The White Sea-Baltic channel is not a simple ship canal connecting the White Sea with Onega Lake. And it is also not an important transport object which is giving exit from the White Sea to The Baltic and The Caspian and the southern seas.
It is the whole history, the beginning of the great camp buildings of the Soviet period. During its building not only water storage ponds and sluices have appeared – even new words were added in slangy speech. In the history of the channel three periods are singled out: its building (1930-s), the restoration after the war (50-s) and the present.
The channel appeared not from scratch. The White Sea-Onega connection is known from an extreme antiquity, and the first written descriptions of this way date from 15-16 centuries. The idea of building of a ship canal has appeared during the Northern war and belonged to Peter The Great, but working out of the channel’s project appeared only in the middle of the 18-th century. In 1922 on the basis of all previous materials the project of construction of the channel was developed.
The channel building began in April, 1930.
The nature has endowed Kareliya not only with rich forests and lakes, but also with rocks.
The White Sea-Baltic channel of I.V.Stalin (it has kept such name till 1961) has opened in August, 1933. According to official figures during its building (1931-1933) 10 936 prisoners died. According to unofficial data – from 50 to 200 thousands.
Pylons at the top chamber of a sluice â„–7 and the Memory Obelisk to the Fallen at a Sluice â„–5.
During the Great Patriotic War the channel as strategically important object, underwent destructions: its southern part has been completely destroyed. During the war the west coast of the channel was occupied by the Finns. In 1944 the Soviet army has blown up 7 sluices in near Poventsa. When the war was over, the damaged objects were restored and the channel was also put into operation again in July, 1946.
Since 2002 from Volga and Kama to the White Sea oil barging began channel have beeen operating. It ended with flood of oil and pollution of the White Sea.
The final Curious © phrase:
“If you dam a river it stagnates. Running water is beautiful water. So be a channel”
(English Proverb)
