SOVIET PROGRESS ON MAIN TURKMEN CANAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700060145-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 5, 2011
• Sequence Number: 145
• Publication Date: April 26, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/10/06: CIA-RDP80-00809A000700060145-3
CLASSIFICATION COAFIDEIPPIAL
agUffr~UION
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE
AGENCY
INFCRMATI'ON FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS
COUNTRY USM
SUBJECT Economic - Construction
HOW
PUBLISHED Daily newspapers
WHERE
PUBLISHED USSR
DATE
PUBLISHED 26 Aug 1951 - 16 Feb 1952
LANGUAGE
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REPORT
CD NO.
DATE OF
DATE DIST. 4
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
SOVIET PROGRESS OR MAIN TURKMEN CANAL
uAnmbers in Parentheses refer to appended sources]
According to S. Kalizhuyuk,chief of the Sredazgidrostroy, the 1951 plan
for construction of the Main Turkmen Canal was completed on 19 October instead
of 7 November as originally pledged, thanks to the effectiveness of socialist
competition among 80 percent of the working personnel. The builders of the
canal received an additional task for the remainder of the year, which will,
upon completion, increase the original capital outlay for 1951 by 61 percent
and increase the amount of vo:k on construction and installation by 126 per-
cent. Another important task for the fourth quarter of 1951 is to make skilled
laborers of the kolkhoz workers now working at the site. A trade school and
a tekbnikum are to be opened for this purpose.(1)
In 1952, the volume of work of Sredazgidrostroy viii increase six times.
It will consist mainly of building railroads, highways, living space, com-
munal enterprises, auxiliary enterprises, electric power plants, and other
plants. Actual construction work on the canal project is also to begin in 1952.
In 1952, the quarries and other sources of raw materials for construction
must be completely built and their work mechanized, uninterrupted transportation
of the materials to the construction sites must also be provided.
Another important task is the cre.tion of a base in Kazendzhik, like the
one at Takhia Taeh, to enable the work on the southern sector of the canal to
begin.(2) In September, the Sredazgidroatroy was in the process of creating a
new construction sector in Kazandzhik, where large warehouse-, a rachinery re-Pair
shop meat foorconstructiontworkersrwererto besbuilt.(3~orking combine and a settle-
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Finding suitable construction materials reasonably close to the construc-
tion site remains a problem. An August report states that up to 45,000 unfired
bricks made of locally available red clay were produced daily in the first con-
struction section of the Takhia Tash Construction Sector and up to 12,000 in the
second section.(4) The Sultanizdagskiy Construction Sector has fulfilled the
1951 plan by producing 1.5 million bricks.(5) However, a report of February 1952
indicates that Professor Skramtayev, a Moscow scientist, and Engineer Orlyankin,
his assistant, were on the construction site to introdur~ the substitution of
coarsely porous concrete for bricks because of the shortage of suitable clay for
making the latter.(6) In addition to the raw materials previously found in the
Sultan-Uiz-Dag mountains on the right bank of Amu Darya some 100 kilometers
from the Takhia Tash construction site, ('() enough marble and limestone to sup-
ply the whole project with lime have been.discovered.(8) Contrary to previous
reports, the sand o. the Kara-Kum desert can be used in making silicate bricks
which have been proved equal to the best silicate bricks in existence.(9)
On 21 October 1951, K. Satpayev, president of the Academy of Sciences
Kazakh SSR, stated that the problem of finding suitable sand for concrete work
had at last been solved by the academy's Institute for Fireproofing and Construc-
tion Materials. A small increase of cement in the concrete allows the use of
fine Kara-Kum sands in the mixture. Samples of concrete mixed according to this
method withstood all the tests required.(10)
The planned Takhia Tash hydraulic center will consist of an earthen dam,
a concrete spillway, a powerhouse, concrete structures for the entrances to the
two existing irrigation canals, imeni Lenin and Kyz-Ketken, embankments, aque-
ducts, a navigable lock, settling reservoirs, and the first section of the Main
Turkmen Canal.(11) The settling reservoirs will be built to prevent silt from
going into the canal. Amu Darya carries down about 300 million cubic meters
of silt annually.(12) A large scale model of the settling reser?oirs is being
built for testing purposes.(13)
At first, the canal will be dug to pass from 350 to 400 cubic meters of
water per second; it will eventually be enlarged to pass 600 cubic meters per
second. From Takhia Tash, the canal will run in a southwestern direction and
enter the desert of Zaunguzskiye Kara-Kumy. By-passing the Sarakamysh depression
on the east, the canal will enter the ancient bed of the Uzboy River.near the
well in the Charyshli Oasis which is 30C kilometers from Takhia Tash. After
running through the Uzboy bed for 600 kilometers, the canal will lea-.e it near
the Kel kop salt marshes and run for 200 kilometer's to the Caspian Sea.(14)
The engineering, geological and other surveys will be intensified in 1952
along the entire length of.the canal. More than 20 large expeditions were active
on the canal site as late as October 1951.(2) The surveying parties were on the
job again in February, because spring weather had set in a month earlier than
usual. I` is expecte. that in 1952, 30 scientific expeditions consisting of
5,000 persons will be active on the canal site.(15) One of them, a new geophy-
sical expedition organized in January by the Ministry of Ceology USSR has ar-
rived at Tashauz, headed by A. Simernitskiy, t.,e acting chief. The expedition
will investigate seismic and tectonic conditions on the canal site. An aero-
magnetic survey of an area of 70,000 square kilometers, and seismographic geo-
physical, electric geophysical, and gravimetri' explorations will be carried
out in an area of 30,000 square kilometers.(JF)
A meeting of the committee to assist the construction of the main Turkmen
Canal took place on 10 September and was attended by Eristov, the chief engi-
neer of the construction; Tagan Berdyyev, president of the Academy of Sciences
Turkmen SSR; Popova, Deputy Minister of Health, Turkmen SSR; Natko, represen-
tative of the Ministry of Communications USSR at the Council of Ministers Turk-
men SSR; Berdyyev, chairman of the Presidium of the Turkmenbirleshik Turkmen
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Cooperative Union, and others. The attention of the members was drawn to the
duplication of work resulting from the failure of the Academy of Sciences Turk_
men SSR to coordinate the activities ~.P the numerous expeditions working on
he canal site. It was also reported that the problem of providing the expedi_
tion workers with medical, cultural and educational services has not yet been
solved.(3)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
Tashkent, Pravda Vostoka, 27 Oct 51
Ashkhabad, Turkmenskaya Iskra, 7 Oct 51
Ibid., 11 Sep 51
Ibid., 26 Aug 51
Frunze, Sovetskaya Kirgiziya, 3 Nov 51
Vechernyaya Moskva, 16 Feb 52
Moscow, Izvestiya, 12 Sep 51
P"svda Vostoka, 14 Dec 51
i .kmenskaya Iskra, 22 Sep 51
Pravda Vostoka, 21 Oct 51
Ibid., 10 Oct 51
Moscow, Trud, 12 Sep 51
Leningradskaya Pravda, 31 Oct 51
Moskovskiy Komsomolets, 12 Sep 51
Sovetskaya Kirgiziya, 5 Feb 52
Turkmenskaya Iskra, 15 Feb 52
50X1-HUM
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