PROGRESS REPORTED IN NEW SOVIET HYDROELECTRIC AND CANAL PROJECTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600390677-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 18, 2011
• Sequence Number: 677
• Publication Date: June 19, 1951
• Content Type: REPORT

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I
CLASSIFICATION s-E-c-R-E-T SECRET
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
COUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT Economic - Electric power, canal projects
HOW
PUBLISHED Daily newspapers and monthly periodicals
WHERE
PUBLISHED USSR
DATE
PUBLISHED May 1950 - 3 Mar 1951
LANGUAGE
w n~ ?/m0 nom mn. , -
no.
o. i. C..UtnwtAI MMINIM. m,YUUpW 0FYI' IS UV S no.
Mro u r~~nnni
mwnr n us~ :=C= OF THIS
DATE DIST. /9 Jun 1951
NO. OF PAGES-8--
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
PROGRESS REPORTED IN NEW SOVIET HYDROELECTRIC ANL CANAL YnOJECIS
ZN-umbers in parentheses refer to appended sources-7
In the Soviet press of 1 February - 3 March 1951, it is reported that
progress is being made generally on the large construction projects and
that norms are being exceeded. Mechanization is stressed in all phases of
work and it is said that excavation work is nearly completely mechanized.
ad-
Excavat* and construction -Rork at the Volga-Don Caanal, the most
vanced of the construction projects, is said to be 90 percent
Huge walking-dragline excavators with a 14-cubic-meter bucket capacity
and caterpillar-mounted shovel excavators with a 15-cubic-meter shovel capa-
city are in operation at the Kuybyshev GES and the Volga-Don Canal. These
machines, supplemented by excavation pumps handling 3,000 cubic meters per
hour, scrapers which carry 400-500 cubic meters of earth a distance of 150
meters in one shift, and other excavation machinery are making it possible
to accomplish the,,enormous excavation tasks.(2)
Construction of the Volga-Don Canal, which, according to p3.an, will be
put in operation in 1951, is well under way. A special administration for the
operation of the canal has been set up in Rostov and shipbuilding plants in
the country are making boats for the canal. (3) Construction materials are
arriving at the rate of nearly 500enterprises ccarloadsdaily been
and the construction of secondary The
latter include three repair shops, 11 large machine shops, seven automatic
concrete plants with a total annual production of 1,760,000 cubic meters,
and rock-crushing plants with a production rate of 1,600,000 cubic meters of
crushed rock per year.(6)
In the region of the Volga-Don Canal, 392 kilometers of railroad and
468 kilometers of roads have already been built. Nearly 626 kilometers of
high-voltage lines, 467 kilometers of low-voltage lines, and 1,227 kilometers
of communications lines have been assembled (1), and over ll million cubic
meters of housing and public buildings have been built.(6)
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At the Tsimlyansk Dam, concrete is being poured at the rate of 3,000
cubic meters daily. New concrete plants are being built, and an automatic
plant capable of producing 2,500 cubic meters of concrete daily is being put
in operation.(7) Work on the locks is also proceeding rapidly. The exca-
vation work on lock No 3 has been completed and concrete is now being poured.
Three hundred meters of concrete are being poured daily here at the peak of
winter, and construction crews exceeded the January plan for laying concrete
in all sections.(6)
Canal excavation work is aided by the giant "Uralets" walking excavator
which has a p-oduction norm of 2,,'00 cubic meters in 24 hours, end other simi-
lar machines.(8) Moscow Metro workers are aiding "Dontonnel'stroy" in dig-
ging a tunnel on the Main Don Irrigation Canal. The six-kilometer tunnel,
designed to carry water for irrigational purposes, will be metal-lined and
will have a capacity of 150,000 cubic meters of water per hour.(9)
As at the other projects, work continues day and night at the Kuybyshev
GES construction project. So far, over 700,000 cubic meters of upper-ground
layer have been removed and 260,000 cubic meters of sand laid along the left
bank of the Volga where the earth dam will be constructed.(10) Three hundred
meters from the right bank of the river, a rock fill, 500 meters long, is
being constructed to still the water in the area where the foundation of the
power-station building is being built. The rock fill will require 20,000
cubic meters of rock, of which 1,500 cubic meters have already been laid.(6)
Excavations for the foundation of the hydroelectric station building itself
have been starteci.(il)
At the Kuybyshev GES, 1951. will be a year of preparation for the concrete
work to follow. Excavations will be made for the powerhouse, navigation
locks,. and spillway dam, while railroad lines and secondary enterprises will
be completed. A huge automatic concrete plant like the one at the Volga-Don
Canal will be built this year at the Kuybyshev GES.(12) Concrete will be
transported from these automatic plants by a special conveyer capable of
handling 1,000 cubic meters per hour. Concrete pumps capable of carrying
concrete 250 meters horizontally or 40 meters vertically at a rate of 20
cubic meters per hour will also be used.
Powerful electric and pneumatic vibrators will settle the concrete and
improve its quality. An original method of using 16 of these vibrators in
groups will be applied. The vibrators will operate at 6,000 revolutions per
minute and will be brought into position by special cranes. The vibrator
aggregates will be able to lay 25-30 cubic meters of concrete per hour, and
will require three persons to operate them, including the crane.(2) To facili-
tate freight handling, engineers of the "Soyuzprommekhanizatsiya" Trust, Minis-
try of Heavy Machine Building, have submitted plans for a cableway which will
connect quarries, concrete plants, and the construction area of the locks.
Two cables will be suspended across the Volga on 100-foot-high masts lo-
cated on either side of ".e river. The cableway will support cars carrying
2 tons of freight at a ra..,e of three or four cars per minute. The trans-Volga
cables will be nearly a kilometer long. Two cables, to be erected on the left
bank for hauling sand and gravel to the concrete plant, will be one:.half kilo-
meter long each.(13)
More workers are arriving at the Kuybyshev GES construction site. Kuyby-
shevgidrostroy has received over 15,000 work applications from people all over
the USSR. Some have arrived at the construction?mite and another 1,000 are en
route. Specialists have arrived frcm the Volga-Don construction project to
teach various specialties to workers at "Kuybyshevgidrostroy." A division of
the All-Union Scientific Engineering and Technical Society has been organized
on the site to aid in the development of new techniques and to help conserve
construction materials and electricity.(14)
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Full-scale work is also being conducted on both sides of the Volga in
the construction area of the Stalingrad GES. Work will start in June on the
foundation of the electric-power-station building and on the navigation locks.
Excavation work at the Stalingrad GES, exceeding that of the Dnepro GES 20
times by volume, will be 97 percent mechanized. Eighty percent of the exca-
vation work will be done by hydraulic methods. A Stalingrad plant is making
The
the largest excavation pump in the USSR for this construction prcts have
pump will be put into operation by 1 May. Tens of exploratory part
worked at the construction site during the past several months. An evalua-
tion of their reports confirms the fact that the choice of location for the
dam is a good one. At present, plans for the construction of the electric-
power-station building are being completed. The construction tempo at the
Stalingrad GES is constantly increasing. Already thousands of workers are
employed and many workers are being trained for skilled positions. Twenty
thousand square meters of housing will be built at the Stalingrad GES in
1951?(15)
Expeditions of more than 600 workers and specialists from Gidroenergo-
proyekt have been engaged in exploratory work along.the Dnepr River. A com-
mission of the Ministry of Electric Power Stations which determined the loca-
tion of the Kakhovka GES valued highly the data compiled
con-
the by Kakhovka expedi-
tions.(16) Secondary enterprises are being GFS workers and
struction site, as well as approaches to the area.(17) over o ka 1,000
100 trucks and tractors are engaged in building housing at the project, and
the Khnr'kov office of the "Gorstroyproyekt" has completed plans for the
-
construction of a workera? village which will accommoda~he Gvillage will be
ants.(18) After the construction of the Kakhovka GES,
located on the shore of the "Kakhovka Sea."(19)
Preliminary work has been started on the South Ukraine and North Crimean
Canal. A construction and assembly administration has been formed in Zaporozh'-
ye and Melitopol' to build the first two workers villages. One of these vil-
sg ttheeeviilllagee of living,
lages will be built near Zaporozh'ye, the other near
in Melitopol'skiy Rayon. They will include 35,000
space and will be built in 1951.(19)
Exploratory expeditions have been investigating three different routes
for the South Ukraine and North Crimean Canal. Test drilling and topograph-
ical work are being conducted on the Molochnaya River and one group has been
exploring the Perekop Isthmus. Several expeditions rkinngtinn ikolayevngu-
Oblast are to determine the location of a large pumping
lets River.(20)
Two expeditions of over 800 men are working along the route of the Main
Turkmen Canal. One of them is exploring the valley of the Uzboy River, the
other a section between the Takhia-Tash promontory and the Sarakan(Ysh de-
pression-(21) A new town of 15,000 inhabitants is to be built several'kilo-
meters from the Takhia-Tash promontory to accommodate secondary enterprises
of the Main Turkmen Canal project.(22)
The press has reported the following plants producing machines and
materials for the construction projects-
Enterprise
Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant Shipped 25 car oad (~f)high-quality iron
yenak',yevo Metallurgical Plant Shipped
products ttosVoof various lga Don Canal proj-
ect. (24)
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Enterprise
Krasnyy Sulin Metallurgical Plant
Dnepropetrovsk Metallurgical
Plant imeni Petrovskiy
Taganrog Metallurgical Plant
imeni Andreyev
Dnepropetrovsk Metallurgical
Plant imeni Komintern
Dnepropetrovsk Metallurgical
Plant imeni Lenin
Lipetek "Svobodnyy Sokol"
Metallurgical Plant
Novo-Kramatorsk Plant imeni
Stalin
Dnepropetrovsk Plant imeni
Molotov
Sverdlovsk Uralmash Plant imeni
Ordzhonikidze
Voronezh Komintern Excavator
Plant
Krasnoyarsk Heavy Machine-
Builcling Plant
Producing metal for Volga-Don Car71 (25)
Completed its February plan for produc-
ing section iron for Tsirlyansk GES
by 11 February (19)
Shipped a consignment of pipe to the
construction projects a month ahead of
schedule (19)
Shipped a large order of roofing tin to
Volga-Don construction project (26)
Shipped thin sheet steel and section iron
to "Volga-Donstroy" (18)
Shipped large order of pipe to "Volga-
Donstroy" (18)
Shipped first group of pipe to the
Kuybyshev GES (27)
Shipped tens of tons of cable to Kuy-
byshev and Stalingrad GES (28)
Completed construction of fourth set
of machines for operating lock gates
of Volga-Don Canal; each set weighs
48 tons and is automatic; will make
turbine blades for main turbines of
Tsimlyansk GES.(29) Produced three
150-ton stators for Tsimlyansk GES.(30)
Making turbine bushings weighing 110
tons each, and 115-ton bearings.(31)
Produced several 15-cu-m excavators
for construction projects (32)
Shipped structures for reinforcing con-
crete to Tsimlyansk GES and filled many
orders for Kuybyshev and Stalingrad
GES; at present making lock gates for
Volga-Don Canal (26)
Making 14-cu-m walking-dragline excava-
tors for construction projects (2)
Shipped first order of E-1003-type ex-
cavators to Kuybyshev and Stalingrad
GES; more than 20 of these machines
are in operation along Volga-Don
Canal (27)
Shipped several large locomotives to
construction projects; presently mak-
ing large traveling cranes for Volga-
Don Canal project (33)
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Enterprise
Bataysk and Sal'sk Railroad
Workers
Polol'ek Machine-Building Plant
imeni Ordzhonikidze
Zaporozh'ye Machine-Building
Plant imeni Voykov
Gor'kiy "Krasnoye Sormovo" Plant
imeni A. A. Zhdanov
Novosibirsk "Buroyaya Tekpnika"
Plant
Tiraspol' Machine Plant imeni
Kirov
Miass Ural Automobile Plant
imeni Stalin
Moscow Automobile Plant imeni
Stalin
Kharkov Tractor Plant imeni
Ordzhonikidze
Chelyabinsk Road-Machinery Plant
imeni Kolyushchenko
Will repair locomotives worki..g on
Volga-Don Canal project; first two
locomotives repaired, shipped to
construction project (25)
Producing boilers for Tsimlyanak GES
(34)
Shipped 3 of an order of boilers to
Volgodonstroy during first quarter
1951 (34)
Shipped several large boilers to Kuy-
byshev GES ahead of schedule (35)
Started production of GM-300 hydraulic
excavator for Volga-Don Canal proj-
ect (36)
Making parts, and will assemble exca-
vation pumps for Main Turkmen Canal (25)
Shipped 9 excavation pumps and a booster
pump to Volga-Don Canal (37)
Shipped winches and pumps to Kuybyshev
GES in 1950; now making winches, pumps,
and other machines for Kuybyshev and
Stalingrad GES and Volga-Don Canal (28)
Produced first order of centrifugal
pumps for Stalingrad GES (35)
Producing new order of 10 inner com-
bustion motors and five 8-in centri-
fugal pumps for Main Turkmen. Canal (38)
Shipped a convoy of 3-ton Ura1ZIS trucks
to Volga-Don Canal in January (39)
Shipped 65 ZIS-150 trucks to Volga-Don
Canal, to Kuybyshev GES, and 25 to
Stalingrad GES in 1951 (34)
Shipped 40 powerful tractors to Kuyby-
shev and Stalingrad GES. and Volga-Don
Canal.(39) In 1950, it shipped 148 S-
80 tractors to "Volgodonstroy" (40)
Producing tractors for the construction
projects (41)
Shipped large bulldozers and scrapers
to Main Turkmen Canal and "Kuybyshev-
gidrostroy" (39)
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Enterprise. Remarks
Shcherbakov Road-Machinery Shipped new type machinery to all con-
plant struction projects (42)
Nikolayev Road-Machinery Plant shipped nearly 300 road machines to Kuy-
byshev and Kakhovka GES and "Volgodon-
stroy"; at present;- making 120 bull-
dozers and scrapers for "Volgodonstroy"
(43)
Chelyabinsk Machine Plant imeni Assembled three 15-ton cranes with
Kalinin 5-ton winches for Volga-Don Canal;
shipped high productive rock crush-
ers to Main Turkmen Canal and Kuy-
byshev GES (19)
d
Nyezepetrovsk Machine-Building Produced
C
cranes for
Plant imeni Kalinin
and Kuybyshev GES (39)
Dnepropetrovsk Construction- Shipped more than-30 conveyers to Tsim-
Machinery Plant lyanak GES J331
Moscow Krasnyy Metallist" Plant Prodx ~ng electric telphera for-Kuyby-
- been GES and Volga-Don Canal; ten have
been sent to "Volgodonstroy" in n 1951 (34)
Kharkov Machine-Bu ing Plant Making telphers for Volga-Don Canal (44)
imeni Lenin
Yaaino aya Machine-Building Shipped tower cranes to Stalingrad GES
podgorenskiy Cement Plant
Produced 15 general purpose and ten cir-
cular cutting woodworking machines, and
50 vices for Main Turkmen Canal ahead
of schedule (38)
Shipped thousands of tons of high-
quality cement to Volga GES (27)
Producing cement for construction proj-
ects (46)
ffor ora roof-sheeting
(2eeting
Odessa Roof-Sheeting Material order
Plant
Lisichansk Glass Plant Produced 10 carloads of window glass
for Stalingrad GES and Volga-Don
Canal (47)
Rechitaa House-Construction Shipped lumber to Kuybyshev GES (48)
Combine
Slonim Lumber Mill No 16 Shipped 40 carloads of lumber to Tsim-
lyansk GES (49)
carloads of lumber to Volga-
Bobruysk Division of Glavsnables Shipped iCanal (50)
Don
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Enterprise
Mozyr' Woodworking Combine Shipped 14 carloads of lumber to Vol-
godonstroy in February (51)
Timber Managements of "Molotov- Pledged to ship more than 236,000 cu
lee" Combine m of lumber Lumber Mills of Middle Urals Slumiier to 106
"'c mlyansk GES and 75 car-
loads to Stalingrad GES during Janu-
ary (26)
Vinnitsa and Tul'chin Timber Sb'pped 5 carloads of round timbers
Managements of "Zhitomirles" to Kakhovka GES (16)
Lumber Mills of Archangel'sk Shiippedg116tra( loads of sewn lumber
t Vol Lumber Mills of Buryat-Mongolia Shipped
torMain Turkmen Canal carloads
project
(53)
1. Leningradskaya Pravda, 24. Feb 51
2. Moscow, Vestnik Statistiki, No 5, may 50
3. Kiev, Pravda Ukrainy, 13 Feb 51
4. Moscow, Komsomol'skaya Pravda, 15 Feb 51
5. Kiev, Pravda Ukrainy, 8 Feb 51
6. Ashkhabad, Turkmenskaya Iskra, 2 Feb 51
7. Baku, Bakinskiy Rabochiy, 16 Feb 51
8. Vil'nyus, Sovetskaya Litva, 31 Jan 51
9. Moskovskaya Pravda, 19 Jan 51
10. Kiev, Pravda Ukrainy, 31 Jan 51
11. Vechernyaya Moskva, 24 Feb 51
12. Tbilisi, Zarya Vostoka, 9 Feb 51
13. Vechernyaya Moskva, 13 Feb 51
14. Kiev, Pravda Ukrainy, 11 Feb 51
15. Moskovskaya Pravda, 3 Mar 51
16. Kiev, Pravda Ukrainy, 23 Feb 51
17. Yerevan, Koamiunist, 21 Feb 51
18. Tashkent, Pravda Vostoka, 4 Feb 51
19: Tallin, Sovetskaya Estoniya, 13. Feb 51
20. Yerevan, Kommunist, 22 Feb 51
21. Vil'nyus, Sovetskaya Litva, 22 Feb 51
22. Ashkhabad, Turkmenekaya Iskra, 21 Feb 51
23. Moscow, Trud, 15 Feb 51
24. Moscow, Izvestiya, 9 Feb 51
25. Yerevan, Kommunist, 6 Feb 51
26. Leningradekaya Pravda, 1 Feb 51
27. Moscow, Izvestiya, 7 Feb 51
28. Moscow, Pravda, 27 Feb 51
29. Vechernyaya Moskva, 22 Feb 51
30. Tashkent, Pravda Vostoka, 3 Ma'- 51
31. Kiev, Pravda?'iJkrainy, 17 Feb 51
12. Moscow, Tekhnila Molodezhi, No 2, Feb 51
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33. Moscow, Trud, 10 Feb 51
34. Moskovskaya Pravda, 28 Feb 51
35. Moscow, Pravda, 28 Feb 51
36. Moscow, Izvestiya, 16 Feb 51 15 Feb 51
37- M6sc0w, 38. Kishinev, Sovetskaya Moldaviya, 13 Feb 51
39? Moscow, Pravda, 8 Feb 51
40. Vechernyaya Moskva, 16 Feb 51
41. Kiev, Pravda Ukrainy, 6 Feb 51
42, Moscow, Izvestiya, 28 Feb 51
43. Moscow, Trud, 16 Feb 51
44. Minsk, Sovetskaya Belorussiya, 7 Feb 51
45. Kiev, Pravda Ukrainy, 21 Feb 51
46. Tellin, Sovetskaya Estoniya, 23 Feb 51
47. Kiev, Pravda Ukrainy, 24'Fe'; 51
48. Minsk, Sovetskaya Belorussiya, 9 Feb 51
49. Ibid., 3 Feb 51
50. Ibid., 13 Feb 51
51. Ibid., 21 Feb 51
52. Moscow, Izvestiya, 8 Feb 51
53. Ibid., 10 Feb 51
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