R504 Kolyma Highway
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The R504 Kolyma Highway (Template:Langx, Federal'naya Avtomobil'naya Doroga «Kolyma», "Federal Automobile Highway 'Kolyma'"), part of the M56 route, is a road through the Russian Far East. It connects Magadan with the town of Nizhny Bestyakh, located on the eastern bank of the Lena River, opposite of Yakutsk. At Nizhny Bestyakh the Kolyma Highway connects to the Lena Highway.
The Kolyma Highway has been colloquially called the Road of Bones (Russian: Script error: No such module "Lang". Doróga Kostéy).[1][2] Locally, the road is known as the Kolyma Route (Russian: Script error: No such module "Lang". Kolýmskaya trássa).
History
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The Dalstroy construction directorate built the Kolyma Highway during the Soviet Union's Stalinist era. Inmates of the Sevvostlag labour camp started the first stretch in 1932, and construction continued with the use of gulag labour until 1953.
It has been widely claimed that an estimatedScript error: No such module "Unsubst". 250,000
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Template:R protected1,000,000 imprisoned labourers[3]Template:Better source needed who died while constructing it were laid beneath or around the road, although documented sources have yet to confirm this with evidence of remains.[4]Script error: No such module "Unsubst". As the road is built on permafrost, the popular rumor spread through western and dissident accounts is that interment into the fabric of the road was deemed more practical than digging new holes to bury the bodies of the dead.[5]Template:Qn
Records indicate 10,251 people died in the Kolyma region prison system in 1938[6] from various official causes, mainly disease. The CIA's initial 1950s estimate of 3 million victims is stated to be flawed in Martin Bollinger's book on Kolyma prison labor.[7] Norman Polmar's review of that book refers to 130,000 deaths.[8]
Present
In 2008, the road was granted Federal Road status and is now a frequently maintained all-weather gravel road.
When the road was upgraded, the route was changed to bypass the section from Kyubeme to Kadykchan via Tomtor, and instead pass from Kyubeme to Kadykchan via a more northern route through the town of Ust-Nera. The old 420 km section via Tomtor was largely unmaintained; the 200 km section between Tomtor and Kadykchan was completely abandoned.[9] This section is known as the Old Summer Road, and has fallen into disrepair, with washed-out bridges and sections of road reclaimed by streams in summer. During winter, frozen rivers may assist river crossings. Old Summer Road remains one of the great challenges for adventuring motorcyclists and 4WDers.
The area is extremely cold during the winter. The town of Oymyakon, approximately 100 km from the highway, is believed to be the coldest inhabited place on earth.[10] The average low temperature in Oymyakon in January is −50°C.[11] In 2020, a teenage motorist froze to death by following Google Maps directions to use the shorter but abandoned section of the road via Tomtor, on which his car broke down, and his surviving travel mate lost most of his limbs due to frostbite.[12]
Route
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| Distance | Place | Remark | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 km | Nizhny Bestyakh / Yakutsk | on the Lena River | ||||||||
| Script error: No such module "convert". | Churapcha | end of paving. Will reach Ytyk-Kyuyol in 2025. | ||||||||
| Script error: No such module "convert". | Krest-Khaldzhay | road, northeast, summer ferry across the Aldan River. Bridge planned for 2025.[13][14] | ||||||||
| Script error: No such module "convert". | Khandyga | on the Aldan River | ||||||||
| alternative: Summer Hydrofoil from Yakutsk down the Lena and up the Aldan, Script error: No such module "convert"., 10 hours | ||||||||||
| over Suntar-Khayata mountains, Script error: No such module "convert". pass, Vostochnaya River | ||||||||||
| Script error: No such module "convert". | Kyubeme | |||||||||
| Script error: No such module "convert". | (New route) Ust-Nera | on the Indigirka River, east: several mining towns, Artyk town, headwaters of the Nera River, Script error: No such module "convert". pass | ||||||||
|
alternative: (Old Summer Road route) Script error: No such module "convert". northeast to Tomtor, Script error: No such module "convert". road northeast (may not be passable except when frozen), into Magadan Oblast | ||||||||||
| Script error: No such module "convert". | Kadykchan | (nearby are coal mines and the old Myaundzha uranium processing centre) | ||||||||
| Script error: No such module "convert". | Susuman | |||||||||
| Script error: No such module "convert". | Debin | with the Kolyma River bridge | ||||||||
| Script error: No such module "convert". | Orotukan | road turns southeast and south Script error: No such module "convert". of largely unpopulated taiga | ||||||||
| Script error: No such module "convert". | Gerba | road 44H-3 to Omsukchan forks off; beginning of Anadyr Highway | ||||||||
| Script error: No such module "convert". | Atka | enters lowlands | ||||||||
| Script error: No such module "convert". | Yablonevyy | pavement recommences [15] | ||||||||
| Script error: No such module "convert". | Palatka | |||||||||
| Script error: No such module "convert". | Sokol | |||||||||
| Script error: No such module "convert". | Magadan | |||||||||
There is also a scenic shortcut from Magadan to Susuman via Ust-Omchug called the Tenkinskaya Trassa, which receives a lot less heavy traffic than the main section of the M56 between Magadan and Susuman.
Distances: Yakutsk to Khandyga Script error: No such module "convert"., on to Kyubeme Script error: No such module "convert"., to Kadykchan (via Tomtor) Script error: No such module "convert"., Kadykchan to Susuman Script error: No such module "convert"., Susuman to Magadan Script error: No such module "convert".. From Kyubeme to Kadykchan north via Ust-Nera (the new, maintained section) is about Script error: No such module "convert"..
As of the summer of 2010, the Old Summer Road via Tomtor was still passable to motorcycles and 4×4s.
Road to Chukotka
The Anadyr Highway project from the Kolyma Highway to Anadyr in Chukotka passes Omsukchan, Omolon, and Ilirney with branch roads to Bilibino and Egvekinot, involving construction of Script error: No such module "convert". of road.[16] The construction of the first 50 kilometers of the road started in 2012.
See also
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Notes
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Hochschild, Adam (2003) [1994]. "17: Beyond the Pole Star". The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 237. Template:ISBN. Retrieved 14 June 2017. "Secret police authorities in Kolyma today say there are records - sometimes a complete file, sometimes just a name on a list - of two million men and women who were shipped to the territory between 1930 and the mid-1950s. But no one knows, even approximately, how many of these prisoners died. Even historians who have spent years studying Kolyma come up with radically different numbers. I asked four such researchers, who between them have written or edited more than half a dozen books on the gulag, what was the total Kolyma death toll. One estimated it at 250,000, another at 300,000, one at 800,000, and one at 'more than 1,000,000.'"
- ↑ Thompson G., (2002) Kolyma – The Road of Death
- ↑ Middleton, Nick, Going to Extremes
- ↑ Garanin and “Garaninism” (Materials of the scientific-practical conference) https://ostrozhka.ru/en/miscellaneous/garanin-i-garaninshchina-materialy-nauchno-prakticheskoi-konferencii/
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ Colebatch, Walter. Siberian Extreme 2010 – Back for More, 8 July 2010. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
- ↑ p. 57, Extreme Weather: A Guide & Record Book, Christopher C. Burt and Mark Stroud, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007, Template:ISBN.
- ↑ Погода и Климат. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Совещание по развитию дальневосточных городов • Президент России
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Project to build road from Kolyma to Anadyr drawn up Template:Webarchive
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References
- Bloom, L. R., and Vince, A. E. (2006) Mondo enduro: the ultimate adventure on two wheels – 44,000 miles in 400 days, Findon: RippingYarns.com, Template:ISBN
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- McGregor, E., Boorman, C. and Uhlig R. (2005) Long way round : chasing shadows across the world, London : Time Warner, Template:ISBN
- Pedersen, H., Payne, D. and Squire, S. (1998) 10 Years on 2 Wheels: 77 Countries, 250,000 Miles, Elfin Cove Press, Template:ISBN
- Scott, A. (2008) The Road Gets Better From Here, Vivid Publishing, Template:ISBN
- The Long Course route and GPS track [1]
- Thompson, G. (2002) Kolyma – The Road of Death, The Mission Reporter, Florida : Dundee, www site [accessed 21 May 2007]
- Turtle Expedition
- AskYakutia.com : Road condition reports
External links
- Description of a road expedition Yakutsk-Magadan and back
- Zoltan Szalkai made a documentary of Gulag camp of Kolyma.
- Documentary *** GOLD*** - lost in Siberia [2] was filmed in the summer of 1993 in Magadan, and along the Road of Bones, through Ust-Omchug and Susuman to the Sverovostok Zoloto gold mine, Siberia, by the first foreign film crew ever, visiting the Kolyma District -which had been under control of the Soviet secret service, under the company name Dalstroj, for over 60 years.
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