BelBaltLag, including 1,438
in 1931 (2.24% of those who worked), in 1932 - 2010 (2.03%), in 1933
- 8,870 ( 10.56%), which was due to a reduction in supply due to
hunger in the country and a rush before the completion of
construction. Unofficial estimates start at 50,000 and go up to
300,000.
In May 1933, G. G. Yagoda reported to I. V. Stalin
on the readiness of the White Sea Canal.
Construction was
completed on June 20, 1933. On June 25, 1933, the steamer "Chekist"
sailed along the entire canal from beginning to end. In July of the
same year, J. V. Stalin, K. E. Voroshilov and S. M. Kirov take a
boat trip along a new man-made waterway. According to eyewitnesses,
Stalin said that the canal turned out to be shallow and narrow, and
also described it as meaningless and useless (the depth of the canal
at that time was only 3.65 m).
By the decree of the Council
of People's Commissars of the USSR dated August 2, 1933, the
Baltic-White Sea waterway was put into operation with the assignment
of the name “White Sea-Baltic Canal named after Comrade Stalin "and
is open for navigation of ships of the lake-sea type.
After
the completion of construction on August 4, 1933, 12,484 prisoners
were released, the terms for 59,516 prisoners were reduced.
Decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR of August 4,
1933, a group of the most distinguished workers, engineers and
construction managers of the White Sea-Baltic Canal were awarded the
orders of the USSR:
The Order of Lenin was awarded to 6
prominent figures of the OGPU - Genrikh Yagoda (Deputy Chairman of
the OGPU USSR), Matvey Berman (Head of the Main Directorate of OGPU
Forced Labor Camps), Lazar Kogan (Head of Belomorstroy), Yakov
Rapoport (Deputy Head of Belomorstroy and Deputy Head of the Chief
administration of labor camps of the OGPU), Semyon Firin (head of
Belbaltlag) and Naftali Frenkel (assistant to the head of
Belomorstroy - head of work), as well as 2 amnestied in 1932 deputy
chief engineer of Belomorstroy - Sergey Zhuk and Konstantin
Verzhbitsky;
8 people were awarded the Order of the Red Star;
The Order of the Red Banner of Labor was awarded to 15 people,
including the chief engineer of Belomorstroy Nikolai Khrustalev, who
was amnestied in 1932.
Channel opening (August 1933).
Propaganda
The official opening of the canal took place on August
2, 1933.
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 the
construction of the BBK as "the world's first experience of
reforging by labor the most inveterate recidivist criminals and
political enemies."
On August 17, 1933, a group of 120
writers and artists visited the BBK (among them were such famous
writers as Alexey Tolstoy, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Vs. Ivanov, Viktor
Shklovsky, Ilf and Petrov, Bruno Yasensky, Valentin Kataev, Vera
Inber, S. Budantsev , D. Mirsky and others) to illuminate the
construction of the canal. Some of them (36 people) then took part
in writing a 600-page book dedicated to the creation of the White
Sea Canal. Commemorative book "White Sea-Baltic Canal named after
Stalin" was published at the end of 1934 by the State. publishing
house "History of Factories and Plants", especially for the XVII
Congress of the Communist Party. The editors of the book were: Maxim
Gorky, L. L. Averbakh, S. G. Firin. Many authors, as well as editors
L. L. Averbakh and S. G. Firin, were subsequently arrested.
The idea of this trip and the writing of the book belonged to M.
Gorky. For the first time he expressed it during a personal
conversation with Stalin, the idea received agreement and support.
The Resolution of the Central Executive Committee of August 4, 1933
said: "To instruct the OGPU of the USSR to publish a monograph on
the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal named after Comrade
Stalin." The trip was organized quickly and at the proper level: the
writers made a steamer trip along the unfinished canal, visited the
camps, talked with the workers, etc.
The "Belbaltlag" club
was a propaganda center, the club hosted various performances of
activists and writers for shock correctional labor. In 1933, the
one-story club "BaltLaga" was transported disassembled to the city
of Dmitrov, in the center of Dmitlag. It stood there until the end
of the 1950s, then the DK "DEZ" (now the House of Culture
"Sovremennik") was erected in its place. One of the leaders of
BelBaltlag - S. G. Firin became the head of Dmitlag.
1930s. Belomorsko-Baltic Combine
After the
completion of the construction and commissioning of the canal, on
August 17, 1933, by secret resolutions of the Council of People's
Commissars of the USSR "On the White Sea-Baltic Combine" and "On
measures in connection with the organization of the White Sea-Baltic
Combine" in the NKVD system of the USSR, on the basis of the
Belbaltlag camps, the White Sea-Baltic a combine for the operation
of the canal and the development of the areas adjacent to the canal.
The forest area assigned to the White Sea-Baltic Combine was 2.8
million hectares. All industrial enterprises in the assigned
territories were transferred to the plant.
The head of the
plant was appointed deputy head of the Main Directorate of Forced
Labor Camps (GULAG) of the OGPU Yakov Rapoport. Control over the
work of the plant was entrusted to the chairman of the USSR State
Planning Committee Valerian Kuibyshev.
The main labor force
of the plant was made up of the Beltbaltlag prisoners - 75-85
thousand people annually. In addition, the plant included 21 special
settlements, in which about 30 thousand people lived - families of
dispossessed peasants. In addition to prisoners and special
settlers, about 4.5 thousand civilian workers and paramilitary
guards worked at the plant. The total number of employees was about
25% of the population of the Autonomous Karelian SSR.
At the
beginning of August 1935, the secretary of the Central Committee and
the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU (b) Andrei Zhdanov and
People's Commissar for Supply of the USSR Anastas Mikoyan visited
the BBK.
Until 1936, all financial operations of the plant
were exempt from taxes and fees.
The creation of the BBK gave
the development of Belomorsk, as well as other cities in the region
from the White Sea to Lake Onega. After the start of the operation
of the canal, industry developed in this area, mainly woodworking
and pulp and paper. Also new cities and settlements have sprung up -
Medvezhyegorsk, Segezha, Nadvoitsy. Previously, the county town of
Povenets, which had already ceased to be a city, became a large
port, and Belomorsk - an important industrial center.
In
accordance with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of
the USSR of March 23, 1939 "On the transfer of the White Sea Baltic
Channel named after Comrade Stalin under the jurisdiction of the
People's Commissariat for Water ”, the channel left the NKVD system
and was included in the system of the North-Western Shipping
Company.
On March 23, 1939, by a decree of the Council of
People's Commissars of the USSR, the canal was removed from the
structure of the BelBaltKombinat of the OGPU of the USSR and became
an independent enterprise in the system of the North-Western
Shipping Company.
War years
In June 1941, Germany began
military operations against the USSR. On the second day of the war,
June 23, 1941, the head of the "MPVO facility" - as the documents of
the White Sea-Baltic Canal Administration began to denote - A.I.
Vasilov issued order No. 1 "On the introduction of a threatened
position on the White Sea-Baltic Canal named after Stalin ". A
round-the-clock watch was introduced at the selector and telephone
sets, the constant wearing of bags with gas masks. At the gateway
villages, near power plants and individual houses, cracks were dug
for shelter from raids. For this, all able-bodied residents of the
villages were involved. Each of them had to work four hours a day.
The chiefs of the locks had an order to assign the residents of the
apartments to each cell of the gap in order to "avoid unnecessary
fuss when the enemy raided." At the same time, there were no air
defense systems at the locks and other BBK facilities, which allowed
German aviation in the first days of the war to make a number of
successful raids on the locks, interrupting the operation of the
channel in the midst of summer navigation (July - August 1941).
On June 23, 16 Finnish volunteer saboteurs recruited by German
Major Scheller landed from two German seaplanes Heinkel He 115,
starting from Oulujärvi, near the locks of the White Sea-Baltic
Canal. The volunteers recruited by the Germans were dressed in
German uniforms and had German weapons, since the Finnish General
Staff did not want to be involved in sabotage. The saboteurs were
supposed to blow up the locks, but due to the increased security
they did not manage to do this.
In the early morning of June
25, Soviet aviation forces launched an air strike for the first time
on Finnish territory due to the fact that it provided its airfields
for the Luftwaffe bases. About 300 bombers participated in the first
raid, and not only airfields, but also a number of large cities of
the country were bombed. After that, Finland officially entered the
war against the USSR as an ally of Germany.
On June 28, the first raid on the locks took
place. Locks 6, 7, 8, and 9 were attacked. These locks were not
chosen by chance: there is a large difference in altitude in this
area; There is a watershed between locks No. 7 and No. 8, therefore,
the destruction of even one of the listed locks made it impossible
for the entire LBC system to work. The bombing was carried out by
Ju-88A from the Luftwaffe bomber squadron KGr.806 under the command
of Lieutenant Colonel Hans Emig. To destroy the locks, not only
large-caliber aerial bombs were used, but also the VM-1000 "Monika"
sea mines, some of which did not explode.
The exploding mines
and bombs inflicted heavy damage on the lock mechanisms. So, on July
10, nine large-caliber high-explosive bombs were dropped on lock No.
7, as a result of which the upper gate was completely destroyed, the
emergency shutter, the western pylon of the upper head with the
mechanism of the cylindrical shutter and gate were destroyed. Water
from the watershed rushed down and washed away the lower gate; the
gateway is completely out of order. There was no opposition from the
air defense due to the lack of such. The losses of the Luftwaffe
amounted to one aircraft, damaged by the explosion of its own bomb.
The bombardment of the locks interrupted traffic on the canal
from June 28 to August 6 and from August 13 to 24, 1941. Prisoners
from the nearby GULAG camp were involved in the restoration work.
For example, 500 prisoners were involved in repairing the gate of
lock No. 7, destroyed by a raid on July 10, who worked in three
shifts during the week. On August 28, the fifth and last bombing of
the channel took place in 1941. Gateway # 7 was attacked. No damage
was found. In August, the Office of the BBK and technical sections
was evacuated from Medvezhyegorsk to Belomorsk to lock No. 19. Of
the 800 workers on the canal, 80 remained, the rest were evacuated.
In November, a caravan of passenger ships with evacuated
families of Povenets water workers and residents of neighboring
villages, as well as equipment, was frozen into the ice of Vygozero.
On the night of November 12-13, 1941, another caravan of ships was
frozen into the ice of the Zaonezhsky Bay near Megostrov. It was
captured by units of the Finnish army. On December 5, 1941, units of
the Finnish army entered Medvezhyegorsk.
On December 6, at a
temperature of -37 ° C, units of the Finnish army captured Povenets,
thereby cutting off communication along the White Sea-Baltic Canal.
On the same day, December 6, Soviet troops began implementing the
plan for the decommissioning of the BBK's hydraulic structures. Lock
# 1 was blown up first. On the same night, after Lock # 1, the rest
of the hydraulic structures were also blown up. At 3:30 am, sluices
No. 2, 3 and 4 flew into the air, followed by the canal dam of
sluice No. 4 and gateway No. 5. On the afternoon of December 7, at
14 o'clock, sluice No. 6 was blown up. No. 20.
At the same
time, fierce battles were fought in the area of locks No. 1-7 of
the BBK. After December 8, Finnish troops broke through the BBK and
occupied the village of Gabselga. The Military Council of the
Karelian Front removed from his post the commander of the
Medvezhygorsk group of troops M.S.Knyazev, who did not see any other
development of events as soon as in retreat. The commander of the
Karelian Front, V.A.Frolov, ordered the troops to immediately launch
a counterattack and clear the eastern bank of the White Sea-Baltic
Canal of enemy troops. The task was completed. Until December 11,
the Finns tried to break through the canal in the Povenets area with
fierce attacks, and then higher, in the area of lock No. 7, but
were thrown back everywhere.
On December 11, only after the
departure of all units of the Red Army, Soviet demolition men blew
up lock No. 7. The Povenchanskaya Staircase hydraulic units (the
first 9 locks of the BBK, rising to the watershed north of Povenets)
were destroyed, water from the watershed pool was freely discharged
into Lake Onega through the village of Povenets , which was
practically destroyed by the stream. The fairway of the White
Sea-Baltic Canal became the front line - a neutral zone. Finnish
troops stopped on the canal line (on its western bank) and held
these positions until June 1944.
Postwar years
During the
war, the canal, as a strategically important object, underwent
destruction: its southern part was completely destroyed. The
infrastructure of the canal was also badly damaged, in particular,
lighthouses and the village of Povenets.
After the end of
World War II, the damaged facilities were restored, and the canal
was re-commissioned in July 1946. Through navigation along the
entire length of the canal was restored on July 28, 1946.
In
the 1950s, after the Decree 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 structures and mechanisms of the canal. In
1953, electricians were included in the staff of the waterworks, by
1957, work on the electrification of the waterworks on the northern
slope of the canal was mainly completed, and in 1959 all coastal and
floating location lights were switched to power supply.
The importance of the White Sea-Baltic Canal
especially increased after the commissioning of the modern
Volga-Baltic waterway in 1964. The channel's capacity and the actual
volume of freight traffic have increased several times.
In
the 1970s, another reconstruction of the canal was carried out. In
the course of this reconstruction, the guaranteed depth of the
fairway was brought to four meters, and the channel became part of
the Unified deep-water system of the European part of the RSFSR.
Monuments
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, memorial sites for the construction of the canal.
Several monuments to prisoners who died during construction have
been erected along the canal. In Povenets, a wooden memorial church
was built in memory of the victims (the Church of St. Nicholas; the
rector of the temple is priest Roman Sobolev).