Is it possible to build a road at –64°C? And to treat a sore throat with a bad cold? How about eight of us in a room? Sleep 2 to 4 hours a day? Speaking in the upper house of the Russian parliament without a cheat sheet?
The Hero of Socialist Labor Ivan Varshavskyknows the answer – Yes you can. When you wholeheartedly support your work, you endure all hardships and overcome all. BAM was built by an unyielding generation, who conquered the mountains and the taiga. Pose of the “golden bond” preceded by years of hard work, excitement at work and an unshakeable faith in one's own strength. This is why the highway and its builders are considered legendary.
Ivan Varshavsky. Photo: “Amurskaya Pravda”, photo archive
Half candy with soil
Our parents had eight children, I am the last to scratch. Childhood was difficult, hungry. It happened in Ukraine, in the Odessa region. Surprisingly, I remember the war well. I clearly see how, when I was very small, I went with my mother and older sisters to the collective farm field. At lunchtime, a large cauldron was brought there, in which kulesh was cooked. Have a sip – and in the stomach it becomes warm and pleasant. But childhood – it is happiness despite hunger and deprivation. My head was spinning with hunger, and we ran and played.
I remember for the rest of my life how a store was bombed during the war and my mother brought sticky candy “pillows” down the hem. halfway with the earth. I have never tasted anything tastier than these sweets in my life.
After seven years, he went to the collective farm to work. Adult men returning from the front were crippled, injured and helpless. We teenagers were seen as the main work force. And immediately after the army, he got a job as a track fitter, then became a foreman, graduated from the technical school of railways in absentia. And in 1969 he was already the head of a group of workers of the Chisinau railway. An inexplicable detail for me: when I worked in Moldova, I was constantly tormented by tonsillitis. Boils in the throat full of pus. Once a surgeon told me: get out of here, you have no climate here. And in 1972 I left for the construction of the Abakan-Taishet railway, then decades of life in BAM – and not a single sore throat!
Cars stalled and people endured
When I heard about the construction of the BAM, I came here in 1974 for a recognition – young, everything was interesting. They immediately told me, “We're taking you.” I came with my wife and two children. A friend had a small hut. He and his wife have two children, we are four – and so they began to live.
And around the taiga, mushrooms – false. Black grouse, capercaillie fly. Instead of roads, the land was impassable and on the dance floors they danced until they fell. Everywhere laughter, bonfires, guitar. Life at BAM was in full swing. The only thing that was bad, – drivers. Then there were 164 boiler rooms in Tynda! Consider that each barracks, caravan, dugout was heated by its own boiler room. And in the morning everyone started heating the cars – freezes something at 50 degrees. No white light was visible from the smog.
About freezing. Do you believe, “winter” jelly diesel fuel froze, the German “Magirus” deaf from cold, but people endured. I had a case on Gilyui. I remember the most severe frosts – 64°C. All equipment was up and we were working. In the summer, you drive a crutch into a crossbeam in 2-4 knocks, and in cold weather you have to knock it 10-12 times. Well, if you have a crowbar or a hammer in your hands, how can you freeze? They took off their short fur coats, it was hard on them. After 10 minutes, the back is covered with a snow jacket, like a polar bear. The order is: 30 minutes on the job, half an hour in the trailer. I took a sip of hot tea, warmed by the stove – and forward again.
In my brigade, a third of the women were, jokes, jokes. “I will come to you today, do you want to warm me up?” – pressed the men. “Is there anything to warm up? – the women fought back. The language was alive, yes. There were such women who single-handedly lifted crossbeams on their shoulders and walked with them without tripping. I find that when women are around, men behave differently: there is less obscenity, more discipline.
“The era was non-confrontational”
Building teams at BAM was an interesting thing. Different people came from all over the Soviet Union. It took getting used to, understanding each other. But there were no conflicts. For a while it was not a conflict.
The late Misha Zadornov said venomously that BAM was built by convicts and soldiers, and that the Komsomol was just watching and directing. When I heard that, I gasped. I think you are an asshole! Say that… But God bless him, he is no longer in the world.
And salaries – yes, they were good, I got 700 rubles, and the explosives guys earned 1,000 a month. These Soviet rubles. Every month he sent money to his mother, then she had a collective farm pension of 7 rubles. From the hero mother who raised eight children! Then I came to my homeland on vacation, she handed me a whole bundle of my money: “Here, my son, take it, they will be useful to you. I'm used to living off my pension. I almost fell. I went to the store, with all that money I got her outfits & shy; won.
But they worked like beasts, it's true. Slept four hours a day. The farther the residential trailers were from the highway the better. The farther the trailer is, the longer shifts it takes you, which means there are extra minutes to take a nap in the car.
“Our Victory Day”
“Golden Mooring” BAM took place on September 28, 1984 at the Balbukhta crossroads of Kalar district in Chita region. My colleague Sasha Bondar was crying for real. Photos scattered around the world, where her face is covered in tears. I still remember the series of tearful faces from the young men when we moored this “golden link” Bam. It was our Victory Day! Now sometimes I start to remember everything, I cry myself. I attribute everything to age.
Sasha Bondar and I agreed that when we docked our brigades would definitely cover the “clearing”. Below, under the canvas, they built a long sewn table with a shalyovka. They wrote a bounty for this deal, they took some of the money out of their pockets. There were no glasses. He took off his helmet, mixed vodka with champagne in it, and let this “glass” go in a circle. Then many began to take off their helmets and pour vodka and champagne into them. This “ruff» closed we washed the main victory of BAM.
When the secretary of the Central Committee Vladimir Dolgikhtied the hero star to me, my throat intercepted with excitement. I remember that the whole hall of columns was standing. And how people applauded! (He waves, falls silent.) It was amazing: did I really deserve it? Thousands and thousands of people like me were eligible to receive such an award. And when, after the award, I came to my homeland in the village of Zagnitkovo, they met me there with the whole collective farm, they arranged a special meeting. The club was full of people. Here it was to tears. It was a pity that my mother did not live to this day.
In the summer of 2019, they said to me: ” Ivan Nikolayevich, I have to fly to Moscow. Talk to the Federation Council, ask for help for Tynda.
I did not write summaries for the speech. All My Life BAM – in my head. And the head, thank God, is still light. Then in 2019 no planes flew to Tynda, the train to Blagoveshchensk ran every other day. Branded train with “branded” prices. Well, I have listed everything.
He spoke of the BAM temporary houses, in which thousands of people still live. About the hospital, where for 40 years there was no normal repair. About the Forest – that for 45 years he was slaughtered without mercy. Around Tynda, all the hills are already bald, and in Tynda there is not even a simple sawmill, let alone a wood processing factory. Isn't that professional?
I never hinted at that podium, I just wiped my snot off. The trunk is long, the condensate is leaking (laughs).
But the result turned out: “planes are flying now, the surgical building of the Tyndinsky city hospital has been beautifully renovated. The soul rejoices!
What is happiness to me? Fishing! No wonder they say: one day of fishing extends life by three days.
Am I thinking about death? The more you think about it, the sooner it will come. And if I ever meet God, I will be very surprised and ask forgiveness for not believing in him. I always think: if there is a God, then why are there so many punishments for the innocent and the little children? I will never understand this. Why does God allow wars?
What do I want from life? Peace of mind! She's a little restless right now. And I still want to live. I do!
BAM in facts and figures
The length of the Baikal-Amur Main Line, which runs from Taishet Station to Sovetskaya Gavan, – 4324 kilometers. The railway, most of which was built from 1972 to 1984, was laid by workers and engineers of 108 nationalities, 60% were under 30 years old. The population of the construction region at the time it was completed was 1 million people. During the construction of the road, 63 new settlements appeared. 17.7 billion Soviet rubles were spent on BAM.
