The road to the Icy Sea

Abstract

In Russia, during centuries the Arctic Ocean, as well as the Barents Sea and White Sea had been called the Icy Sea. In this article, the development of the routes of communication on the north of the European part of Russia has been analyzed. Special attention is paid to a water and land ways from Moscow to Arkhangelsk. Also, it is emphasized an important role of transit of cargoes along the artificial water way that has connected Sheksna and Sukhon rivers through the use of some canals and sluices. Ship traffic along this water system was opened in 1828. In the last quarter of the XIX century, a railroad was built from Moscow to Arkhangelsk. However, the needs of economic growth of this area required absolutely different transport accessibility. The only northern sea port in Arkhangelsk no longer satisfied the interests of foreign trade. At the turn of 19^th – 20^th centuries, the Ministry of railways and Ministry of finance received a number of offers from business leaders, local government bodies and specialists to build new public highways and railroads and to search suitable bays for sea port construction. The main goal of those projects was expedited shipping of export cargoes from Siberian and Ural regions. The path to the ports of the White and Barents Seas was a great deal shorter. For reference: the length of a road from Perm to Arkhangelsk was 1281 km, to Petrograd through Vyatka – 1750 km, and through Moscow – 2016 km. The construction of these roads could have contributed to appearance of new cities and enterprises, mining and growth of mobility of population. In the author’s opinion, the most challenging were the projects of construction of the Ob-Belomorsk railroad and the railroads to the mouth of Indiga River (Indiga Bay of the Barents Sea), where environmental conditions allowed to construct a convenient deep-water port. In different times, all these projects were declined by cabinet officials and members of parliament lawmakers for a variety of reasons, mainly of financial character. Breakdown of the USSR and a loss of the majority of convenient ports on the Black Sea and Baltic coasts again put in the agenda a question of construction of large transportation lines and ports on the Russian North.