Hello, friends! The idea is to connect the island by rail. Sakhalin and the mainland were first considered back in the late 1930s. At the same time, the option of building a tunnel under the Tatar Strait (from Cape Lazarev to Cape Pogibi) was proposed. Pre-design and preparatory work was carried out, but it was interrupted by the Great Patriotic War. Work resumed in 1947, but another construction project of the Stalin era was never completed. It was stopped by L. Beria’s decree immediately after Stalin’s death. Over the years, history has become overgrown with all sorts of rumors and legends.
One of these legends has been periodically appearing on television and in print for quite some time. The fact is that there is a semi-fantastic hypothesis about an underground civilization invisibly present on earth. This hypothesis assumes the existence of a whole network of underground tunnels and communications encircling the entire Earth. The Sakhalin tunnel is mentioned in it as an example. Allegedly, the builders were not so much building a tunnel as restoring an existing one, built in ancient times, and built very competently. While working, people came across the remains of ancient animals and strange mechanisms. Subsequently, all this information was classified. Let's see what we actually have.
The story interested me, since I myself was born and lived on Sakhalin. And also, of course, I heard some stories about the tunnel. There was nothing fantastic or unusual about them. However, the rather frequent mention of the Sakhalin tunnel in various publications devoted to the unknown prompted me to conduct a small check of this information. Here's what I managed to dig up:
So, everything unusual that is said and written about the tunnel ultimately ends up in the same source. Allegedly, in 1991, a certain L.S. contacted the Voronezh branch of Memorial. Berman, Doctor of Physical and Mechanical Sciences. She said that she took part in the construction of a tunnel under the Tatar Strait and shared her memories. According to her, the builders did not so much build as restore an already existing tunnel, laid in ancient times, extremely competently, taking into account the geology of the bottom of the strait. Mention was also made of strange finds in the tunnel - strange mechanisms and fossilized remains of animals. All this then disappeared into secret intelligence bases.
All information on the scientist L.S. Berman (woman) is found exclusively in the context of this story from the yellow press. It was not possible to find any other information about such a doctor of physical and mechanical sciences. So, decide for yourself whether to believe it or not.
There is a lot of rather contradictory information on the construction itself, but the overall picture is clear. I will give only a small part of what, in my opinion, is trustworthy.
On the seventh (or ninth - the original says 7/9) February 1953, the Minister of Internal Affairs signed the order “On measures to provide material and technical assistance to the construction of a tunnel crossing under the Tatar Strait.” It directly says: “ To begin the main work on the construction of the tunnel crossing in the first quarter of 1953...” And further: “Design, manufacture and supply 5 hydromechanical tunneling shields... submit applications for sheet piles and tubings... complete the development of a formulation for filling the gap between the shield shell and the tubing...
– before the start of the spring ice drift, complete the construction of islands in the strait for mines No. 2 and 3;
– in the second quarter of 1953, carry out excavation of the shaft of shaft No. 1 and work on the chamber for assembling the shield;
– for mines No. 2, 3 and 4, complete 131 linear meters of shaft sinking and begin the construction of chambers for installing shields in mines No. 2 and 4 in the fourth quarter of 1953...»
Summarizing the available information, the following picture emerges.
Active preparatory work was indeed underway at the sites: roads and auxiliary structures were being built, equipment was being imported. But since complex areas required technical solutions, and there were no projects yet, the main emphasis was placed on excavation work. The prisoners laid out the future railway track and built artificial islands in the strait. By February 1953, a large volume had been completed on the Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Cape Lazarev and Pogibi - Pobedino branches. Old-timers claim that all that was left to do on Sakhalin was to lay the rails. Obviously, it helped that the Pogibi-Nysh section was supposed to go along the Tymovskoye-Nysh-Pogibi highway, built back in the forties, which was later abandoned as unnecessary. As for the underwater tunnel, the above-mentioned mine No. 1 was founded at Cape Lazarev. Here, 55 meters of a vertical shaft and eight meters of horizontal workings were driven in both directions.
Most likely, this was the “chamber for assembling the hydromechanical shield” specified in the minister’s order.
Artificial islands were poured in the strait for mines No. 2 and No. 3, but they did not have time to start excavation. It was not possible to clarify whether shaft No. 4 was founded; one can only assume that it was in its place that the “nut” tower, preserved in Pogibi, stood. There are no other buildings left in the vicinity of the village.
In March 1953, immediately after Stalin’s death, Lavrentiy Beria signed an order according to which work was stopped on a number of construction sites, including No. 506, No. 507 and No. 6. So there was no one left to carry out the order of the Minister of Internal Affairs. And later an amnesty was declared, and the majority of the “special contingent” left Sakhalin.
However, to this day, hunters encounter abandoned camps in remote places...
I will give another selection from the report of M. Kuzmina, a member of the Amur Geographical Society.
Our small expedition, which included employees of the Khabarovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore Alexey Shestakov, Valery Spidlen and me, invited by the consultant as a specialist in the history of the Far Eastern camps, unexpectedly found ourselves in the epicenter of events.As you can see, there is nothing supernatural in the construction of the tunnel. However, there is an opinion that this is not the only tunnel. Some are trying to connect the Sakhalin tunnel with underground communications in the Nikolaevsk-on-Amur region. There is also information about certain structures in the area of Cape Muravyov. True, no one seriously investigated these rumors. That's all.The media suddenly began to quote N. Aksenenko, who, when he was Minister of Railways, said that “in the second half of 2000, construction of a tunnel under the Tatar Strait will begin.”
Having read information about the expedition in the regional press, the Far Eastern Bureau of NTV (Ilya Zimin and Sasha Nechukhaev) and employees of the US National Geographic Magazine - world-famous photographer Reza Deghati and the magazine's representative in Russia Lyudmila Mykyrtycheva, who were in Khabarovsk at that time, asked to join our ranks .
Last year, the Khabarovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore planned an expedition to the sites of Stalin’s construction sites in order to collect material to create an exhibition reflecting the period of repression and forced labor in the Far East.For the study, we decided to take a later “camp” period - the fifties, rightly believing that the desired objects of camp life were better preserved there. Therefore, we chose the Selikhin-Lazarev railway and the tunnel under the Nevelskoy Strait.
The official name of these construction projects is: “Construction No. 507 and ITL” and “Construction No. 6 and ITL.”
In Lazarev there are several objects of Construction No. 6 - a mine on the Sredny metro station (object no. 3), an artificial island (object no. 4) and an explosives warehouse.
The photo of the mine was repeatedly published by the media. But it suddenly turned out that the commandant of the hotel in Lazarev, where we were staying, Yulia Aleksandrovna Saprykina, went down into this mine when she was still a girl.
It was in the summer of '53. The construction has just been liquidated. We children were twelve years old. We went down the spiral staircase. To the left and right there are two huge caves... The next year we decided to go down again. But the mine was covered with boards. The caves were no longer visible; there was groundwater.
Saprykina said that one of the builders of this mine lives in Lazarev, but she has not told anyone about this yet. Yulia Alexandrovna persuaded Knyazeva to meet with us. She was very embarrassed, but still started talking:She worked on a collective farm. There was nothing to eat. I took eight kilograms of rye. They gave me a year for every kilogram.
Through the Vanino transfer, Vassa Feoktistovna got to Lazarev for the construction of a tunnel. It is written in the work book that in December 1951 she was transferred to facility No. 3.
The work, according to Knyazeva’s story, went like this. They made pits and blew up the rock. Then the crews poured soil into a one-ton bucket, and a winch lifted it to the top. And so that she knew when it was time to raise it, Vassa, the signalwoman, sat in the shaft and pressed the button.The depth of the mine was fifty-five meters, recalls Knyazeva.
Three teams worked. The first is the metro builders, the second is the soldiers. The third is prisoners.
How true are the rumors that the tunnel was built for several kilometers? - Nothing like that! The adits were only penetrated about ten meters. When the construction was liquidated, a team of civilians filled the adits with boards. I was the last one to leave the mine with this brigade.
The head of the Lazareva administration, Marina Viktorovna Gaznyuk, and the school director, Valentina Semenovna Koval, came with us to look at the mine. She said:From here the dam led to the island. We walked along this dam. Then it was washed away. Its width? The car passed freely.
Alexey specified the length of the dam using the pilot's map. From the mainland - 1.6 kilometers. From Sakhalin 2.2 kilometers. The total width of the Nevelskoy Strait in this place is eight kilometers.
The excursion to the artificial island was organized by the head of the administration. She found fishermen who were going to Sakhalin (they bring food to Sakhalin, and fish from there). They took us to the island.
There is a kingdom of seagulls who greeted us with heart-rending screams. Still would! There are gull nests all around with eggs in them.
A piece of land with a diameter of about ninety meters is surrounded by iron cladding, half destroyed. In general, it gives the impression of an open tin can, pretty rusty...
The fishermen agreed to take one person to Sakhalin. Valery, our photographer, is beyond competition. He was given a lot of advice: where to look, what to shoot, what to look for, and if someone turned up, what to ask.
Returning from the island, Valery reported.
The dam is there and even visible. With the same rusty lining. There the current is stronger, and the soil (sandy) is “weaker”, which is why the dam was reinforced with iron. The coast of Sakhalin is littered with rusty iron. If there was anything there, it was removed a long time ago. Local residents (those who met relatives with food) say: nothing like that happened here, meaning the mine on the mainland.
In conclusion, I would like to remind you that we have not yet seen the archives of construction 6 and ITL. Therefore, I will limit myself to a brief reference from the collection “The system of forced labor camps in the USSR. 1923-1960", published by the Memorial Society and the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) in 1998.At first, work on the construction of the tunnel was carried out by organization No. 6 of the Ministry of Railways. Then the Council of Ministers of the USSR, by order No. 00903, obliged the Ministry of Railways to transfer it with the entire staff of workers, engineers, employees and military personnel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to include it in the GULZhDS and organize an ITL under it.
Construction 6 and ITL. Time of existence: 11/14/52 - 04/29/53. Location: m. Lazareva. Telegraph code: "Hunting".
Production: construction of a tunnel crossing across the Tatar Strait railway. line Komsomolsk - Pobedino.
Number: as of 04/01/53. - 3700 people.
Heads: Ermolaev N.A. (former head of construction No. 6 of the Ministry of Railways) from 11/14/52.
The report was compiled by M. Kuzmina, a full member of the Amur Geographical Society.
However, due to economic infeasibility and lack of funds, it was never implemented. Research on the construction of a tunnel was undertaken in 1929-1930. In 1950, Stalin came up with the idea of connecting Sakhalin with the mainland by rail. Options with a ferry crossing, a bridge and a tunnel were considered. Soon, at the official level (secret resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers of May 5, 1950), a decision was made to build a tunnel and a reserve sea ferry. Like the Transpolar Railway, the tunnel was most likely intended to be used for military purposes - to supply units of the Soviet army stationed on Sakhalin. The construction of the tunnel crossing was entrusted to the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs (railroad lines) and the USSR Ministry of Railways (tunnel work, also transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 1952).
Project
The technical conditions for the design of the tunnel and adjacent railways were approved by the USSR Council of Ministers on September 6, 1950. In order to speed up construction, the route was supposed to be built according to a simplified (actually temporary) scheme, for example, in the first stages of construction it was allowed to use unimpregnated sleepers. No detailed engineering and geological surveys have been carried out in the area of the proposed tunnel construction.
On the territory of Sakhalin, the length of the railway line from the station Pobedino to Cape Pogibi (the beginning of the tunnel) was supposed to be 327 km. The axis of the tunnel under the Tatar Strait began at the Pogibi crossing; the station was located 23 kilometers from it Wangi, from which a branch was proposed to the southwest to Cape Wangi, where a pier for a sea railway ferry was being built. In total, nine railway stations were planned to be built on the island part of the highway. The length of the tunnel itself from Cape Pogibi on Sakhalin to Cape Lazarev on the mainland was supposed to be about 10 km (the narrowest section of the strait was chosen), its route ran north of the ferry crossing. On the mainland it was planned to build a branch from Cape Lazarev to the station Selikhin on the section Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan with a branch to a temporary ferry crossing. There were plans to build a traction power station near Lake Kizi. The completion of construction with the organization of a temporary ferry crossing was scheduled for the end of 1953, and the commissioning of the tunnel was planned for the end of 1955. The total cargo turnover of the designed line in the first years of its operation was envisaged at 4 million tons per year.
Implementation
The construction of railway lines to the tunnel was carried out mainly by released Gulag prisoners. In agreement with the USSR Prosecutor's Office, with the permission of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Internal Affairs released up to 8 thousand people from forced labor camps and colonies, sending them to the Ministry of Railways until the end of their sentences. The exceptions were persons convicted of banditry, robbery, premeditated murder, repeat thieves sentenced to hard labor, prisoners in special camps of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to whom permission from the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not apply. On Sakhalin it was Construction 506 (Tymovskoye village), on the mainland - Construction 507 (De-Kastri village). By the beginning of 1953, the total number of railway builders on both sides of the strait was more than 27,000 people. Construction, especially on Sakhalin, was carried out in conditions of virtually complete absence of infrastructure and lack of equipment; due to the emergency nature of the work, living conditions in the prison camps were unsatisfactory even by Gulag standards.
Preparations for the construction of a tunnel on the mainland were carried out by parolees, civilian specialists and military personnel (Construction 6 MPS). In February 1953, Construction 6 was also tasked with constructing a power plant at Kesey Lake. The number of builders by the spring of 1953 was 3,700 people.
After the death of Stalin and the mass amnesty of prisoners, work on the entire project was curtailed. According to the recollections of one of the young engineers, Yu. A. Koshelev (a recent graduate of MIIT in 1951, who was assigned to this construction site and supervised the construction of the first shaft to the tunnel axis), the situation was as follows:
| “In December 1951, I graduated from MIIT. I was sent to work in Construction No. 6 of the Ministry of Railways on the island of Sakhalin... The contingent of builders was complex. The bulk were early released. They were also paid a salary depending on output, but strictly on time. The only difference from those who came here from the outside was that they gave a written undertaking not to leave. At our site, three of the five foremen were released early... I was appointed as a foreman of the main work. We were assigned twelve brigades. to build a shaft with a diameter of eight and a half meters and a depth of about eighty meters on the seashore, and when we finished, it was proposed to make cuts and begin excavation of the first shaft in February 1953.
In the spring of 1953, Stalin died. And after some time the construction site was closed. They didn’t fold it, they didn’t mothball it, but they closed it. Yesterday they were still working, but today they said: “That’s it, no more.” We never started digging the tunnel. Although everything was available for this work: materials, equipment, machinery and good qualified specialists and workers. Many argue that the amnesty that followed Stalin’s funeral put an end to the tunnel - there was practically no one to continue construction. It is not true. Of our eight thousand early released, no more than two hundred left. And the remaining eight months waited for the order to resume construction. We wrote to Moscow about this, asked and begged. I consider stopping the construction of the tunnel to be some kind of wild, ridiculous mistake. After all, billions of rubles of people’s money and years of desperate labor were invested in the tunnel. And most importantly, the country really needs the tunnel... |
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On the mainland, 120 km of broad gauge railway were built along the right bank of the Amur from Selikhino station to Cherny Mys station (the road was later used for timber export). In the area of the proposed ferry crossing, dams were filled (their remains are still visible today), and preparatory work was carried out to construct piers. At Cape Lazarev, from where it was planned to build a tunnel, a mine shaft was dug, and an artificial island with a diameter of 90 m was poured 1.6 km from the coast. On Sakhalin, work was carried out in the worst conditions and not a single kilometer of railway was built. The work carried out to prepare the route (excavation work, clearing, etc.) made it possible to build a dirt road Nysh - Pogibi, which in Soviet times was used for the removal of wood.
This long and mysterious story is six decades old. If the events of that distant time had turned out differently, today, perhaps, we would be celebrating the anniversary of one of the most grandiose construction projects on earth. More precisely, underwater.
According to the testimonies and memories of eyewitnesses that have reached us, it all began back in 1950. The Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers adopted a closed resolution on survey work on the railway line from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Pobedino on Sakhalin Island with the construction of a tunnel under the Tatar Strait.
Shortly before an important state decision was made in March 1950, the first secretary of the Sakhalin Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, D.N. Melnik, was urgently summoned to Moscow. Melnik, who was at a loss about such an emergency call to the capital, was received by Comrade Stalin himself. The leader’s question literally stunned the party leader of Sakhalin: “How do you look at the construction of a railway from the mainland to you to Sakhalin?..” Melnik, as far as the situation allowed, tried to diplomatically explain that this was a very difficult task and would require enormous funds and human resources. But for Stalin, Melnik’s opinion turned out to be unconvincing. Moreover, the decision to build a tunnel was almost ready.
On May 12, 1950, a special construction division of the Ministry of Railways No. 6 was created for the construction of a tunnel to Sakhalin. It is mainly staffed by professional metro builders. According to various sources, more than three tens of thousands of qualified specialists worked there. In 1951, three options for laying a tunnel were proposed: the first - from Cape Lazarev to Cape Pogibi. The second is from Cape Sredniy to Cape Pogibi. And the third - from Cape Muravyov to Cape Wangi.
In accordance with the approved plan, the tunnel was supposed to start at Cape Sredny and go from the mainland in the direction of Cape Pogibi. Along this route, the length of its underwater part was about 8 kilometers - the narrowest point in the strait.
In addition to economic, the construction of the tunnel was also an important military facility. The highway from the mainland to the island was practically invulnerable.
Eight thousand meters underwater
At the end of the 80s of the last century, finding myself in those places at one of the border outposts, I heard a story that a few years ago a lonely old man lived nearby, a former prisoner of one of the camps, who with his own hands was hollowing out the rocky soil under the base of the future tunnel. He told the border guards about the countless number of people who worked on the construction site. According to him, in the early 1950s, shortly before the planned launch of the underground railway, locomotives with special trains stood ready to hit the road. But they were not destined to set off. Unexpectedly, an order came from Moscow to cancel the planned launch of the tunnel, and the work was stopped. Frankly speaking, it was difficult to believe in the authenticity of this story. The old man died, and his memories retold by the border guards were perceived as the plot of a fantastic story. It didn’t fit in my mind: how was it possible to hide such a grandiose construction? Even if we take into account that the work was eventually stopped, something must remain on the surface...
I will not hide that the topic of building a tunnel to Sakhalin excited me. Bit by bit, I began to collect any information that was somehow related to her. Over time, it became possible to recreate individual pictures of the events of half a century ago. However, detailed documents from that time could not be found. According to one version, it became known that the construction of the tunnel at the initial stage was carried out by prisoners. When the adits under the base were broken through, the metro construction workers went to work. According to another version, a second, secret tunnel was built to connect the narrowest section between the mainland and Sakhalin Island. Mine adits in the area of Cape Lazarev were made to divert eyes. The real tunnel should be looked for elsewhere. There was a third option for connecting the mainland and the island - through a bridge crossing.
Some of the researchers on the topic of the Sakhalin tunnel consider it a myth. In their opinion, after a detailed study of the terrain, it is not difficult to guess: all the work was just preparation, a kind of platform for the construction of giant dams, from which it was planned to throw a bridge connection to the island. The dams were indeed built.
After my publications on this topic in the naval newspaper, the editor received a letter from A. Balakirev:
“... In 1932, the motor ship “Sevzaples” was built in Leningrad. It was conceived as a timber carrier, but during the war it was converted to transport steam locomotives from America to Vladivostok. In 1940, the ship was engaged in the delivery of narrow-gauge steam locomotives and carriages from Japan to Sakhalin Island. I worked on it.
In 1950 we arrived in Vladivostok. I remember they put us in a factory. They installed very strong wooden cages, on which rails were laid across the ship, but of normal width (Sakhalin rails are 22 cm narrower).
At Cape Churkina, four unusual types of carriages were loaded onto these rails. Having secured them, we set off. Already at sea, the crew of “Sevzaples” learned that these cars - energy trains - arrived from Zaporozhye. They were equipped with 2-4 very powerful electric diesel engines. Delivery point - Cape Lazarev.
A few days later they arrived at the place. The pier was not yet ready, but a railway line approached its edge. Reloading the wagons ashore turned out to be a labor-intensive task, but everything was thought out to the smallest detail. The “people” was commanded by senior mate Anatoly Dekhta.”
We managed to find another eyewitness account. The author of the memoirs is V. Smirnov:
“I served in the military on Sakhalin together with my bosom friend Kostya Kuzmin. We had little education: Kostya had 4th grade, I had 5th grade, but at that time this was a lot. Kostya was the driver. One day he went AWOL and was absent for almost a month, for which he received 7 years as a deserter. And then in January 1951 I receive a letter from him. He writes that he found himself at the great construction site of the century, making a hole in the narrowest place of the Tatar Strait. One day counts as three and a half days.
Kostya wrote that 20 dump trucks drove backwards one by one into the tunnel and drove like this for about 10 kilometers.
Two years later, for good work, Konstantin was released and sent home.
In his last letter from home, he wrote that the construction site was closed, water poured into the tunnel and everyone there died.”
According to some reports, the construction of the tunnel began in the early 40s under conditions of special secrecy. Even a railway was brought to Cape Lazarev. But when the war began, the railway track was dismantled. The rails were allegedly sent to the western regions of the country to restore highways destroyed by the Nazis.
Flying over the proposed tunnel construction site with border troops helicopter pilots, I personally became convinced that the embankments from the railway track remained, although time had not been kind to them: they settled, the ground crumbled, and became overgrown with bushes. How much water has flown under the bridge since then...
By the way, it’s time to remember one more revelation. Mikhail Kozlov told it to me at one time:
“I worked at the 220th hydrometeorological observatory of the Pacific Fleet. The boss was Y. Kogan, caperang. We worked on special jobs. Then it was a secret (they signed a non-disclosure agreement). Now so many years have passed that it seems possible to talk about it. So, we were at the test site near Cape Pogibi on Sakhalin. That’s where it began, or rather, it was the beginning of the railway line (or road). Near the shore stood a dilapidated pier with laid rails. Near the shore, on the south side of the pier, there was a prisoner camp. When I arrived there, there were no more prisoners there, but the landfill staff lived there (they were brought in in the spring, and taken away in the late fall). To the north of the camp, 100-150 meters away, there was a second camp. It was dilapidated, and nearby there were 5-6 graves with wooden crosses. Directly from the pier, a dirt road ran east and ended at a large clearing, the size of a football field. Behind it, an embankment began with one railway track and stretched in the direction of the city of Aleksandrovsk. Perhaps the crews of the steamships “Amur Region” and “Transbaikalia”, which went on voyages along the coast, will help shed light on the mystery of the tunnel...”
In 1993, I had the opportunity to meet with a former military engineer who was directly involved in the construction of the tunnel. A gray-haired veteran, who wished not to give his last name, with the rank of colonel, said that there is no myth about the existence of the tunnel. “The tunnel has been built!” - he pronounced these words firmly, proudly recalling that this event happened long before the construction of the tunnel under the English Channel. “Our predecessors were talented. And when it was necessary to defeat the Nazis, and when to create such a unique structure.” According to the veteran, unfortunately, a fatal mistake was made in the project. Its authors were flattered by the fact that the distance between capes Lazarev and Pogibi is the shortest, somewhere around 9 kilometers. And they missed a very important detail - the current in this narrowest place is quite strong. Water gradually began to seep into the tunnel. The builders tried their best to correct the situation, but the available funds did not allow this to be done. As a result, the construction was mothballed, and after Stalin’s death it was completely abandoned. There was a special government decree on this subject dated May 26, 1953.
Half a century later
The connection of the mainland with the island of Sakhalin was remembered already during the modern history of Russia. In the mid-90s of the last century, I had the opportunity to meet Anatoly Chen, the man who hatched the idea of building a highway to Sakhalin.
In 1998, he was the author of the project for the construction of a bridge crossing in the Nevelskoy Strait. In the very place where half a century ago a secret facility was being built - a tunnel to Sakhalin. Chen was still trying to push through his project at the highest government levels. Here is just one of the responses to his appeal from the Russian Ministry of Defense:
“In accordance with the instructions of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation dated January 21, 1998, your letter with the project for the construction of a bridge in the Nevelskoy Strait (Sakhalin Region) has been reviewed by the relevant departments of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
We believe that with the commissioning of a multi-purpose bridge connecting the island. Sakhalin with the mainland, costs will be significantly reduced and time for transport of goods for national economic and military purposes will be reduced, the stability of transport links in the region will increase and the defense-economic problems of the Far East will be resolved more quickly.
At the same time, the construction project of this crossing requires a comprehensive examination and technical and economic calculations with the participation of all interested ministries and departments of the Russian Federation, which requires the adoption of an appropriate decision by the Government of the Russian Federation.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation generally supports this project and is ready to participate in it at the stage of the military-economic feasibility study of construction. Special requirements of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for the construction of a multi-purpose bridge crossing may be presented during the approval of the design assignment.”
Already at the beginning of this century, the leadership of the Ministry of Railways addressed the topic of connecting the mainland and Sakhalin Island. Nikolai Aksenenko proposed to complete the construction of the tunnel. But former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov was a supporter of another solution - to build a bridge on the island.
Not long ago, during a working trip to the Far East, the President of Russian Railways, Vladimir Yakunin, said that in the period from 2011 to 2013, construction of a bridge from the mainland to Sakhalin would begin. The project is of a state nature. From the point of view of transport unity, improving the life and work of Russians who live on Sakhalin, the head of Russian Railways noted, they should have the right to life.
The story of the tunnel to Sakhalin is connected not only with the secrets of the past, but also with unexpected versions of the connection of the island and the mainland in the foreseeable future. Along with the resumption of tunnel construction and the construction of a bridge, opinions are being expressed about the creation of a transcontinental highway from Europe, across Russia through Sakhalin, to the island of Hokkaido. This topic is actively discussed today by both specialists and amateurs. One can argue with the opinions of the parties, but the fact of the need to connect the mainland with the island is real, and there is no mystery about it. 
Discussions about building a road from the mainland to Sakhalin have been going on for decades. Even under Stalin, it was planned to build a strategic tunnel under the Tatar Strait. There is still a legend that a secret underground route for quickly transporting troops to the largest Russian island was built, but then it was mothballed. The topic of a secret tunnel is very popular among passengers languishing in Sakhalin ports waiting for the weather, but, alas, the tunnel is still nothing more than a dream. And yet, the idea of a road to Sakhalin does not die, because there is great economic interest in this project.
As you know, the Japanese have long ago created a unified transport network, connecting all the main islands. The last to join this network was the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido - from the northern railway station in Wakkanai to Sakhalin is just a stone's throw away, you just have to cross the La Perouse Strait. Japan is not averse to extending the road further - from Hokkaido to Sakhalin, but on the condition that Russia does its part of the work, that is, connects Sakhalin with the mainland. In this case, a convenient route will arise for the transit of Japanese goods to Europe. That is why in recent years there has been renewed talk about the need to create a transport artery connecting Sakhalin Island with the mainland. True, now instead of a tunnel they are proposing to build a bridge across the strait. So, the first option is a tunnel, the second is a bridge, but there is also a third... a dam! More precisely, the so-called active dam, the idea of which was proposed by specialists from the Russian research association Kosmopoisk. Moreover, this dam is designed to solve not only the transport problem.
Active dam
A great many dams and dams have been built in the world, and colossal experience in the construction of such objects has been accumulated. Recent examples include the construction of a dam to strengthen the coast in the area of the Tuzla Spit and a dam to raise the water level in the northern part of the Aral Sea. The technologies are simpler to implement compared to underground tunneling: filling is usually done either by a directed explosion, or by a string of dump trucks, or by a single sea dredge.
The reference books indicate that the Tatar Strait has a depth of 230 meters. The distance between the banks at the narrowest point (Nevelskoy Strait) is only 7.3 kilometers, and the depth of the fairway there is no more than 8 meters. That is, the sea strait here is no deeper than a large Siberian river.
Washing a dam in the shallow Tatar Strait is not difficult: in one season, just one dredge can do it, says one of the authors of the project, head of the Kosmopoisk association, Vadim Chernobrov. - The proposed location for its construction: the area from the village of Lazarev (mainland) to the village of Pogibi (Sakhalin).
The approximate cost of the project, according to Chernobrov, is about a billion rubles. There is no need to transport soil for filling with dump trucks; the dredge will simply deepen the strait away from the dam. Ordinary road workers will be able to strengthen the walls of the dam, lay an asphalt track along its top and lay the rails in the shortest possible time. Anticipating objections from environmentalists (fish migration will stop) and sailors (shipping will stop), the authors of the project propose installing locks in the dam. These locks are useful not only for the passage of fish and ships, but we will talk about this later.
In addition to the road and locks, it is proposed to build a power plant on the dam. “This is the highlight of the project; the energy will be provided by the dam itself, the generators of which will operate on the principle of a tidal hydroelectric power station!” - says one of the project developers, until recently a researcher at the Institute of the History of Natural Science and Technology. S. I. Vavilova Sergei Alexandrov. The trick is to not waste energy when pumping water, but... to extract it. How to achieve this? Very simple. The energy of ebbs and flows will move the water. During high tide the southern locks will be open, and at low tide the northern ones will be open. In the first case, water, flowing into the central reservoir and raising its level to the high tide level, rotates the turbines of the generators. In the second case, water is poured from a central reservoir into the sea, the level of which has dropped during low tide, again rotating the hydraulic turbines.
In fact, an active dam is a simple pump that provides free energy; to service it, you just need to close and open the sluice doors in time, assures Vadim Chernobrov. - In fact, there is no mysticism in this. We simply propose to take possession of one multi-millionth part of the energy that has been wasted for millions of years. It should be noted that an active dam cannot be built anywhere. Many factors must come together (width, depth, current speed, height difference during the ebb and flow of the tides). And the Tatar Strait is attractive because it meets all these parameters.
Climate conditioner
But the main sensation is not even the dam-power plant project itself, but the consequences that its construction could have on the climate of the entire Far Eastern region. The Strait of Tartary is something of a weak link; because of it, the climate of the Russian Far East is harsher than in other regions located at the same latitudes. “Take a look at the map of currents, which basically form the macroclimate of vast territories,” says Sergei Alexandrov. “At the same latitude as our harsh Magadan, there are Western European cities where strawberries ripen freely in the open ground.” As you know, Europe is relatively warm thanks to the warm Gulf Stream, and south of Magadan and Okhotsk there is a cold current that enters the narrow throat of the Tatar Strait and cools the Khabarovsk Territory and Sakhalin. After this, the icy waters of the current move along the coast of the Russian Far East and “freeze” Vladivostok. Vladivostok Bay, despite the fact that it is located almost at the same latitude as Sochi, regularly freezes in winter. Then the current fizzles out, and... Koreans can breathe a sigh of relief. The fact that the Russian Far East has the southernmost permafrost on Earth, and that the heating season is longer than the European one, is a merit of the cold current.
And what’s a shame: the entire coast of the Far East is covered with ice somehow one-sidedly. “Everyone who was in this harsh region in the middle of winter saw the following picture: you can’t get to the sea, the ice is in the way, but on the horizon all year round there are ships - not from our frozen ports and not to our cities closed for the winter,” continues Vadim Chernobrov. “There is never ice just a few kilometers from the shore; the warm Kuroshio current already rules there.” This warm sea “river”, 170 km wide, 0.7 km deep, with a surface water temperature of +12 to +28 degrees Celsius, flows in the opposite direction - from south to north at a speed of 0.9-2.9 km/ h. But nowhere does Kuroshio warm the Russian territory - it is reliably cut off from the coast by that same cold northern current.
So the dam will limit the access of cold water from the Sea of Okhotsk and allow the warm current to unfold, which will “creep” along the coast. The project developers believe that this alone will be enough to shorten the heating season in Vladivostok by three months! On the beaches of Vladivostok and Nakhodka, where ice will never be seen again, people will sunbathe almost all year round. This can't be true? “Really, it can’t - we haven’t yet “sealed the gap” of the Tatar Strait, into which a cold draft “whistles,” - Vadim Chernobrov is sure. - Separately, it should be noted that the heat of Kuroshio will not “steal” from Japan. How did this current heat It will continue to warm the land of the rising sun. Now it is only assumed that part of the current will not go into the ocean, but will be pumped to the north.” Moreover, relatively warm water will be able to enter the Sea of Okhotsk through the pump dam. Have you heard about the resorts on the southern shore of the Sea of Okhotsk? It even sounds crazy. By the way, the places there are wild, beautiful, and the water is crystal clear.
Are there possible negative side effects? “Yes, when the permafrost melts, the piles of old houses standing on the permafrost may sag, evaporation from swamps and other troubles with which ecologists who predict the onset of global warming have frightened us and continue to frighten us,” predicts Sergei Alexandrov. “But a huge plus of the new active dam in the fact that it can pump water in any direction. It is possible, at the request of ecologists, to extend the process of thawing of permafrost for a long period." After all, with the help of the same system of tidal pumps it is possible to pump in cold water from the north. The tidal pump of an active dam is an air conditioner that operates in all modes (heating, cooling, idling) and generates energy in any of the options, assures Sergei Alexandrov. And even if all this is actually fantasy, the idea is beautiful.
Stepan Krivosheev.
“Itogi”, No. 37, 09/11/2006.
Mikhail Lif, General Director of the 6th Expeditionary Unit of Underwater Technical Works, Kaliningrad:
As a hydraulic engineer, I don’t think this idea is crazy. Everything is quite real. The depths in the Tatar Strait are shallow, and the soils are quite acceptable for such work. In addition, the idea of tidal power plants is good. The energy is free, and the structure carries a multifunctional load. After all, the ebb and flow of the tides are constant. Of course, the construction of such a technical structure will require large capital expenditures. By the way, at one time Stalin wanted to build a tunnel under the Tatar Strait. And today, flying over it by plane, you can see the unfinished dam. So why wouldn't there be an active dam there?
