CONQUERING THE KARA KUM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP07-02247R000200170008-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2011
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: May 12, 1952
• Content Type: PHOTO

Approved For Release 2011/07/19 :CIA-RDP07-022478000200170008-4
KARA KUM DESERT. The Main Turkmenian Canal will cross the arid sands, trans-
forming this barren, sun-scorched wasteland into fertile fields.
Conquering the Kara Kum
By Victor Yefanov
THE Amu Darya River and the city of
Krasnovodsk are, respectively, the
starting and terminal points of the Main
Turkmenian Canal.
The Amu Darya, one of the largest
rivers of the Soviet Union, is a huge
waterway of Central Asia and a source
of life for the Soviet East. It irrigates
thousands of acres along its course.
Krasnovodsk is a large port on the
eastern coast of the Caspian Sea and the
economic, administrative and cultural
center of the coastal area of Turkmenia.
A vast expanse separates the Amu Dar-
ya from Krasnovodsk. By the shortest
route, they are more than 620 miles
apart, with the waterless, sun-scorched
Kara Kum Desert between them.
It is an immense task to bring water
from the Amu Darya to the Caspian
coast in order to irrigate and provide a
water supply for the southern districts
ROAD CONSTRUCTION. A wide network of roads is being built to enable the
canal builders to bring up supplies easily and quickly.
of the West Turkm ~ 1 OC'sj`fia`[S lain,
the lands along the lower reaches of the
Amu Darya, and the western part of the
Kara Kum. Arld yet Soviet people have
come to' the desert to accomplish this.
Every day brings more new victories
in the battle to subdue the wastes of the
Kara Kum.
Much of the preparatory work has
already been carried out. Whole build-
ing sectors have been set up at Takl is
Tash, Khojeili, Kasanjik and Lake Ya_ -
khan. Equipped with advanced knowl-
edge and modern technical facilities, an
army of scientists and builders is march-
ing upon the Kara Kum from Takhia
Tash in the north and from Krasnovodsk
and Kasanjik in the south.
Building operations at the develop-
ment will proceed on a still wider front
this year and will exceed many times over
what was accomplished in 1951.
The building workers will begin exca-
vation of the canal proper and will start
the construction of the Takhia Tash hy-
dropower project with its dam, silt-set-
tling installations, and by-pass, shipping
and irrigation canals. New building sec-
tors will spring up in the desert.
The building workers have pledged
themselves to complete their 1952 pro-
gram ahead of schedule, by November
7, 1952, the 35th anniversary of the
Great October Socialist Revolution. A
powerful wave of socialist emulation for
the fulfillment of this pledge of honor
has swept the development and is draw-
ing many thousands of workers, engin-
eers and scientists into it.
The designers are hastening to finish
their work, the scientists are completing
the study of the materials obtained by
the preliminary surveying expeditions,
the transport people are diligently carry-
ing out their jobs. The working days of
the development's personnel are filled
with thousands of large and small tasks,
and every hour is precious.
At the outset, two great needs faced
the builders of the canal: water and
electric power.
They needed a whole river of water
to "feed" their immense fleet of earth-
moving machines. To procure it was a
complex engineering problem. Before
excavation of the canal could begin, it
was necessary to have water many miles
ahead, far into the desert; Soviet engi-
neers and scientists have successfully
solved this problem.
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The need for electricity was enormous.
It was needed for many things besides
illumination. Tens of thousands of kilo-
watts were required to furnish power for
machines and equipment-excavators,
suction dredges, conveyors-all the
mighty technical facilities which would
be pressed into the offensive on the Kara
Kum. ''T'his problem, too, is being solved.
Power facilities sufficient for all the proj-
ect's needs will be set up this year. And
thee, let us note, will be only auxiliary
installations, not the three permanent
h~drellectric stations to be erected in
connection with the canal project.
Even this year, water and electricity
will make possible the construction of
new factories: brick kilns, astone-crush-
ing plant, cement works, a mechanical
repair factory, a lumber mill and many
other enterprises. Excavation will begin
on the foundation trench for the dam
and work will continue on expanding
t}~e city of Takhia Tash.
People newly arrived at Takhia Tash
are amazed by the abundance of ma-
chinery and equipment. One can see from
afar a powerful portal crane recently
set up on the bank of the Amu Darya. A
second portal crane is now being mount-
ed. These machines will do the work of
thousands of stevedores. This spring, the
unloading of steamers and barges, which
are bringing thousands of tons of cargo
in an endless stream to Takhia Tash, will
be completely mechanized. A powerful
cable crane connecting the two banks of
the river is being set up. The building
workers will also receive a dependable
rapid transport installation for freight
and passenger traffic.
The construction of a railway line has
been completed. On February 29 the
first train with freight for the project
pulled into Takhia Tash station. The line
which links Takhia Tash with Urgench
stretches for 75 miles. In some sections
it runs through the sands of the Kara
Kum.
A visit to the office of the develop-
ment's chief engineer, Vissarion Eristov,
a Stalin Prize winner, is a memorable ex-
perience. Time and again the conversa-
tion is interrupted by the ringing of the
telephone. There are calls from Mos-
cow, Tashkent, Ashkhabad and other
cities. Pile drivers have been shipped
from the Urals; automobile plants in
Gorky, Minsk and Moscow are sending
HOUSEBUILDING AT TAKHIA TASH. Construction workers have moved
area to put up houses for the members of the project's permanent staff.
trucks, dump trucks, passenger cars ; the
Construction Institute of .the Uzbek
Academy of Sciences has completed a
laboratory analysis of the Khojeili clay;
the Saltykov-Shchedrin Public Library in
Leningrad has finished compiling libra-
ries for the various sectors of the develop-
ment; navigation has begun on the Amu
Darya ; the first steamer has left Chard-
zhou, carrying cargo for Takhia Tash.
Thousands of ties link the great con-
struction project of communism on the
Amu Darya, the Main Turkmenian
Canal, with the rest of the country.
On the main street of Nukus, the
capital of the Kara-Kalpak Autonomous
Soviet Socialist Republic, the attention of
the pedestrians is drawn to a huge, color-
ful panel, a chart of the Main Turk-
menian Canal development. A meander-
ing turquoise line runs through the des-
ert of the Kara Kum. This is the course
of the future canal. Green forest belts
stretch along the canal. Light emerald
expanses represent cotton plantations,
pastures, orchards, vineyards. From the
main canal, north and east, south aiid
west, runs a distributive network of irri-
gation canals; aqueducts and water sup-
ply lines. The sites of future villages,
towns and state farms stand out vividly.
They will be the new economic and cul-
hiral centers. Crisscrossing it all are black
lines representing new highways and
railroads. A huge dam, cutting across the
Amu Darya, rises at Takhia Tash. From
there, a mesh of high-tension electric
power lines spreads out in all directions.
This is a chart of the communist tomor-
row of the peoples of the Soviet East. It
is for this tomorrow that the Soviet peo-
ple are building the Main Turkmenian
Canal.
SURVEYING THE AMU DARYA. Complete information about the river's behavior
in all seasons must be gathered. Hydrologists measure the depth of winter ice.
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