Rails and Resources*

• Main Author: Josephson, Paul R.
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York 2024
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197698396.003.0002; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/58152004/oso-9780197698396-chapter-2.pdf

Abstract Russian railroads were massive tools to meet state priorities of economic development by laying infrastructure over regions perceived to be empty of people but rich in resources, accelerating the settlement of distant regions, and enhancing military security. The Tsar’s Trans-Siberian Railway, Stalin’s uncompleted and murderous Polar “Magistral,” and Brezhnev’s Baikal-Amur Railway (BAM) shared the goals of building military might and accelerating resource exploitation. Even if long ago the Russian state abandoned the practice of building the rail system on the backs of gulag prisoners, it still embraces this technology at the expense of public and environmental health, now to develop Arctic oil and gas, but not for the citizen.