The organization of supply and working conditions of the first prospectors of Baikal-Amur Mainline (1932–1933)

The paper deals with the issues of supply and working conditions of the first prospectors of the large-scale construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline, the survey of the route of which began after the decisions of the USSR Council of People’s Commissars in 1932. On the basis of the study of the documents stored in the Russian State Archive in Samara, the author shows the problems that the survey expeditions had to face in the process of performing the work – misunderstanding of the specifics of field parties work on the part of the bodies involved in supplying expeditions, the lack of sufficient personnel, poor nutrition, insufficient water transport, horses and deer, guides seriously complicated the execution of the work in the designated time. In terms of its scope, the surveys of the Baikal-Amur Mainline route surpassed all the surveys previously carried out in the USSR. In the presence of technical difficulties and the absence of cartographic material, poor supply of food, equipment, clothing and footwear, in conditions of impassable taiga and mountainous terrain, difficult climatic conditions, the prospectors were able to cope with the task assigned to them. The analysis of archival documents showed that despite the difficulties encountered by the prospectors, by the end of 1933 they had presented the main material for the design of the railway route from Taishet to Sovetskaya Gavan.