We built BAM - BAM built us. Eastern BAM

Railroad our way toBAM: B July 1974, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted Resolution No. 561 on the construction of the Baikal-Amur railway. The word "BAM" entered life rapidly and firmly established itself in it. Millions of people looked at the geographical maps with interest in order to connect Baikal and Amur with a line in their minds.
The huge spaces of the region, the grandiose scope of the upcoming construction were striking. The highway crossed an extremely difficult natural region, most of it passed in the mountains, and the central section - in a zone of high seismicity, met with such deep rivers as the Lena, Upper Angara, Olekma, Gilyui, Selemdzha, Byssa, Bureya, Amgun, Amur, passed over huge areas of permafrost. In these northern regions, where the land is bound by 50-60-degree frosts, there were almost no roads, not even paths. Rare Evenk villages, which found shelter along the river banks, were divided among themselves by many kilometers of taiga.
857 The Training Center of the Railway Troops was created on August 1, 1996 on the basis of 1 separate training railway regiment, which began its history on October 5, 1918. Throughout the entire period of the military unit's activity, its main task was to train highly qualified sergeants and junior specialists intended to fill positions that determine the combat ability of military units and formations of the Railway Troops. Over the past years, tens of thousands of junior commanders and specialists have been released from the military unit and sent to the troops. Graduates of the training military unit with honor and dignity fulfilled their tasks on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, during the restoration of railways in the war and post-war times. The personnel made a great contribution to the development of the country's railway transport during the construction of the Ivdel-Ob, Abakan-Taishet, Tyumen-Surgut, Baikal-Amur Mainline railway lines. Hundreds of graduates of the unit were awarded government awards for their achievements in improving the combat readiness of military units and formations of troops. At present, the Training Center of the Railway Troops continues to train squad leaders and specialist soldiers. Training is conducted in 14 specialties, determined by the order of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation of 2006 No. 480 "On approval of the list of military positions replaced by soldiers, sailors, sergeants and foremen, for which servicemen are subject to training in educational formations and military units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation."

How did BAM begin

In 1974, Stepan Fedorenko was transferred from sunny Baku to serve in the cold Tynda. The officer was warned that the family should not be taken to the BAM, because there are no living conditions there. Tynda was then still a miserable village, recalls a retired colonel.

- Our brigade was tasked with meeting construction materials at the Skovorodino station and delivering them in columns to the points where military units should be stationed. On the Lena highway, they carried shields for the barracks and the canteen, food, ”says Stepan Fedorenko. - There were no roads to the east, our guys were thrown there by helicopters. They left sacks of food for them, and they built a winter hut, cut openings. We were instructed to equip military units and build a highway along the future railway. The second task was to help in the construction of the Small BAM. The railway was supposed to arrive in Tynda by May 1, 1975.

In 1974, relations with the Chinese were strained. Therefore, the railway soldiers had to be encrypted, communicated on the radio under the codenames Worker, Foreman, Master. 40 years have passed, but the episodes of those days Stepan Stepanovich easily reproduces one after another.

The military was not at all prepared for the winters here. The constructed barracks were frozen through and through. The soldiers erected log cabins of larch, the joints were insulated with moss, the windows were cut with the Druzhba chainsaw, and large tents were pulled over the wooden boxes. Such buildings, in contrast to the "barrels of Diogenes", in which steam came out of the mouth in winter, kept warm.

- We had no idea that it could be 60 degrees below zero in winter. Our thermometers were calculated to minus 50. In the morning they went off scale, - Stepan Stepanovich recalls. - In order not to catch a cold, we ate garlic and onions, which were sent to us in parcels. Each one carried cloves of garlic in their pockets. In the spring there were also problems, especially when the rivers melted. There was a case: a car with construction materials fell through the ice, and the soldier, until he reached the shore, was like in a glass suit. The poor man was brought to his senses with alcohol.

Courage test

The soldiers still managed to create a normal life in the taiga. Baths were built in the units, bread was baked in field ovens.

The military railroad workers left for work early, the stars were still shining in the sky, they also returned with them. They cut a clearing, built a road, laid rails that were supposed to reach Komsomolsk-on-Amur.

The 35th Railway Brigade was a small state. It included 12 military units, about 15 thousand personnel, a military court, a prosecutor's office, a military organization and a special department. The headquarters was located in Tynda. The military settled in the area, which is popularly called "Belochka", in honor of the first cafe that opened in the city. By the way, Stepan Stepanovich has a piece of the red ribbon from the opening of "Belochka".

With the assignment of Tynda the status of a city, it began to rapidly transform. Kindergartens, schools were opened, temporary settlements were rebuilt. With the arrival of the shock troops at the BAM, the first families began to form. Wives and children began to visit the military. His wife Taisiya Vasilievna, she worked in the hospital, and daughters Irina and Ella served at BAM together with Stepan Stepanovich.

- Where the trains run today, our parents lived their lives. I was a schoolgirl then. Most of all, I remembered how fresh vegetables came to the shops by the New Year, but there were very few of them, so they were distributed equally to everyone, regardless of their official position. On the festive table were one sliced ​​cucumber and two tomatoes. Fresh vegetables were valued more at BAM than red or black caviar. Someone associates New Year with the smell of tangerines, and for Bam's children, New Year is the smell of fresh cucumber, ”says Ella.

We gave the country a road

In 1979, for health reasons, Stepan Stepanovich had to leave the construction site. At that time, on the eastern section, the rails were already approaching the Zeya River. For service on the BAM spouses Fedorenko were awarded medals "For the construction of the BAM".

After Tynda, the family went to Ukraine, to Dnepropetrovsk. This was already the twelfth duty station. And our hero left for a well-deserved rest, having gone from lieutenant to colonel. Now the Fedorenko family lives in Gelendzhik. Stepan Stepanovich is the deputy chairman of the city council of veterans, for many years he has been defending the interests of war veterans and home front workers.

- This year marks the 40th anniversary of the construction of the BAM. Today the word "BAM" is pronounced differently, but then such enthusiasm and enthusiasm sounded in it, with which it is now difficult to associate anything. 40 years later, I would very much like to visit Tynda in order to transfer to the BAM History Museum the silver crutches that I received when laying the last link and at the rail joints at the first stations, as well as a filing of the Bamstroyput newspaper, ribbons, pennants and badges of those years , - says Stepan Fedorenko.

At eighty, the military does not complain of health. He says that he has the strength and a great desire to travel by train along the eastern section of the BAM, which was built by railway soldiers, to meet with colleagues and remember the past.

On the picture: Wedding photography on rails was invented at BAM

Svetlana Nazarchuk

Good day! Dear Reader!

From 1985 to 1987 I served in the Soviet Army. Namely, in the railway troops. Then I did not think that I would get into these troops. And I did not assume that they exist. When passing the commission in the military registration and enlistment office, many of us were previously enrolled in the missile, border, construction, airborne troops ... And they did not hear about the railway. It so happened that most of them ended up there. Now I cannot say for sure why this happened. But that's how it happened.

I would like to tell you about how I served on the Baikal-Amur Mainline - BAM. Many have heard about this construction site of the century. But few people know what BAM is. I am very sorry that everything there fell apart due to perestroika. I will also note that I do not regret that I have been there, in spite of any difficulties that were. As elsewhere and everywhere I was fortunate enough to meet good people there. I will try to remember about them, whom I knew and remembered. Many thanks to those commanders who were in the unit in which I served. Major Sachenko Leonid Grigorievich - deputy chief of staff of the unit. Probably about him we can say that he is a man with a capital letter. Very strict, but at the same time fair. Syvorotkin Alexander Nikolaevich (at the time when I served he was still a major, but during the correspondence, after the dismissal, I learned that he had been awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel). A person with a firm and tough character. What I remember is that he is creepy, you know? I smoked a LOT. Words cannot describe it. You should have seen it. I would especially like to note our platoon Viktor Fedorovich Medvedchuk, who later, after my dismissal, was awarded the rank of senior warrant officer. He commanded our platoon (at first it was a security platoon, then after disbandment - a support platoon). Very strict! I always strived to ensure that cleanliness and order reigned in our barracks. And I think he succeeded.

I want to say in advance that in my memories I will not use conversational speech. This is due to the fact that after such a long period of time it is impossible to convey them word for word. And roughly - I don't want to. And what I will write about is all the real events that took place in the brigade battalions of military unit 40976 (this was our brigade - the higher military unit) in the village of Verkhnezeysk, Zeisky district of the Amur region.

But a little background to how I got to BAM. In 1985 I finished the 2nd year of the Glazov Pedagogical Institute (Faculty of Physics and Mathematics). And then on one of the clear spring days, all of us guys were urgently summoned from a lecture to the military registration and enlistment office. We had to stay there for a long time. We were warned that in May we would be drafted into the ranks of the USSR Armed Forces. Nobody was happy about it. But no one showed a view. Including me. It was April 1985. And we were faced with the task of how we can quickly pass the exams. And the exams were in pedagogy, general physics, philosophy. My friend and fellow student Dima Fedorov and I began to "storm" these subjects. Not even all the lectures and practical exercises have been completed yet. And I will tell you that in general, everyone treated us with understanding. Only officially I had to take an exam in pedagogy. And so, when everyone saw our agenda, they rated it "GOOD".

On May 3 we were summoned to the military registration and enlistment office and handed summons for May 11. And all these exams were from May 3 to 10. Since I lived 23 km from the city in another area, I checked into the military registration and enlistment office and went home. There were escorts at home. For some reason I associate this woman with the songs of the "Yalla" group. There was such a group. If, for example, I hear songs performed by this group, then everything is immediately remembered. On May 11, 1985, I boarded the Yar-Izhevsk train. My fellow students were already there. Because they sat down from the city of Glazov. Earlier. We arrived at the collection point in Izhevsk (the capital of Udmurtia). I remember very well the dining room, where we were immediately sent. The food was very good. We hung our duffel bags on hangers that were installed around the parade ground. During the day we were forced to march. These were mainly sergeants who arrived at the assembly point together with the "buyers". It was all very dark. I would not want to be there again. For the night we were driven into a room in which there was nothing. Bare walls and painted floor. We went to bed right on the floor. Morning. One can imagine the state of a person who for the first time "slept" on the floor, where there is no soft pillow, blanket ... Awful! Yes. There were also such things. The sergeants built us and asked to lay out all the things from the duffel bags. You can imagine the sergeants who, like big people, walked along the line and took away "favorite" things-products.

But to our surprise, it all ended quickly. Already at noon we were lined up on the parade ground and, being put on buses, were taken to the railway station. We got on the train and drove off. Everyone thought about where they were taking us. The fact is that at the institute they always frightened us that they would be taken to Afghanistan. Because at this time, it was just the height of hostilities in Afghanistan. But, fortunately, when we learned that we were going east, we calmed down a bit. Later we learned that we were going to the Amur Region.

We arrived in Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg). We were dropped off the cars and taken to the airport. Not far from the take-off field, there were tents in which there were bunk bunks. The first time I saw then these bunk beds. We were there for exactly one day. There were also negative aspects. The boys took food and things away from each other. In general, this is not a pleasant memory. And at night we were put on a Tu-134 plane. Again, this was news to me. Flight in an airplane. I have never flown before this time. We were fed there too. Liked. When I went to the toilet, I accidentally saw the pilots' office and the Earth appeared in front of my eyes. It's dark all around, and the sun rises on the horizon. It was very beautiful.

We arrived in Irkutsk in the morning. From Irkutsk by train. Half a day we passed Lake Baikal. There was still ice there. Very beautiful places. For some reason, I have no special memories of this "piece". Apparently there was nothing memorable. We reached the Skovorodino station. This is the station from which the upward branch goes to Tynda and another further to Vladivostok. We were all put on a passenger train and went to Tynda. We arrived in Tynda at night at 2.00. And we were all taken to some club. They planted them to watch a movie. Alas! I don't remember the name anymore. But the film was about the war. But practically nobody watched the film. Because everyone wanted to sleep. This is how I first began to comprehend a new type of sleep "Sitting". In the morning they put me on the train again, and we drove on. I don't know how long we drove, but we got to the Deepkun station. Before my eyes, the Deepkun station stood like a settlement with several high-rise buildings, a new store and an unfinished station. We all went straight to the store. We bought some food and ate it heartily. We stopped at an unfinished train station. Probably it would be wrong if I say an unfinished station. In principle, there was already inside and the light was there. There were no other people (civilians). There were no seats, the cash desks were not working yet. Apparently, this station was about to be opened. Already here at this station there were a lot of recruits. Here I felt what "fellow countryman" means. And it doesn't matter from one city, town or village. Even if you are from neighboring Tatarstan, Bashkiria, Perm and Kirov regions, you are already a "fellow countryman". And the soul rejoices. And there were already Georgians, Azerbaijanis, Chechens, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Tajiks ... It was very surprising to see the clothes in which the recruits from the southern republics were dressed. Some kind of dressing gowns, skullcaps and all that. It was just interesting. Because before the army, I practically did not go anywhere (not counting Krivoy Rog in 1980 and Moscow). Therefore, a lot for me was unknown and a little unusual. Despite the fact that they all seemed to be of the same call, there were clashes based on nationalities. And Udmurtia and I kept together. And it helped all of us.

And our next trip has already continued in the teplushki. This is a covered wagon with a corner for the escorts (warrant officer and sergeants). As a heating stove. And there were about 30 of us in this heating house. The train was moving very slowly. This is understandable. If even now they are not moving along the BAM at high speeds, then even more so. The road was not electrified. Therefore, while we were driving, we heard some people walking and jumping on the roof of the carriage. At first, we did not understand what it could be. But at night we were stopped at some stop. Doors open. And there are three soldiers. It's dark, almost nothing is visible. They quickly jumped into the carriage. They had belts in their hands. The end of the strap is wrapped around the right hand. And the plaque sags at the other end. And they started swinging these belts. They began to take them out of the carriage one by one and search the money. But it didn't last that long. I don’t know what moved us, but at once they took the picket fence, which was intended as firewood and, jumping out of the car, gave it to these old men. And they kind of ran away. In the meantime, we got into the car again and closed. One circumstance amazes me now. Why our escorts did nothing. They were all this time in their corner. But at the same time, I imagine that they were practically powerless to do anything. And so we averted ourselves from everything. The train started moving. And we still heard walking on the roof for a while. Then everything was quiet. Now I think that perhaps we made a stop at some station where soldiers were serving (meaning on the highway). Then I already knew that along the BAM route there were small stations where the soldiers did their service. It is not necessary to understand by the word station any settlements. Basically, it was a free-standing teplushka (trailer), where there were sidings. Arrows. It seems that these soldiers also wanted to "rob" us. But it may not be so.

Morning. We, seeing the rays of the sun, opened the doors. And we drove all the time, admiring the nature that met us at the BAM. We arrived at the Zeya reservoir. There is a bridge over the reservoir with a length of about 2 km. The reservoir was still covered with ice. In general, the ice melts there towards the middle, end of June. When we passed the bridge, the train stopped. We were dropped off. Sun was shining. It was very warm. I even "wanted to live" after everything. We were all taken to the Fokine battalion. This is in honor of the surname of the battalion commander such a name. In general, all parts had such names. "Suleimanovo", "Ugarovo", "Almazovo", "Syvorotkino" ... And so we were taken to the club. The club was large and spacious. There was nothing there. There were several tables, several soldiers at the tables. We realized that now we will be given new clothes. Our accompanying warrant officer said that you can collect the hats and, if you wish, send them back home. Well, we are so naive, we passed everything. He left. And we never saw him again. But we still remained in our clothes. We were shown a place where to throw our clothes. Some guys started to tear their clothes and throw them there. And everyone threw off everything from himself. Jackets, shirts, sweaters, trousers, underpants, swimming trunks, socks and shoes. And each of us approached the standing soldiers completely naked. At first, they gave out panties and a T-shirt, then cotton, tarpaulin boots, belts and caps. Yes, by the way, you still had to say your correct size so that they would give you clothes for you. There were also those who had no idea what size of shoes and clothes they wear. But, somehow then everything was resolved. Here. I forgot, they also gave out the famous footcloths. And what about in the army without them? And moreover, it was necessary to be able to reel them. And so we, having put on all these unusual clothes, went to the soldier's bathhouse. We washed and dressed again. It was very unusual in these clothes. Cotton brand new and tough. We walked there like people who had sacks thrown over them. We were in this part for about 1 week. What do I remember there? The first time they took me to the dining room. On breakfast. We were surprised that there were pots on the tables, and there was semolina. No, it was not semolina. And mashed potatoes. It just looked like semolina. It was there that we met for the first time with the powder (food), from which mashed potatoes were made. And later there we were fed potatoes, which were cut into long dried parallelepipeds. They were in cans. Usually, at that time, jam was sold in such banks. But there were dried potatoes here. To be honest, I got very tired of it for 2 years of service. Probably not because such potatoes, but because the cooks did not cook well. If they soaked them properly in the beginning, the taste would be much better. And this morning there were pieces of butter on all the tables. The sergeants were very surprised at this circumstance. They stood and laughed that, they say, we'll see what will happen tomorrow. And they were right. Then there was never oil left on our tables at breakfast. For two years, the menu remained practically unchanged. In the morning a piece of butter, bread, porridge (millet, buckwheat, pearl barley, mostly with stew), coffee. I want to talk about coffee separately. It was just called that. It was a coffee drink. And how they cooked !!! They pour water into the cauldron, pour this drink and, the culmination of cooking ... open condensed milk and immediately throw it into this cauldron, without even tearing off the paper. All this is boiling and it seems to be nothing. Usually soup was served for lunch. For the second, there is also porridge with stewed meat or (rarely) fresh meat. The third is compote. Dinner. Here is the potato that I have already mentioned and the fish. The fish was supposed to be fried. But the cooks did not want to bother with this, and they often broke the electric frying pan. And they just cooked fish for us. They cooked it very interestingly. Take frozen fish in a hotplate and put it in boiling water in a cauldron. That's all. So much for bon appetit. In the evening there was always tea at supper. It happened that the bakery broke down. Then we were given loaves of alcohol instead of bread. They were all in plastic bags, treated with alcohol and tightly sealed. In principle, they were as fresh.

Well. Here's a little distracted from the topic. There were old servicemen in this unit. They kept guarding us at the cafeteria all the time to take the belts away from us. And many, when leaving the dining room, fastened belts on their naked bodies under cotton. But they guessed that we were doing this. And they lifted the cotton and took it away. This was the first day. But, then, seeing such a thing, our platoon commander collected the belts for a while. And we went without belts. I remember the following events there. Sawmill work. We helped to pull out boards, roll up logs, and carry out shavings. We worked in a warehouse. I don't remember what we did there. But it was good there. Calmly. Nobody pulled. And once they sent me to the headquarters. They said that some boss was coming, so everything should be shiny. And we worked even after lights out.

A variety of training sessions were held. Combat, political training. And everything else. I liked studying in Lenin's room when there was a theoretical part. You sit and relax from everything.

Once I do not remember why, but our warrant officer arranged a showdown. I threw everything out, beds, bedside tables. Everything was scattered. I also had my Komsomol ticket lying on the floor. Now I think that in this way they tried to scare, or rather, to keep everyone. I don't know if this is right or not. Can such actions be justified? I can’t affirmatively, and I don’t want to speak. They, too, could be understood.

I remember that as part of the exercise we were lifted at 24.00, put into cars and taken to the track. We stopped near a small bridge. A train came up. There were cobblestones that were lined with bridges. So we were forced to unload and line this bridge. I still remember this moment. We sat down to rest and talked something with one guy. Now I don't remember what his name was. But we counted how much we still have to serve. It was over 23 months old. But we reassured ourselves that there was already a beginning. Not knowing what will happen next. At 3.00 am we finished our work. But there was no car. And we went back on foot. Where by running, where by step. We got there at about 5 o'clock in the morning. And managed to sleep for another hour before getting up.

I also remember one such episode. We were forced to run to check if we had wound the footcloths correctly. Out of 30 people, one guy had blood all over his leg. When he took off his boots, it was a very terrible phenomenon.

And one guy was simply fired. I don't know how he succeeded, but the fact remains. The fact is that he could not march in the ranks with everyone. They gave the commands "Levoy", "Levoy" ... and he kept raising the wrong leg. This is what I remember. But maybe he had some other deviations. I don't know that anymore. But he was discharged. And can you imagine? What was my condition. You just had to think that a person is going HOME !!! And I have to go 730 days in boots.

Then a week later we were sent to battalion 51560 (Almazovo). Where I took the oath and completely completed the Young Fighter Course. This is another story. To be continued.

I can write to the address

Chapter three. BAM - construction site of the century

The history of the construction of the Baikal-Amur railway is inscribed as a bright page in the annals of the Railway Troops.

In July 1974, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted Resolution No. 561 on the construction of the Baikal-Amur railway. The word "BAM" entered life rapidly and firmly established itself in it. Millions of people looked at the geographical maps with interest in order to connect Baikal and Amur with a line in their minds. The huge spaces of the region, the grandiose scope of the upcoming construction were striking.

The highway crossed an extremely difficult natural region, most of it passed in the mountains, and the central section - in a zone of high seismicity, met such deep rivers as the Lena, Upper Angara, Olekma, Gilyui, Selemdzha, Byssa, Bureya, Amgun, Amur, passed over huge areas of permafrost. In these northern regions, where the land is bound by 50-60-degree frosts, there were almost no roads, not even paths. Rare Evenk villages, which found shelter along the river banks, were divided among themselves by many kilometers of taiga.

The new building put forward the most complex scientific and technical problems associated with the construction of a huge number of bridges, tunnels, viaducts, culverts. To lay 3145 km of track, it was necessary to erect 3,200 artificial structures, to carry out over 300 million cubic meters of earthworks, to punch 27 km of tunnels in the mountains.

In terms of the volume of construction work, the variety of engineering structures, and the boldness of its engineering and technical thought, BAM was a unique phenomenon, unparalleled in the world history of railway construction. It is not for nothing that this construction site was called the construction site of the century. The Soviet government entrusted the construction of the eastern part of the BAM - from Tynda to Komsomolsk-on-Amur - to the Railway Troops.

There were many difficult tasks, their solution could not be delayed. To turn around work on the BAM, it was required to redeploy a number of formations and units to the construction site in a short time and develop technical documentation, reconnoitre the route, resolve issues of supplying it with equipment, building materials, housing and food.

The Main Directorate of the Railway Troops developed a special plan for the turnaround of work on the Eastern section of the BAM, a directive construction schedule was drawn up, which reflected the entire production complex. It was calculated taking into account the use of advanced construction technology, progressive materials and structures, the latest domestic technology.

The equipment of the formations with equipment was provided both from the reserve available in the troops and from the funds of the Ministry of Transport. The units were replenished with the equipment and property of the nomenclature of the Ministry of Defense from the military districts.

Due to the lack of specialists of all professions necessary in construction in the staff, by order of the Minister of Defense, it was allowed to military organizations and units to attract a certain number of qualified civilian specialists as instructors, as well as for the repair of equipment, and for performing emergency work in industrial and civil construction.

In the first months after the release of Resolution No. 561, organizational measures were carried out. In particular, a special plan was developed. One of the first important measures in the plan included the development of a directive construction schedule. Exceptionally great attention was paid to the development and control of the execution of the directive schedule in the troops. Suffice it to say that the schedule was personally signed by the head of the Railway Troops, Colonel-General A.M. Kryukov, agreed by the Deputy Minister of Defense Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Sosnov. Experienced engineers V. A Shemuratov, A. K Sakun, N. V Novichkov, A. S. Butenko contributed a lot of work and creativity to the development of the directive schedule.

In parallel with the development of the schedule, engineers V.A.Vasiliev, E.O.Zheltov, K.P. Petrov, V.N. Sukhodolsky, II Soluyan, BA Andreev were looking for sources to cover material resources.

According to calculations, the work required 8 reinforced railway brigades and two bridge regiments.

The management of the construction of the Eastern section of the BAM was carried out by the Main Directorate of Railway Troops (GUZhV), located in Moscow, through the departments of the corps located in the construction area: in the city of Tynda and the village. Chegdomyn. To increase the efficiency of command and control of troops as part of the GUZHV, the Directorate for the construction of the BAM and East Railways was created in 1978, which was responsible for solving major issues related to the construction of the BAM. It monitored the progress and quality of construction. The department was headed by generals G.I.Kupriyanov, V.T.Volobuev, their deputies were engineers V.A. Shemuratov, N.F. Ustinov, A.K.Sakun.

In connection with the increasing volumes of work on the construction of industrial and civil facilities and the lack of appropriate specialists in the staff of the troops, the Urgalbamtransstroy general construction trust was formed in July 1980, subordinate directly to the Chief of the Railway Troops.

The functions of the customer were performed by the BAM Construction Directorate, which was operatively subordinate to the BAM Construction Directorate as part of the Central Control Center of the Ministry of Railways. Completion of the facilities with engineering and technological equipment was carried out by the Transkomplekt MPS department.

The functions of general contractors were assigned to the building management. The direct organization of the work was carried out by the brigade directorates, the battalions subordinate to them, as well as the bridge regiments in the areas and objects assigned to them. General contracting connections at their sites, stations and station settlements carried out their own arrangement, clearing the route, built highways with artificial structures on them, erected subgrade, bridges, viaducts, pipes, retaining walls, superstructure of the track, carried out general construction work on the device temporary and capital communication lines, power supply up to 35 kW, service and technical buildings, structures and devices with engineering networks were erected at all separate points.

With the organization of the Urgalbamtransstroy trust, he was given the functions of a general contractor for the construction of large service and technical buildings and structures (locomotive and carriage depots, PTO, etc.), heat and water supply facilities, sewerage systems and the construction of individual villages.

In the years of maximum workload, the trust consisted of ten linear construction and installation organizations and several service divisions.

Specialized works and installation of technological equipment were carried out by subcontractors of the USSR Ministry of Transport and Construction and other ministries and departments.

Large bridges and viaducts were built with the help of bridge detachments No. 43, 51 and 70 of Glavmostostroy. Two mechanized columns of the "Bamstroymekhanizatsiya" trust were erecting subgrade on separate sections.

SU-495 of the "Transhydromechanization" trust carried out reclamation of the roadbed at st. Urgal-II, the development of the canal for the diversion of the Urgal river bed, reclamation of the earthworks of the approaches to the bridges over Selemdzhu and Byssa, the station site at st. Fevralsk.

Vodrem-76 of the Bamtransstroy trust installed internal plumbing and electrical work in residential and office buildings.

The Glavtranselektromontazh train laid and installed main and local communication lines, automatic blocking devices, suspension of wires for power lines and equipment installation, cable work and installation of power supply equipment.

Occasionally, as a rule, during the years when the sites were put into permanent operation, the organizations of Daltransstroy, Dalenergomontazh, Dalsantekhmontazh, Soyuzliftmontazh, Soyuzspetsavtomatiki, Vostoksibspetsavtomatika, Vostoksibspetsavtomatika, Vostoksibspetsavtomatika, Vostoksibspetsavtomatika, Vostoksibspecavtomatika, Vostoksibspecavtomatika, Vostoksibspecavtomatiki , trusts of Transtekhmontazh, Minmontazhspetsstroy, etc.

Two specially created helicopter detachments constantly provided great assistance to the railway soldiers - the builders of the Eastern section of the BAM. As part of the associations of the Railway Troops, the formations and units that were shown in the table operated:

The structure of a separate railway brigade in different years of construction of the BAM consisted of 12 to 22 separate battalions and service units and organizations.

As the tasks were completed, some formations and units were disbanded, others went to new construction sites, and the necessary forces and funds were left for completion.

BAM has become a nationwide construction site. On its Eastern section, the construction of housing and social and cultural facilities, station complexes, engineering facilities (village boiler houses, water intake and treatment facilities) in the order of providing patronage assistance was carried out by construction and installation organizations:

Marevaya - Tula region;

Dipkun and Tutaul - Moscow region;

Zeisk - Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic;

Izhak - Ulyanovsk region;

Tungala and Postyshevo - Novosibirsk region;

Dugda and Alonka - Moldavian SSR;

Fevralsk - Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Urgalbamtransstroy trust;

Fedkin Klyuch and Gerbi - Saratov region;

Etyrken - Kuibyshev region;

Urgal - Ukrainian SSR;

Soloni - Tajik SSR;

Suluk - Khabarovsk Territory;

Jamku - Volgograd region;

Amgun - Penza region;

Evoron - Altai Territory;

Khurmuli - Tambov region.

The Gorin settlement was built on its own - SMP-650 of the Urgalbamtransstroy trust.

The villages, residential, cultural, household and social facilities were designed by the institutes of the sponsoring regions, territories and union republics, and the service and technical buildings and structures of the stations, the main networks of heat and water supply, sewerage, power supply, engineering support facilities (boiler houses, treatment and water intake facilities), as well as production facilities in settlements (vegetable stores, ORS bases, etc.) - general designers and institutes Mosgiprotrans, Dalgiprotrans, Kievgiprotrans (Urgal village and station).

Contractual relationships with patronage organizations were carried out in accordance with the regulations on the relationship of organizations - general contractors (corps departments) with subcontractors (chiefs). At the same time, the general contractors provided the patronage organizations with all material resources and leased them the main construction machines and vehicles according to the calculation for the accepted annual volume of work.

Due to the lack of a sufficient production base in the Far Eastern region for the construction of residential buildings and some social and cultural facilities, a number of patronage organizations supplied reinforced concrete structures, panels, bricks, carpentry, plumbing blanks from their enterprises. Delivery of the efficiency was carried out by rail on specially equipped platforms.

The names of such leaders of patronage organizations as A.I. Lukyanenko, V.M.Batalov, I.A.Panov, I.F. Zhelobnyuk, V.P. Nefedov, N. Ch. Kozhanov, P.E.Borisov, A.S. Kalashnikov, foreman of carpenters-concrete workers of the SMP "Ukrstroy", Hero of Socialist Labor V.I.Konoval, and others.

Among the heads of subcontractors, he stood out for the skillful and conscientious performance of his duty as deputy. N. T. Kalinin, managing director of the Glavtranselektromontazh joint trust.

The main principle of organizing the construction of the site was to turn the work on a wide front, as was the case with the construction of such lines as Abakan - Taishet and Ivdel - Ob. It was planned to attack the taiga simultaneously to the east and west, turning such starting points as Tynda, Fevralsk and Urgal into the main bases of builders. The labor front line stretched for hundreds of kilometers, the whole country became the rear of the construction site. The command and the Military Council of the troops drew up a detailed plan of organizational, technical and political measures to fulfill the assigned tasks. The specific tasks of the units and subunits that were nominated for the BAM were planned to be discussed at meetings of the party and Komsomol activists, party and Komsomol organizations, at meetings and seminars of commanders and political workers.

At the meetings of the personnel, short ones, known since the 1930s, were accepted. Resolutions: "Give BAM!", "Work at BAM like a Komsomol!"

A veteran of the Great Patriotic War, retired major Kondratyev, who celebrated his 60th birthday, at the call of his heart left with his wife to Fevralsk, where he worked in one of the troops' divisions, giving his rich experience as a military railway worker to a great construction project. “Learning about BAM, I lost my peace,” he says. - Now I am happy that together with the youth I am building the highway of the century, I am increasing the glorious traditions of our troops. BAM is my second youth ”.

Throughout the autumn and winter of 1974, the taiga landings of railway soldiers fought for bridgeheads. The main task of the initial period was to break through the swamps and rocks to those places where it was planned to create strongholds for construction, build housing there, various cultural facilities, bring in equipment, building materials, food, that is, create the necessary conditions for work and rest personnel, families of officers and warrant officers. At the same time, work began on the construction of temporary winter roads. All this had to be done in a short time, before the onset of the spring thaw, which would cut off the lead groups from the main bases.

Overcoming innumerable obstacles, units and subunits of troops, led by experienced military railwaymen F.I.Pribov, A.I.Demin, I.N. Yegorushkin, B.A.

One of the detachments of the pioneers had to walk more than 40 km in places where a person's foot rarely walked. And not only to pass, but also to conduct equipment: cars, tractors, a sawmill, deliver tents, tools, food supplies there. This detachment was the first and therefore it was trained with special care. The detachment was led by an experienced commander, engineer-lieutenant colonel Y. Parashchenko.

For four days the soldiers marched through the deserted taiga. By the end of the fourth day, the unit headquarters received a radiogram: “... we are at the 38th kilometer. The tractors are "shoes", the KrAZ trucks are bogged down in a quagmire. We make our way on foot ... ".

However, despite any difficulties, the detachment reached the intended goal and then brought out all the equipment, ensuring the completion of the task.

The first group of warriors was followed by the second, the third ... No matter what adversity the pioneers experienced. More than once they spent the night under the green canopy of the taiga, plunged into icy fonts, froze in a fierce cold, often risked their lives.

Once during the construction of a temporary road bridge, the unexpected happened. Heavy rains in the river raised the water level, threatening to overturn the established supports. In a critical situation, Sergeant N. Shengelia turned to the commander. He proposed to swim to the supports, put cables under them and try to hold the ryazhs with tractors. He was supported by Sergeant V. Kudba, privates N. Filippov and R. Chonkoshadze. The commander took the necessary precautions. A few minutes later, the daredevils threw themselves into the icy water and secured the cables holding the bridge supports.

Another time, when a convoy of cars overcame a river foaming from a flood, one of the cars turned in a swift current, he banked, and water gushed into the cabin, where Major A. Bezgubenko and the driver, corporal R. Romazanov, were.

Learning that the soldier cannot swim, the officer helped him climb onto the roof of the cabin, and he himself, seeing that nothing could be helped from the shore, swam to the nearest spit. There, from the fragments of fallen trees, he built a raft and, overcoming the current, risking himself, set off on the way back to save the soldier. He managed to do it.

As always on new buildings, a heavy burden fell on the shoulders of the drivers. The roads of BAM became a testing ground for them, where courage and skill were tested. How many times - do not count - they went on long, difficult and far from safe flights.

Cars got stuck in the mud in summer, and in winter they got stuck in snow drifts, fell into the tenacious embrace of ice, drowned in rivers and swamps. And yet they walked. The engines seemed to be running not on fuel, but on a fiery mixture of soldier's perseverance and courage. The military driver, junior sergeant A. Gaidashev, made 15 multi-kilometer flights in 3 months, delivering various cargoes into the depths of the taiga. Each such flight lasted 5-7 days. And there were many like Gaidashev.

Courage became the measure of the daily affairs of the BAM warriors. The track gave birth to heroes. But this process did not happen spontaneously. High moral and psychological qualities were formed by active and purposeful educational work, constant influence on the consciousness of each soldier.

In the conditions of the taiga route, life made the commanders and political workers more exacting. The enormous scale of construction, the complexity of solving problems, when the deadlines for achieving the set goals were unusually tight, and the harsh nature did not give up a single meter of taiga space without a fight - all this to some extent resembled a front-line situation, where it is especially important to constantly and purposefully carry out educational impact on personnel.

When the advance detachments made their way through the taiga to the strongholds, many problems arose. There was not enough housing, cinema and radio were not everywhere (auto clubs got stuck on temporary roads), the soldiers received newspapers on the fifth day. For hundreds of kilometers around not a single settlement, many units worked in small, disunited groups.

Such an episode is well known in the history of BAM. Once in winter, a convoy of motor vehicles was delivering an important cargo to a distant point in the taiga. The vehicles were supposed to return to the unit in two days. But they did not arrive even on the third day. From the destination, alarming news was broadcast on the radio: the convoy did not arrive, where it is is unknown. The helicopter, which tried to take off in search, was pinned to the ground by the bursting blizzard.

And in the taiga, nine drivers were fighting the raging elements. The ice of the river, along which the winter road passed, cracked, and a vast area was flooded with water. The head of the column, corporal A. Sychev, in an all-terrain vehicle, moved along the coast, where the water was not so deep. Private B. Mamatov, who was driving behind him, took a little to the right, and immediately the front wheel of his car fell into a crack. Lance corporal Sychev, taking the cable, jumped out of the cab. The water reached almost to the waist, but this did not stop the warrior. He hooked a cable on his friend's car and pulled it to a safe place. Then he also had to tow the rest of the cars.

By evening it got warmer. Heavy snow fell, visibility dropped to zero. It was dangerous to go further: behind the river, a section began along the slopes of hills covered with ice. On the left is a rock, on the right is an abyss. We decided to spend the night in the taiga. A three-day supply of food, just in case, was divided into 8 days. The ration turned out to be meager. Some of the drivers were discouraged.

It is said that a remarkable dialogue took place around the fire. "Saulis," Lance corporal Sychev turned to private Zelenkevichus, "have you read about the four brave sailors - Ziganshin, Poplavsky, Kryuchkovsky, Fedotov?" “I've read it,” he replied. - Forty-nine days in the ocean on a small barge ... No food, no drink. People of great courage. " - "Could we do that?" “I think they could. Take anyone - Mamatov, Suleimenov, other guys - they won't let you down. Am I right, guys? " - "That's right!" - the soldiers answered unanimously. The difficult voyage lasted almost 9 days. Tractors sent to help the convoy helped to overcome the last kilometers. But the commanders played an equally important role here, by word and deed strengthened the soldiers' courage and determination to complete the task to the end.

The front of the offensive into the taiga was expanding. Detachments of patronage organizations began to arrive at the Eastern section, where the railway soldiers worked. The envoys from Ukraine and Moldova were among the first to arrive. They started the construction of Urgal and Alonka stations.

On June 13, 1974, ordinary Komsomol members Alexei Kravtsov, Vasily Kovbasa and Georgy Evdokimov poured the first cubic meters of soil into the road from Tynda to the east, and on February 5, 1975, railroad soldiers hammered the first crutch into the rail link of the main Bam track. This happened at the 2712th kilometer from Ust-Kut. The right to score a crutch was given to private Leonid Smirnov. Nearby, the builders erected a large granite cube, defining an honorable role for it - to testify to the history of the place of the first Bam crutch, to become a monument for posterity.

In the central section, the railway soldiers, together with the builders of the Ministry of Transport and Construction, at an accelerated pace laid the track on the BAM - Tynda line, connecting the construction site of the century with the Trans-Siberian Railway. Despite the abundance of rivers, it was difficult to get water along the route. In the fall, she was driven from afar in tank trucks. With the onset of cold weather, such an opportunity disappeared: the water in the containers quickly froze. On the clean taiga rivers, they began to chop ice, carry it to towns and melt it. At the same time, they were looking for ground water. The work was not easy. Sometimes it was necessary to drill wells to a depth of 200 m. Life forced us to solve another problem - the preservation of the environment. Such an approach to the activities of builders required a reasonable use of local natural resources, the creation of complex treatment facilities, and various technical measures to preserve nature. Warriors-bamovtsy in a businesslike way solved this problem.

The broad front of the offensive into the taiga sharply raised the question of managing the construction site, which stretched for hundreds of kilometers, before the command of the Railway Troops. In this regard, the structure of the administrative apparatus was reorganized, the political department was transformed into a political administration. In the Main Directorate of the Railway Troops, a special task force was created that dealt exclusively with BAM issues.

Communication between subdivisions demanded a lot of efforts - the first stage of management. Communication with distant detachments was carried out by radio and telephone. There were also malfunctions: the wires were torn from the wind and frost, the supports fell under the onslaught of strong floods. Sometimes I had to resort to special couriers, send written instructions by helicopter. In general, the signalmen of the troops ensured communication clearly.

The panorama of the construction site changed every month. The age-old taiga revived. The roadbed was poured, the links of the track were laid, canteens, bakeries, clubs, and libraries appeared in the townships of builders. All this was worth a tremendous effort. Permafrost was as hard as metal. In winter, from severe frosts, lubricant froze, metal crumbled. In excavator buckets, teeth broke, cables tore. The roads punched from the quarries to the embankment being built were covered with ice. There were cases when a truck accidentally left on the road one night before the cab was covered with ice, and in the spring the cars fell into the swamps.

Wetlands annoyed the builders not only as an obstacle to the movement of vehicles. They showed particular insidiousness when earthworks were unfolded on them. The first spring on the BAM taught a memorable lesson: the mud swallowed up entire sections of the already paved road. This happened where the moss cover was broken. The exposed permafrost was melting under the spring sun, and hundreds of cubic meters of soil disappeared. Since then, the filling of embankments along the sails has been carried out directly onto the vegetation layer.

Despite the difficulties, the railway soldiers showed examples of selfless labor. The teams headed by officers A. Zheleznov, I. Bosym, K. Kurochkin, P. Tsygankov, M. Gafurov, A. Komarov, A. Savitsky, E. Zhadyaev, V. Vladimirsky, G. Agapychev worked with overfulfilment of tasks. The company, commanded by senior lieutenant A. Pirozhenko, was on one of the difficult sections of the route, but systematically carried out monthly tasks by 120%. The work of the foremost officer was awarded the Order For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR, III degree.

Two norms per shift on heavy soils, in the January frosts, excavator sergeants S. Lopaev, T. Akimkanov, privates A. Kuznetsov, V. Sorokaletov, S. Buralev, L. Chaika, B. Novikov, A. Samotkanov and many others performed ...

The socialist competition of the BAM warriors for a worthy meeting of the 30th anniversary of Victory expanded. It was initiated by the personnel of the bridge battalion, commanded by Captain L. Svetlov. The bridge workers gave their word to fulfill the annual task ahead of schedule, to commission the facilities only with good and excellent quality.

The initiative in the Eastern Sector found universal support. In difficult conditions, many mechanized complexes, crews, teams performed one and a half or two norms per shift, the soldiers competently operated complex construction equipment. Captain N. Shcheglov, Lieutenant V. Oleinik, Sergeant V. Karpov, Private D. Shashkov, and others were called the right-flank competition. Among the route planners, the unit commanded by Senior Lieutenant V. Kazhdan held the lead in the competition. Selflessness in work, perseverance, determination became commonplace for pioneers. No whims of the wild nature could stop the offensive impulse of the railroad warriors. An example of this is the construction of a 622-meter bridge across the Bureya River.

On January 2, 1975, the piling team of the Komsomol member Sergeant A. Vikulov hammered the first pile under the bridge supports. Construction began. It was short in duration, but extremely intense. To imagine what difficulties it was worth conquering by the Storm, suffice it to say that the bridge builders hammered the first test pile for 4 days. Two thousand times the hammer of the copra took off and fell, and the pile deepened only 20 centimeters. Permafrost and rock layers, ice and 50-degree frosts resisted man.

But the soldiers endured the hardships. The fuel for the pile driving units turned into ice, steel bolts broke in the cold, but the bridge soldiers did not give up. Special antifreeze fuel was used on the copra. A smithy and a sawmill were installed right on the ice, and there was no longer the need to go far for metal parts and a bar for ryazh and ice cutters. As always, the commanders showed an example in labor. Officers L. Svetlov, B. Berezny, G. Anikin, A. Tsvetaev, V. Semochkin, A. Vashchenko and many others sometimes did not leave the bridge for days, inspiring and mobilizing soldiers with their stamina and hard work. When there was a delay in the installation of the supports, the most experienced, most strong-willed specialists were sent to the production of this operation. In the decision taken at the party meeting, it was written: no communist has the right to work with marriage, to ignore shortcomings. Lost time has been made up.

On April 15, a few days before the spring flood, the last span was laid on the bridge. A huge complex structure, for which it was required to erect 18 supports, 10 ice cutters, to lay about 600 thousand cubic meters of rocky soil, was erected in a record short time - a little more than 3 months. All standards were covered. Cargoes to the head sections went over the bridge ahead of schedule.

The history of the bridge, however, did not end there. In the same year, there was a hot summer, which melted the ice on the tops of the mountains, and then the exhausting heat was replaced by warm showers. The rivers overflowed their banks. On the Bureya, the water level rose by 9 m. Even the old residents of these places did not remember this. Flooding flooded villages and prospecting camps, riverine fields and roads. Many construction projects are under threat.

The most alarming situation was at the bridge. The river swallowed high ice cutters, cut off the bridge from the banks, formed a huge jam of fallen trees and snags. This raised the water level even higher. When night fell, the gap between the lower part of the spans and the surface of the water was a little more than 40 cm. The bridge shook from the monstrous pressure and could collapse into the river at any moment.

The battalion, commanded by Major L. Svetlov, was built on alert. The commander announced that a detachment was being created to save the bridge, which would be parachuted from helicopters. It's not a safe business, volunteers are needed. Everyone volunteered to go. The strongest, the most enduring were selected.

The warriors worked all night under the light of searchlights. Sergeants N. Vinilov, N. Nesterov, privates A. Artemyev, E. Sakhbaev, V. Pozdeev, I. Martushenko and their comrades pushed the driftwood under the spans, even pulled trees onto the bridge and threw them to the other side. Standing on the pillars above the swiftly rushing black water, feeling the trembling body of the bridge, the twenty-year-old warriors did not get lost, did not succumb to the feeling of fear.

When a congestion began to grow at one of the pillars, Lieutenant E. Suprun descended from the bridge to a pile of logs. He fastened the ends of the ropes to the thickest trunks, and the soldiers pulled the logs out of the water and threw them over the bridge. The blockage was eliminated. For days without sleep or rest, an unusual landing fought for the bridge and defended it.

The year 1975 is remembered for the builders of the highway with the first great labor feat. May 9 - on the day of the 30th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, the 180 km BAM - Tynda connecting line was put into operation, the same line from which the rails were removed to achieve victory over the enemy during the war years. The new generation "returned the debt" to the people. The winners of socialist competition were entitled to lay the last, "silver" link in Tynda. Among them are Captain E. Zakharov, Senior Lieutenant P. Rusakov, Corporals V. Osipenko and V. Shifer, Private V. Erokhin. On the same day, the first working train arrived on the connecting line to the capital of BAM - Tynda. He delivered prefabricated houses, building materials, equipment.

The first BAM year was marked by great labor success. In a short time, in the harsh natural and climatic conditions, teams of builders were created capable of rapidly constructing a gigantic steel highway. The BAM warriors planned high lines for themselves. The main one - already in 1979, a year ahead of schedule, to close the so-called Far East railway ring, to give the northernmost outlet to the ocean. To close it from the north, it was necessary to connect Urgal and Komsomolsk-on-Amur with a steel thread - this is more than 500 km of the route. The railway soldiers undertook to build them.

The site turned out to be a tough nut to crack: dozens of large and small rivers, ridges, hills, swamps. The subgrade had to be built on narrow coastal shelves - clamps. Rocky soils were not inferior in strength to metal. It was more difficult to build bridges each other. And finally, as the final chord of difficulties, the Dusse-Alin tunnel.

The almost two-kilometer underground corridor, famous here, was pierced in the rocks and permafrost in the pre-war years. But it so happened that the tunnel was not in operation at that time: the construction of the line was mothballed. Time has not been kind to the unique structure. Drainage devices have fallen into disrepair, viewing wells covered with rock have become "blinded". For decades, groundwater and the severe Siberian cold have been destructive. As it seeped into the tunnel, the water uncontrollably moved downhill from the eastern portal to the western one and froze, forming ice, which, in the end, almost completely blocked the tunnel with all its auxiliary devices: adits, slots, trays. 32 thousand cubic meters of ice! The railway soldiers had to clear the tunnel of ice and lay rails in it.

But for this, a lot of efforts had to be spent on the approaches to Dusse-Alin. The track here passed along steep slopes, through huge monolithic rocks. To detonate them, the bombers did a job of incredible complexity and precision. On the slopes with a steepness of up to 60 °, the soldiers of the unit, led by officer I.I. On one of the winter days, when the air temperature was at around -40 ° C, the explosives of Senior Lieutenant V. Malanichev had to make another explosion of the rock. For this, it was required to lay a multi-ton charge into the wells. The car with explosives was late due to snowfall and slippery road. When it arrived, there were only a few hours left before dark, and it was only possible to detonate it during daylight hours. The soldiers, climbing the icy steep slopes, carried explosives to the wells by hand. It was faster and more reliable that way. The explosion took place at the appointed time. The perseverance of the soldiers and officers won - the rock was crushed.

In the very first days of work on the revival of the Dusse-Alin tunnel, it became clear that the implementation of the project, which provided for the development of ice with jackhammers and its transportation by trolleys, would take too much time (about a year) and would require large material costs. Then the military engineers Zh. Isahakyan, A. Kovalchuk and G. Groshev proposed their own original method: to melt the ice in the tunnel with warm air. Experienced specialists - miners of the Khabarovsk Territory - were involved in the performance of technical calculations, the provision of the necessary equipment, and the practical implementation of the task.

In summer, the first explosions were heard among the snow-covered spurs of the Dusse-Alin ridge. The ice mountain, which blocked the way to the entrance to the tunnel, was destroyed. Then two powerful fans and two heat generators took over. Warm air rushed into the depths of the tunnel along the long sleeves, laid in a narrow gap at the arch of the tunnel. The heat melted the upper layer of ice, and the lower one was simultaneously developed mechanically. Streams flowed from the tunnel. On the very first day, they melted about 300 cubic meters of ice.

But it was soon discovered that the ice was not melting in the entire tunnel: somewhere in the depths there was a plug that tightly blocked the underground corridor. They decided to liquidate it.

Armed with jackhammers, a group of soldiers led by junior sergeant N. Mariychenko began to make their way through a narrow manhole. It was very difficult to walk. Sometimes I had to crawl. Affected by the lack of oxygen, the counter streams of water interfered. But the soldiers persistently went to the goal. Finally, a block of solid ice appeared in the beam of an electric flashlight, blocking the tunnel. Jackhammers were used. An unexpectedly powerful stream of water, breaking through the hole, knocked down the sergeant. It was water that had accumulated in the other half of the tunnel. The plug was removed, and warm air rushed into the gap.

Day and night, motors hummed at the entrance to the Dusse-Alin tunnel, and searchlights burned. The railway warriors tried to finish clearing the tunnel before the onset of cold weather. Particular emphasis was placed on the reconstruction of drainage structures, which were supposed to prevent the formation of ice in the future. The tunnel was cleared of ice 4 times faster than the original design. The road workers got down to business. Subordinates of officer V. Nesterenko pulled the rails through the tunnel for two days.

The first years of work in Bam's conditions gave a number of interesting engineering solutions, especially on bridges, the construction of which became a good school of bridge building for the specialists of the troops. After careful calculations and comparisons, it was decided to focus on two types of bridge projects: post-flyover and bridges with supports from facing blocks. Such blocks did not need a preliminary arrangement of labor-intensive formwork, greatly simplified the process of constructing supports. However, the foundations of such supports required a lot of monolithic concrete and were built on a natural or pile foundation. The search continued. The choice of specialists in bridge business focused on the design of artificial structures, in which columnar supports and foundations were used. In permafrost conditions, the use of reinforced concrete pillars turned out to be a very progressive business. Columnar bases made it possible to reduce many times the labor intensity of work on a fragment of deep pits in permafrost soils.

The problems encountered during the implementation of these innovations were successfully resolved. The assault on the taiga continued at an increasing pace. The everyday work of the soldiers gave birth to interesting initiatives, was distinguished by creativity and inspiration. Such mottos as "For two years of service - three annual norms!" On the initiative of the Komsomol organization of the unit, commanded by Lieutenant E. Zuev, a quality mark was established at the assembly base - two stars on the rails of a perfectly sewn section. These signs can be found on many kilometers of the BAM; they are a guarantee of the reliability and durability of the BAM track.

In 1976, Komsomol conferences of units of the Railway Troops were held at the BAM. They summed up the results of the activities of the Komsomol organizations, outlined new frontiers. These lines were taken.

In February 1977 in Khabarovsk the first meeting of the soldiers of the Railway Troops - the foremost workers of the socialist competition, the builders of the Eastern section of the Baikal-Amur Mainline - took place. The best of the best came to the meeting. From the rostrum, the names of the right-flank competitions were named - the commander of the bridge battalion Major V. Bondarevsky, the company commander, laureate of the Lenin Komsomol prize Lieutenant A. Kuznetsov, the best track-laying driver Corporal V. Sheptalo, the notable excavator corporal V. Snigur and many others.

The participants of the rally adopted an appeal in which they called upon the BAM warriors to stand on the shock watch, to reach new high levels in combat and political training, to launch a competition for the early completion of the construction of the eastern part of the BAM. The work on the Far East ring was intense. Each kilometer of the route was given with great difficulty. Sometimes weeks were spent on overcoming the next 100 meters. Each working day put forward new tasks and new problems that needed to be solved immediately.

The mechanization division, led by officer G. Korotkov, worked around the clock. Excavator workers, corporal V. Snigur, privates P. Chertok, S. Nikulin, S. Konyushevsky, dump truck driver, private V. Kondrashov, workers L. Frantsuzov, brothers Nikolai and Valentin Bezruchkin, carried out one and a half or two norms per shift. The Kalantyrskys bulldozer drivers achieved high productivity: the father was a hereditary transport builder and the son was a private soldier of the Railway Troops.

The calculations of the track layers worked in a shock. The subdivision of Captain V. Kazhdan, which laid the first link of the Eastern section, was laying the track under the motto "High quality and soldier's guarantee for every kilometer of BAM!" The railroad warriors walked well ahead of schedule. Among them, there was a competition for the right to lay the "Zaronovsky kilometer". This movement was born after a letter sent to the soldiers by the pioneers of the city of Vyazemsky, Khabarovsk Territory. The guys reported that their squad was named after the legendary partisan hero Konstantin Zaslonov, who worked at the Vyazemsky depot before the war. Together with the Komsomol members, the pioneers collected 100 tons of scrap metal for the BAM rails and asked the railway soldiers to lay a kilometer of track on the track in honor of the commander of the partisan detachment Zaslonov. The warriors responded warmly to the request of the pioneers. The “Zaslonovsky kilometer” was laid. The winners of the competition, the soldiers of the platoon of Lieutenant V. Lukyanov, whose father, Fedor Zinovievich Lukyanov, fought with the Nazis in the partisan detachment commanded by Konstantin Zaslonov, got the right to do this.

Bridge builders solved complex problems creatively. They introduced many innovations into production in order to speed up the construction of bridges, reduce their cost and increase the reliability factor. So, during the construction of bridges across the Right and Left Orokot, the bridge constructions have successfully replaced massive monolithic supports with pillar foundations that are not inferior to them in strength. As a result, hundreds of cubic meters of concrete were saved and time was gained. In the struggle to gain time, the railway warriors showed real dedication and heroism. At the construction of one of the bridges of the Eastern section of the BAM, such an incident occurred. While driving the well under the support, a rocky layer stood in the way of the drilling rig. They decided to crush it by throwing a pointed steel projectile down through a special so-called casing pipe. Suddenly the cable burst, and the one and a half ton bulk sat down at a depth of eight meters, firmly blocking the well. Work on the bridge has stopped.

While they were thinking how to get out of a difficult situation, the well was almost filled to the top with water. The pumps were started, and the water level began to drop. At this time, the commander of the power plant, corporal Viktor Akimov, turned to the commander. He volunteered to go down the pipe and hook the projectile with a cable.

Tying himself with a safety rope and grabbing a rope with a hook at the end, Corporal Akimov began to descend into the impenetrable darkness. The diameter of the pipe was about a meter, only a small circle of the sky shone overhead. Resting his hands and feet on the walls of the pipe, the warrior sank lower and lower. At the bottom there was ice-cold water infused with permafrost, it reached the waist. Cold, as if in a vise, squeezed the body. Akimov felt the neck of the projectile with his foot and threw a loop of cable over it. I pulled the rope to drag. The cable was taut, but the loop slipped off the neck. With his fingers numb from the cold Akimov made another attempt. And the water was already reaching the chest. Now you can't just throw on the rope - you have to dive. And Akimov dived. But again the loop slipped off. Several times the warrior dived into the icy water. In the end, he managed to hook the shell, and the rig started working again. The letter, which was soon sent by the commander to the Volgograd region, read: "Thank you, Varvara Grigorievna, for raising such a son, a loyal comrade, a courageous soldier."

The road went further and further east. The units under the command of V. Nesterov approached with the laying of the track to the station Dipkun, which is located 165 km east of Tynda. The rail links also approached Vosporukhan, the most remote taiga village of the Eastern section. And on June 30, 1979 - a year ahead of schedule - the Far East railway ring was closed. The first train set off from Urgal to Komsomolsk-on-Amur along the 500-kilometer section, built by soldiers' hands.

Tickets for this train were not on sale. They were handed over the day before to those who won the socialist competition, who skillfully led the huge construction. Among them are the construction managers A.K. Volkov, A.I.Demin, V.T. Volobuev, Yu.V. Tertyshny, L.A. V. Rotshtein, I. F. Uretsky, A. V. Radchuk, G. M. Korotkov, V. M. Each, machine operators V. Snigur, Yu. Philipp, V. Ryazhev, M. Vladimirov, I. Peskishev, A. Bakiev, M. Tausov and others.

The difficult labor battle lasted four years and four months. An important milestone was taken. A solemn meeting was held at the Urkaltu junction. A 10-meter monument was erected here in the form of a "silver" crutch connecting two concrete rails - a symbol-monument to the selfless labor of railway soldiers in the Eastern section.

On September 9, 1980, the second meeting of the leaders of the socialist competition of the Eastern section of the Baikal-Amur Mainline took place. Among the best at the meeting were named the mechanization battalion of Lieutenant Colonel V. Kupriyanov, an excellent company of the winner of the Lenin Komsomol Prize Senior Lieutenant E. Almazov, a platoon of Lieutenant A. Pigur, the names of many other soldiers.

In 1974, railway soldiers hammered the first pegs on the BAM route. At the beginning of 1975, the first meters of the rails were laid. In 1980, a 200-kilometer section of the main track, from Postyshevo to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, was put into permanent operation, and two years later, a 302-kilometer section from Urgal to Postyshevo. All these kilometers were commissioned ahead of schedule. The construction site changed and grew every day.

At the beginning of 1983, calculations showed that if the pace of work on the BAM was accelerated even more, then by the spring of 1984, that is, one and a half years earlier than the target date, subunits going towards each other would be able to dock the rails of the entire Eastern BAM. January and February 1983 passed in disputes, calculations, estimates. The idea of ​​early laying of rails throughout the Vostochny section infected everyone. "Give the docking ahead of schedule!" The Military Council of Troops approved and supported the initiative of the advanced BAM collectives. The task was difficult. To successfully solve it, and on the eve of the 39th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, to pass the first train along the Eastern section of the BAM, it was necessary to carry out a huge amount of construction. Here are the most important figures characterizing the size of the work to be done: to dump soil - 15.4 million cubic meters, lay a railway track - 270 km, build 177 bridges. Not a single annual program of the Railway Troops at BAM knew such numbers.

What did it mean to ensure the docking of the rails of the Eastern section of the BAM at the crossing named after V.P. Miroshnichenko? First of all, this meant the development of almost 300 km of taiga area in terms of construction. I had to recall the experience of the first months of the development of the BAM zone. From the habitable places, from the equipped residential townships, the landing forces left for the taiga. The battalion, in which Major S. Shkrabov was the deputy commander for political affairs, landed in the taiga in February. In a short time, tents were set up, log houses, a canteen, a bakery, a club, and a vegetable store were built. Erecting living quarters, improving the taiga town, the battalion command did not forget about the main thing. From the first day, platoons began their main work, commanded by Lieutenants A. Smolyakov, V. Ryzhov, S. Vasiliev. They began to cut through the clearing. Following them were the machine operators and the soldiers of the bridge units. They had their own tasks, and they rushed to their facilities, did not want to waste a single hour, not a single working minute. And so it was all over the site. The landing forces, and behind them the main forces of the builders, went towards each other - some to the east of Tynda, others to the west of Fevralsk.

The first victory of the railway warriors who made their way through the taiga was the joining of the highway road between Tynda and Urgal. This happened on September 27, 1983 near the Kamnega crossing. The warriors-machine operators of the units, commanded by Major V. Galka and A. Sivak, cut through glades, erected bridges, leveled the terrain, and covered swampy areas. They completed their task ahead of schedule. During the years of construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline, railway soldiers have overcome many barrier places. Such a place was also encountered on the last section of the Eastern shoulder of the BAM. It was Ulagirskaya volcano, blocking forward movement with a solid rocky wall. In order for the units of railway soldiers to break out into the operational space, to deploy work on a wide front, it was required to cut a one and a half kilometer recess in the hill. It looked more like an open tunnel, since its lower mark dropped to 18 m. The matter was complex and very laborious. The question arose: who should be entrusted with an unusual notch? The choice fell on the mechanization battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel V.A.Kurkin. Previously, his mechanized battalion successfully coped with another difficult excavation, proved itself to be excellent in earthworks in haze areas near the Izhak station, and had the necessary experience in overcoming taiga barrier places.

The mehbat with all its technical might fell on the hill. The battle was not easy. The soil is of the ninth category of hardness. Sometimes, in order to develop 5-6 thousand cubic meters, it was necessary to spend up to 4 tons of explosives. The excavation was also famous for icing. The warriors-machine operators had to develop about 300 thousand cubic meters of ice. The battalion commander V. A. Kurkin and his deputy for political affairs, Major P. P. Kalin, were all the time at the forefront of the battle, helping their subordinates. Leadership in the socialist competition was won by the companies of captains V. Shevchuk and E. Almazov. All the machine operators worked hard, but the best of the best were the excavator driver Junior Sergeant N. Yakovlev, the bulldozer operators of the privates A. Ragimov and S. Beluga. The military collective, headed by Colonel G.I.Kogatko, worked amicably and energetically. The lot of machine operators, bridge builders, railway workers, led by Grigory Iosifovich Kogatko, fell to a significant part of the work associated with filling the last thousand cubic meters of land, building artificial structures, laying the final links of the Bam track.

To match Colonel G. I. Kogatko, at the last stage of laying the steel rails of the eastern BAM and his subordinates - officers Yu. Platonov, S. Zakharov, V. Pavlenko, sergeants G. Metreveli, V. Abramov, V. Filinov, privates K. Gushchin, A. Khubiev, I. Sazhin, O. Kanoganov, workers of the Soviet army V.P. Trush, V. Baranov, N. Fomicheva, L. Vogodina and many others.

The battle for the early laying of the last rails of the BAM unfolded along the entire highway. A huge territory became the front of the labor battle. Dozens and hundreds of construction teams worked in unison, striving to fulfill their obligations with honor. In the front ranks of the competitors, showing labor valor and dedication, there were railway warriors.

One after another passed the spring days of 1984. The construction site, living in the docking time, was changing by leaps and bounds. On the eastern section of the BAM railway soldiers, going from the east and from the west to the V.P. Miroshnichenko siding, kept track of days, meters, and cubic meters. In all divisions, a competition was unfolded for the right to lay the final rail link, pour the last cubic meter of soil, throw the truss of the last Bam bridge across the river.

By mid-April, the distance between the track-laying teams going towards each other was 12 km. It was time to think about the "gold" link. They decided to make it at the Fevralsk station. Here the soldiers-railroad workers launched socialist competition under the motto "Golden" link - days of shock labor! " And the soldiers worked really hard. Every day 700 m of track left the conveyor of the semi-automatic assembly line.

The honorary task of making the "golden" link was entrusted to the team of track workers, headed by senior lieutenant S. Kurylenko. The link was sewn in a solemn atmosphere. Dozens of people watched the dexterous and dexterous movements of the railroad workers. The link is ready. He was assigned the serial number 55280. A few days later, the link was sent to the patrol named after V. P. Miroshnichenko, where it was supposed to link together the entire Eastern shoulder of the highway.

Railroad workers, bridge builders, machine operators, and maintenance workers worked heroically on the last Bam railway tracks. Soldiers-creators decorated the distant land with built bridges, stations, threads of steel rails. The soldiers of the steel highways had to not only build, but also selflessly defend what was built.

Heavy rains, which continued for several days in a row, turned the Bam rivers and rivulets into stormy streams - a formidable force. The raging elements uprooted trees, easily rolled boulders, washed away small bridges of the highway. On the site, which was covered by the subordinates of Lieutenant Colonel V. Kozlovsky, instead of a bridge demolished by water, soldiers-railroad workers set up a pontoon ferry. To maintain the crossing in working order, a team of 5 people was left. One day, at the end of the day, a downpour broke out with renewed vigor. The pontoons shook under the powerful pressure of the river. Private Sergei Martynov, who was on duty at the crossing, ran into the trailer, where his comrades settled down for the night. "Guys, the bridge is in danger!" He shouted.

Everyone rushed to the pontoons. Private Oleg Apetenok was the first to run to the crossing. He had an ax in his hands. Skillfully wielding it, he chopped off the long branches of larch, which kept a huge jam near the pontoon of trees, logs, twigs torn from the roots. The congestion began to weaken, the trees slowly sank into the water. The danger for the crossing was over. And at that moment the irreparable happened: the larch, caught up by a strong current, turned over, the huge rhizome with all its weight fell on the soldier and carried him into the whirlpool ... Private Oleg Apetenok died heroically, fulfilling his military duty. By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, he was posthumously awarded the Order of the Red Star.

In April 1984, two red flags moved closer and closer to each other on BAM maps and diagrams every morning. They marked the movement of the track-laying teams to the V.P. Miroshnichenko siding. The units of Captain I. Savchenko and Senior Lieutenant V. Lagushkin from the travel battalions of Lieutenant Colonel A. Dedov and Major F. Bulychev were entitled to complete the laying of the last kilometers of rails and to dock them. The subordinates of I. Savchenko went from Fevralsk, and the railroad workers of V. Lagushkin - from Tynda. The choice of these units was not accidental. Soldiers from the company of Captain I. Savchenko in 1983 laid 116 km of rails with one track-laying machine. It was a great achievement. The company of senior lieutenant V. Lagushkin in a record short time laid the steel threads of the rails through the difficult Ulagirskaya volcano, having successfully completed an important mission.

On April 16, 1984, at the siding named after Hero of the Soviet Union V.P. Miroshnichenko, two tracklayers met. In order to close the steel line of the highway, it remained to lay the last rail link. It has come to pass, to which for 10 years the BAM warriors walked through the rocks and ice, swamps and mari, sparing no effort and labor.

Figures speak volumes about the scale of this accomplishment. For 10 years of the Bam epic, the railway soldiers laid 1,449 km of the main track and more than 330 km of the station track. More than 220 million cubic meters of earthworks were completed, 1217 artificial structures were built, including 45 large and 296 medium bridges, 527 km of communication lines. Over the years, new cities and towns have appeared on the Eastern section of the BAM, about 30 stations and crossings have been built. For their arrangement, the BAM warriors erected 174 thousand square meters. m of housing, 8 schools, 13 kindergartens and a number of other facilities (Appendix 4).

On April 18, 1984, the Military Council of the Railway Troops reported to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Minister of Defense of the USSR about the opening of the through traffic of trains throughout the Eastern section of the BAM.

The Central Committee of the CPSU congratulated all the builders of the Eastern section of the BAM on the remarkable labor achievement of the soldiers-railroad workers. The greeting said:

“Dear comrades! The Central Committee of the CPSU has received with great satisfaction the announcement of your remarkable achievement - the successful fulfillment of socialist obligations on the early completion of the laying of the main track and the opening of through train traffic on the Tynda - Komsomolsk-on-Amur section of the Baikal-Amur Railway.

... It is gratifying to note that this great labor victory was won thanks to the selfless labor of soldiers-railroad workers who contribute to strengthening the economic might of the Motherland, all teams of builders, sponsoring organizations of union and autonomous republics, territories, regions and cities, boys and girls who came at the call of the Komsomol for this great construction. This is the result of active organizational and mass political work of commanders, political agencies, headquarters, engineering and technical personnel, party, trade union and Komsomol organizations ... "

On April 28, 1984, the celebrations dedicated to the opening of the through traffic of trains from Tynda to Komsomolsk-on-Amur took place. The festive decoration of the patrol named after Hero of the Soviet Union V.P. Miroshnichenko. At the place where the steel rails were joined, the railway soldiers set up a pole with directional arrows showing the distances: to Moscow - 7214 km, to Tynda - 491 km, to Komsomolsk-on-Amur - 995 km.

Representatives of the USSR Ministry of Defense, the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and the Navy, the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Transport Construction, the Khabarovsk Regional Committee and the Amur Regional Committee of the CPSU, the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, the Red Banner Far Eastern Military District, and patronage organizations came to the celebrations.

The solemn moment has come. Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, Head of Logistics of the Armed Forces of the USSR Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Kurkotkin, First Secretary of the Amur Regional Committee of the CPSU S.S. Avramenko, First Secretary of the Khabarovsk Regional Committee of the CPSU A.K. -naval fleet, Colonel-General M.G. Sobolev, commander of the Red Banner Far Eastern Military District, Army General I.M. Tretyak went to the place of docking.

A docking command has been issued. The last link floated slowly in the air and sank onto the embankment. The railroad warriors quickly and deftly assembled it, connecting it with neighboring links. There is a docking! Vostochny BAM is ready to pass the First train! The scarlet ribbon has been cut. The head of the Baikal-Amur railway, V.A.Gorbunov, was handed a symbolic key to the Eastern section of the BAM, and locomotive drivers Sergeant S. Timoshenko and Soviet Army worker A. Tropin were given commemorative wands. The orchestra performed a solemn march, and the first train set off to the sound of it. There is a huge poster on the locomotive: "Take, Motherland, our gift is a through passage along the Eastern section of the BAM!"

A solemn meeting was held here at the docking place. Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K.Kurkotkin read out the greetings of the Central Committee of the CPSU to the railway soldiers, all participants in the construction of the Eastern section of the Baikal-Amur railway, read out the greetings of the USSR Minister of Defense and the head of the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy.

The personnel of the 4th and 39th railway brigades, commanded by Colonels G.I. construction of BAM ".

The speech at the rally of the best excavator operator, Private Vladimir Plotnikov, sounded excitedly:

- Today we will report: the task of the Motherland has been completed! He said. - This success was achieved on the eve of the Victory Day of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. Let our labor victory be a kind of salute to the veterans of the last war, to my father, who fought from Kursk to Berlin!

Vladimir Plotnikov handed over to representatives of central and local museums the keys, which were used to fasten the last, "golden" link.

The capital of BAM, the city of Tynda, was smart and festive on October 27, 1984. On this day, a rally was held at its station square, dedicated to the early opening of train traffic along the entire length of the Baikal-Amur Mainline.

For ten years, the soldiers of the steel highways went to this major victory. It contains the labor of thousands of machine operators, bridge builders, railroad workers, signalmen, repairmen, all BAM warriors who had the good fortune to take part in the construction of the century. In this victory lies the multifaceted organizational activity of the commanders, the creative thought of engineers, the hard work of business executives, the mobilizing power of the word and personal example of political workers. The opening of the through traffic on the Eastern section of the BAM became a solid guarantee of the successful commissioning of the entire section in 1989 for permanent operation.

On September 29, 1989, the Eastern section of the BAM entered service on the existing lines of the Ministry of Railways. This event became the day of labor glory of the Railway Troops.

The Baikal-Amur railway was built as a 1st category road. Today it is a modern, highly technically equipped railway with all the elements of the arrangement, achieved by scientific and technological progress by the end of the 80s. last century.

The contribution to the victory at the BAM of each soldier and civilian specialist who directly participated in the construction is great, the contribution of those who worked at the BAM and for the BAM in other places is noticeable and significant. Special merit of the direct organizers of the construction - F.I.Pribov, A.K. Volkov, Yu.M. Yudin, G.I.Kogatko, I.N. M. Zimin, A. Ya. Milko, N. P. Koshman, A. I. Demin, B. A. Shkibtan, V. V. Lapshin, G. P. Anikina, V. I. Shcherbinina, E. L. Leshchinsky, Yu. P. Pavlyuchkov, L. A. Smirnova, B. M. Boldyreva, V. G. Aydynyan, V. V. Leshcheva, A. N. Matyunina, A. I. Belozerov, E. K. Neselovsky, V. N. Mirenkov, V. G. Omelchenko and many others. The apparatus of the Main Directorate of the Railway Troops worked smoothly and efficiently, the main task of which was long-term and operational planning, the effective solution of the mass of issues that arose and the provision of the necessary assistance to units and formations. Generals and officers A. M. Kryukov, M. K. Makartsev, N. Ya. Rylov, M. Ya. Rylov, N. A. Khomyakov, A. A. Vinogradov, I. S. Matveikov, V. T. Volobuev, G. I. Kupriyanov, Ya.M. Mayorov, I. M. Fedorov, A. F. Stolyarov, B. M. Zemtsov, V. A. Shemuratov, N. F. Ustinov, K. L. Puzyrev, G. P. Lunev, N. A. Chumak, K. A. Zhdanovich, V. G. Ivashov, S. E. Stepanyan, V. N. Vdovin, K. P. Petrov, A. S. Ryzhenkov, V. A. Karlashov, S. P. Danilenko, A. K. Sharikov, A. Ya. Andreev, I. D. Puzyrev, A. G. Komarov, A. K. Sakun, A. S. Butenko, I. I. Rusak, V. S. Malyshev and others.

A significant contribution to the cause of youth mobilization for the construction of the Baikal-Amur railway named after the Lenin Komsomol of the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Komsomol on the construction of the BAM and its leaders V. Filippov, V. Sushchevich, activists Yu. Larin, M. Zhilkin, V. Vasilenko, P. Karpov, A. Ivanov, I. Uretsky, V. Safoshkin and many others who were at the origin of many undertakings aimed at accelerating the construction of the BAM.

The work of the military railway workers was highly appreciated by the country's leadership. Orders and medals of the USSR for the construction of the Eastern BAM were awarded to more than 1000 people, medals of the USSR Ministry of Defense - 180. More than 56 thousand military personnel were awarded the medal "For the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline", 25 Komsomol officers at the BAM were awarded the Lenin Komsomol Prize in production, and the generals and officers GI Kogatko, VV Kupriyanov, MK Makartsev, SN Palchuk, AA Shantsev were awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. General V.A.Vasiliev and Captain A. B. Chudakov became laureates of the USSR State Prize.

For high performance in the construction of the Eastern section of the BAM 1 RailwayK (commander Major General Yudin Yu.M.) was awarded the Order of the October Revolution, the 35th Railway Brigade (commander Colonel V. Poverinov) - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

Many thousands of servicemen attended the BAM construction school. Their experience of working in extreme conditions is an invaluable contribution to solving the problems of the main purpose of the Railway Troops - technical cover and restoration of the country's railways, especially in the Far East region of the country. The construction of the Eastern section of the BAM allowed the troops to accumulate experience in managing formations and units in organizing the construction of a 1,500-kilometer railway line in the harsh climatic conditions of Transbaikalia and the Far East while conducting work on a wide front, including organizing the redeployment and moving of units to work areas.

The issues of organizing the life of the personnel (including food supply in autonomous conditions of accommodation), the operation of equipment and the use of technologies for work in conditions of low temperatures, permafrost and marshes have been practically worked out.

BAM, like no other construction site, provided unlimited opportunities for testing the production capabilities of units for construction and restoration work in the Far Eastern regions.

At BAM, the optimal structure of mechanization units was determined, which is necessary for the performance of earthworks, for specific conditions for a special period. At the same time, the need to equip these parts with mechanisms of greater unit power in the northern version was revealed: hydraulic excavators, powerful bulldozers and a sharp increase in the need for drilling equipment for drilling and blasting operations to loosen the soil.

The bridge units have accumulated experience in the construction of both permanent and temporary artificial structures in conditions of low temperatures and permafrost. Temporary bridges were built over large water barriers, such as Bureya, Byssa, Duki, Gorin, Unakha, Olongro, Dess. In total, over 1700 linear meters were built. m of temporary bridges for the railway track or the combined movement of rail and road transport. The bridge over the Duka River, which was burnt down by a forest fire in 1976, was being restored in conditions close to wartime, while the rate of restoration was 30–35 running meters. m per day. Valuable experience has been gained in operating temporary bridges, especially during flood periods. More than 1,500 temporary bridges and pipes have been built for the roadside road, with corrugated metal pipes being widely used. The technical solutions for the foundations of the supports of temporary bridges for the difficult hydrological conditions of the Far Eastern rivers (metal and wooden piles, immersed in previously drilled leader wells, cinder foundations, etc.) have been identified and practically tested.

The experience in the construction of temporary bridges on the BAM concretized the ways of finding optimal solutions for the foundations of bridge supports for areas with severe climatic conditions.

When solving problems on the passage of train traffic on temporary bridges (mainly due to the non-delivery of metal or reinforced concrete superstructures), standard restorative means, such as the REM-500 overpass, collapsible supports UZhV-LTMP, inventory prefabricated collapsible superstructures. To organize seasonal traffic on roadside roads across the Zeya and Selemdzha rivers, ferry crossings from the property of NZhM-56 were used, as well as ice and pile-ice crossings.

A wide front and significant volumes of earthworks, track superstructure and artificial structures created unlimited opportunities for conducting special training of personnel, improving organization and technology, and mastering the maximum pace of work. This made it possible to achieve the following annual rates of work:

construction of a roadside road - 318 km;

earthworks - 25.7 million cubic meters m;

construction of artificial structures - 155 units;

laying of the main track - 195 km;

ballasting - 513 thousand cubic meters m.

At BAM, the structure of units and subdivisions for the temporary operation of finished sections of the road has been checked, the necessary experience in organizing operational work has been accumulated.

Prior to the entry of the sections into permanent operation, temporary operation was carried out and the working movement of trains was organized along the sections under construction of the BAM, which made it possible to check the structure of units and subdivisions for the temporary operation of finished sections of the road, to accumulate the necessary experience in organizing operational work.

The rear of the USSR Armed Forces, the Far Eastern Military District, and specifically Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K.Kurkotkin and General of the Army V.M. Arkhipov, commanders of the Far Eastern Military District, Generals of the Army I.M.

The leaders of the Khabarovsk Territory and the Amur Region - A.K. Cherny and S.S. Avramenko, the Far Eastern and Bamovskaya Railways - A.G. Andreev and V.A. BAM Construction Directorate - V. F. Degtyarev and L. G. Makhitarov.

With the commissioning of the BAM, favorable prerequisites have been created for the further advancement of the construction of steel highways to the still uninhabited regions of the Asian part of Russia. The construction of the BAM is of great importance in strengthening the economy and defense of the country.
* * *
BAM is needed by everyone who knows the essence of the issue,
Who looks beyond their own nose
And he thinks about the future of the country.

History is not written in advance:
Brief elements have no power over her.
BAM is forever! BAM lives and will not die,
As long as Russia itself lives and is!

"Hear the time buzzing - BAM! In the steep open spaces - BAM!
And the big taiga obeys us!
Hear the time is buzzing - BAM! In the steep open spaces - BAM!
This is the bell of our young hearts ... "
(music by O. Feltsman, lyrics by R. Rozhdestvensky performed by Vladislav Konnov)

On July 8, 1974, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR issued a decree No. 561 "On the construction of the Baikal-Amur railway line." Prior to that, on March 15, Leonid Brezhnev, at a speech in Alma-Ata, called the BAM "the most important construction site of the IX Five-Year Plan", and on April 26, the "All-Union Komsomol Shock Detachment named after the 17th Komsomol Congress" was created - the first of such detachments at this construction site. On July 27 the newspaper "Pravda" published the editorial "From Baikal to the Amur" - the first editorial on this construction site. An active propaganda campaign of the new "great construction" began, dating back to the 19th century.

The road was connected at 10.05 Moscow time on September 29, 1984 at the Balabukhta junction, but the ceremony of nailing the "Golden Crutch" was held at the nearest major station - Kuanda. On the main runway, the last rails were laid on October 27, and through traffic along the BAM was opened. At the same time, the Baikal-Amur railway was organized, from Lena to Komsomolsk with the administrative center in Tynda. But all this vast economy was transferred completely to the operation of the Ministry of Railways only in 1989.

According to an established legend, the BAM was built by three forces: The Skovorodino - Tynda section (and then the village of Tyndinsky) - Neryungri was built by convicts and this section appeared before anyone else. The first construction attempts were made in 1932. Aldan's gold, Neryungri's coal and Kalara forest had to be taken out somehow. (See Note # 4)

The section Komsomolsk - Tynda was built by soldiers ("Komsomol members in military uniform," as they said then), so the road there is the most rotten and slow. Slave labor is the least productive.

The Lena-Tynda section was built by Komsomol volunteers from different localities of our country, therefore, the construction was completed later than everyone else. In addition to the road itself, the entire infrastructure of the roadside towns and villages was raised from scratch. They were built by different republics and regions, so the Novaya Chara station looks like a yurt (Kazakh SSR), Severobaikalsk station looks like a sea wave (Leningrad), and Tynda station looks like a swan (Moscow). A complete list of regions-chefs: Ukraine - New Urgal, Belarus - Muyakan, Latvia - Taksimo, Moldova - Alonka, Turkmenistan - Larba, Uzbekistan - Kuanda and Leprindo, Tajikistan - Soloni, Estonia - Kichera, Georgia - Niya. Russian Territories and Regions built smaller stations.

I intended to drive along the entire highway (with the exception of the "zekovsky" section) and understand what benefits the Soviet government pursued by harnessing such a project. I remembered very well both the Komsomol romance and the obvious reluctance of ordinary Komsomol members to embark on this dubious adventure. But money, however, could be earned. I remember a cute ditty - "How I left for BAM \ With a leather suitcase \ And I returned home \ With x..m frostbitten" or, for example, "Where the tigers used to shit \ We will lay highways \ Come to me on BAM \ I will I'll give you the rails ... "

It is now clear that the BAM did not and does not have any national economic significance. It is only needed as a backup for the Trans-Siberian Railway in case of Chinese military aggression. The Transsib is located too close to the border and, although the entire border area was (and is now also) occupied by Soviet / Russian troops, one PLA offensive operation is capable of cutting off the Far East completely.

From Komsomolsk-on-Amur, the locomotive puffs our train to the northwest. The only train on the road that runs every day - Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Tynda does not cause a stir. Three reserved seats, two compartments and one common carriage, that's all. The common carriage is packed with students on their way home to rest before exams. The compartment and reserved seat are filled with more serious people.

In the next compartment car there is even such a luxury as a buffet. It is unprofitable to hook up a dining car to such a train, so we got used to a gondola car. It consists of half a compartment carriage (5 units) and a half carriage of a clean space with a tent and a bar counter. Very spacious and comfortable, you can eat right there. The assortment - nuts-chocolates, juices-beer-vodka, pizzas, pies - all with a moderate mark-up. I repeat once again - with moderate. Sometimes it is even cheaper for locals to buy groceries from the dining car than in local stores.

As fellow travelers, I got two middle-aged peasants who lived near Tynda, and worked on a rotational basis throughout the country. Now they were returning from Sakhalin, where they had worked as drivers for six months dumping soil at the oil terminal of the Sakhalin-1 project. One of them, in his youth, worked on the construction of a highway in the Ulanmakit-Muyakan area, and I managed to ask him about the construction of the road and current life.

Fences of military units stretched outside the window. This section of the BAM was built and settled by the military, so there is a lot of HF here. And bridges across rivers are much better guarded. Now it is a private security guard armed with real machine guns. Armored caps, concrete trenches and so on along the banks. Now everything is abandoned.

Holgasso is the first village with a huge inscription "Tambov Region". Almost every station has this kind of monuments. The highway itself was built by soldiers, convicts, and ordinary Komsomol members, but the station settlements were only free builders. Many of them stayed here to live.

At the Lian station, a motrissa (such a self-propelled railway carriage) drove up to the parallel track and a bunch of inspectors ran into our train from it. Trains on the Far Eastern Railway are generally checked very often. During the whole trip, I faced only two checks, and both of them fell on the Far Eastern Railway. (Khabarovsk and Lian)

Khurmuli, Mavrinsky, Gorin, Kharpichan, Evoron, Moni, Bolen

The first station is Postyshevo (Berezovy village), you can still drive to this place by car. Along the entire BAM, the road laid during the construction is preserved. It is now and then gravel, but in some places bridges have already rotted. We pass this section all year round with Urals, and in seasons - even with cars. The village itself is widely scattered over the terrain, which is rare for these places. Passengers from Liana left here, but my companions and I fell asleep calmly.

Stations Ebgun, Sonakh, Amgun, Eanga, Sektali, Jamku, Badzhal, Urkaltu, Talidjan, Gerbi, Orokot, Mogdy, Suluk, Dusse-Alin, Naldy, I slept calmly. There is not a single more or less large among them. Only patrols.

At the Soloni station, I already woke up and began to look out the window with renewed vigor ... Mmm, nothing interesting appeared there compared to yesterday. The settlement at the station was built by the builders of the Tajik SSR, so it resembles some kind of mausoleum.

Mukunga, Turuk, Mugule, Chemchuko.

Urgal is not one village, but a whole bunch (Urgal, Urgal-1, Middle Urgal and New Urgal). The largest parking lot at Novy Urgal is 32 minutes. New big station, but no old ladies selling food. Everything is imported, we ourselves do not have enough. The settlement is neat and the names of the streets bear the stamp of Little Russia - Krymskaya, Kievskaya ... A short branch runs from Urgal to the Chegdomyn station. There is even a daily local train Khabarovsk-Chegdomyn.

And behind the Uragl, the Mari begin, i.e. endless swamps on the permafrost. Square kilometers of grass and bumps, and the trees are only standing alone, frail and crooked.

Bureinsk, Chebangda, Alonka, Stlannik, Tuyun, Shugara, Amgan are stations in Mary. As a rule, on each of them a freight train is waiting for us to pass along the single-track further east. In the carriages there is timber, timber, timber, and occasionally coal from Neryungri.

Etyrken is the last station in the Khabarovsk Territory, followed by the Amur Region. And therefore - changing the time zone, I am getting an hour closer to Moscow, for the first time during this trip. After all, until this moment I was only moving away. A regular working train from Urgal itself reaches Eterken. And the road rises higher and higher into the mountains.

Here the train crosses large mountain ranges. Larch forests appear on the hills, swamps disappear. The landscape is enlivened only by rare glades with power lines. There are no settlements in these places at all, all the crossings are served by one station attendant. Typically a woman wearing a FULL railroad uniform. And I was especially surprised by the fact that each DS had a uniform red cap. Some kind of fetishist's dream. Nowhere else have I seen such discipline in dress. Service in the Ministry of Railways is prestigious and respected in these places. In addition, this is almost the only job for which at least some money is paid. The second money job is logging. The whole BAM does nothing but chop wood and transport it to China, since this is its only cargo here.

Ulma, the station on the banks of the river of the same name, Mustakh, Gvozdevsky - tiny patrols with traditional attendants in red caps.

Isa small station on the very pass. A three-way entrance, a small hut for the station attendant and beautiful mountains around. Sometimes "serpentine" is automobile, but here "serpentine" is railway. The rails are laid along stone grooves, literally hollowed out in the granite mountains.

Isakan, Demchenko, Zvonkoe - here the mountains slowly recede and endless swamps with stunted forests begin again. But the sawmills are working with might and main here.

Fevralsk is finally another big station. As always on the BAM, there is a grandiose station built by the builders of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, and the absence of passengers. There is no excitement, trains run rarely, rarely. In addition to our daily, only local "scourges" or "scourges". What it is? These are one or two second-class carriages attached to a diesel locomotive and are a substitute for the electric train. Freight cars can also cling to passenger cars, in official timetables this is called a "working train". As in any major station of this section, a stele with the numbers of the military units that participated in the construction of the road is installed next to the station. The granite monument, covered with numbers, looks like a stone telephone book.

They say that buses run from Fevralsk to Blagoveshchensk and Ekimchan. Tickets are allegedly purchased in the station building. The big river Selemdzha, a tributary of the Amur, flows outside the city. The next stations - Chervinka, Skalisty, Drogoshevsk, Meun, Nora, Dugda, Tangomen, Kamnega are no different from their previous traveling brothers.

Tungala is considered a large station, but compared to any station in the European part, it is a small halt. Although there is everything that is supposed to be there, and even the Tungalinskaya distance of the track (this is the name of the railway office for operation) with repair and restoration trains. The village itself was built by builders of the Novosibirsk region. Brrr ... It's scary to live in such places, natural wilderness.

The next station has an intricate name - "Departure of the name of the hero of the Soviet Union Miroshnichenko", which is reflected in concrete letters on the monument next to the station.

Even though the evening is cold for the summer (no more than 6-8 degrees), and then the rain has charged. It’s bad if the weather is like that tomorrow. We pass the small stations Ulagir, Moldavsky, Ogoron. After Ogoron, sleep puts me on the shelf.

We passed Verkhnezeisk late at night and could not see anything. And I really wanted to see Zeya and the giant reservoirs. They say it's very beautiful, but you also need to sleep sometime.

The morning found us at the Dipkun station. This is not far from Tynda (6 hours drive) and the village itself looks more fun than others. Solid brick houses, paved roads, and, like everywhere else, a civilian station. And during the whole night we passed only six stations (Ulyanovsk builder, Izhak, Apetenok, Verkhnezeysk, Tutaul, Dess), these are the local distances.

Unakha, Marevaya, Jalingra,

Bestuzhevo. We can say that this is the satellite city of Tynda, with which it is connected by a good asphalt road. Here, 22 kilometers from it, there are children's camps, a rest house and even a bomb shelter. A branch from South Yakutia, from Neryungri also approaches the Bestuzhevo station. From there, coking coal is being transported intensively and the road feels good. They are even preparing to continue the journey deep into Yakutia, to the Tommot station, and then, you see, to Yakutsk itself.

The train crosses the bridge over the small river Gilyui, a tributary of the Zeya.

Shakhtaum, the last station in front of Tynda, is located near the village of Vostochny (5 five-story buildings, several barracks and that's it). Only 7 kilometers are left to the "Capital of BAM". The first and most difficult 1469 km to the house are behind.

And so, beyond the mountain, houses and pipes of the city of Tynda appeared. The capital of BAM was waiting for me. (that is, the continuation will follow ...)