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Soviet Union [USSR] Development of Waterways
Following the Bolshevik Revolution, the new regime decided
first on reconstruction and then on expansion and modernization of
the inland waterway system. The plan encompassed opening to
navigation, or expanding navigation on, major rivers, particularly
in the Asian part of the Soviet Union, and included new
infrastructure ashore.
In the 1930s, two major canals were constructed: one connecting
the Baltic and White seas, 227 kilometers long, with nineteen
locks; the other connecting Moscow to the Volga River, 128
kilometers long
(see
fig. 20). Both were built using prisoners, the
first at a cost of about 225,000 lives. By 1940 about 108,900
kilometers of river and 4,200 kilometers of man-made waterways were
in operation, which allowed movement of 73.9 million tons
originated of freight. During World War II, most of the inland
fleet was converted to landing craft for river-crossing operations.
As a result of hostilities, inland navigation suffered losses in
vessels, canals, and shore installations.
The Fourth Five-Year Plan provided for the restoration of
navigation on major waterways in the European part of the Soviet
Union after World War II. It included repair of the fleet,
construction of new vessels, and rebuilding and expansion of port
installations. In the 1950s, construction of the 101-kilometer
canal connecting the Volga and Don rivers, also built using
prisoners, brought all the major inland river ports within the
reach of the Black, Baltic, Caspian, Azov, and White seas. The
navigable length of the inland waterway network reached its peak of
144,500 kilometers in 1970. Thereafter, it began to decline as, on
the one hand, distance-cutting reservoirs and canals were opened to
navigation and, on the other hand, navigation was discontinued on
rivers with a low traffic density. Thus by 1987 the length of
inland waterways under navigation was reduced to 122,500
kilometers, exclusive of the Caspian Sea. Navigational channels
were deepened, and canals and locks were widened. New waterways,
including tributaries of major rivers, were developed in Siberia
and the Far East. As part of that process, the ports of Omsk and
Novosibirsk were expanded, and new ports were built at Tomsk,
Surgut, and Tobol'sk. Equipment capable of handling twenty-ton
containers was installed at Krasnoyarsk, Osetrovsk, and ports in
the Yakutiya region. The most heavily navigated sections of
Siberia's Ob', Irtysh, Yenisey, and Lena rivers were deepened to
the "minimum guaranteed depth" of three meters.
Further development of navigation on smaller rivers in the Far
East was begun in the early 1980s, and navigation increased on
other waterways serving industrialized areas. By 1985 the Volga and
Kama river locks had reached their traffic limits and required
widening. To respond to increased demand and to replace obsolete
vessels, 1,020 dry bulk and oil barges, 247 passenger vessels, and
945 pusher tugs, freighters, and tankers were put into service
between 1981 and 1985.
Data as of May 1989
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