The history of the Chuya Highway: review of the main literature

The article gives the review of the main literature on the history of construction and operation of the Chuya Highway, one of the most important roads in Russia stretched from Novosibirsk to Tashanta on the border with Mongolia. It is possible to allocate three stages of great interest in this subject in scientific and publicistic literature: the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries; 1970s-1980s; 1990s-2000s. These stages are characterized by interests of researchers in specific plots from the history of the Chuya Highway. Considering the first stage (the second half of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th centuries), a large amount of literature is considered in the review. Authors of these works, as a rule, are travelers across the Altai and the Chuya Highway, engineers-researchers and authorities including A. Printts, E. Zamyatin, V.V. Radlov, G.N. Potanin, N.M. Yadrintsev, V.V. Sapozhnikov, Mr. Ba-ov, N.G. Chmelev, I.I. Beale. Most works have a descriptive character where the main problems are specified (the road on the bombs, passes, condition of the road etc.). Merchants and travelers on the Chuya Highway faced them. Many authors consider the merchants' role in the functioning of the Highway, and also an urgent need for the fastest transformation of the road for transport with wheels. The second stage (1970s-1980s) is the works of D.I. Tabayev and V.N. Shipilov, Soviet researchers of the Chuya Highway. If Tabayev does attempt to write a full-fledged history of the Chuya Highway (adding class antagonism and ignoring many events), the local historian V.N. Shipilov is the author of a number of small articles on small plots from the Highway history - from Siblag (a correctional labor camp) to the history of a well-known song about the driver Kolka Snegirev. Considering the third stage (1990s-2000s), there are works of prominent modern researchers of the history of the Highway V. Isupov, A.V. Startsev, E.A. Grekhova, A.A. Zavyalov, T.S. Pustogacheva and A.M. Maloletko. Independently there is a research of Archpriest G. Kreydun showing the destiny of the celibate priest Kipriyan (Nelidov) who was among the prisoners sent for the construction of the Highway in the 1930s. Most of the above authors, mainly, consider the history of the pre-revolutionary period in the history of the road. Pustogacheva also describes in detail the construction of the Chuya Highway in the 1920s-1930s. Small generalizing works were written by E.A. Grekhova and A.M. Maloletko. The author comes to a conclusion that the history of the Chuya Highway is a very popular subject in literature, but previous research does not cover a number of issues. Only the periods from the second half of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th c. and the 1920s-1930s are comprehensively analyzed. Issues concerning maintenance costs, construction technology, and the legendary road capacity demand additional consideration.

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