The construction of the Chuya Highway in the 1920s

The article considers the problem of the reconstruction and construction of the Chuya Highway after the end of the First World War and the Civil War. The aim of the work is to highlight the problems that the young Soviet state faced in the first decade of its existence in the field of road construction. The source basis of the study is the materials of the R-230 Fund of the Novosibirsk-Biysk-Tashanta Road Administration of the General Directorate of National Highways “Gushosdor” of the USSR Ministry of Construction and Operation of Highways. It is important to note the works of Altai local historians published in local newspapers in different years, including V. Ship-ilov, S. Isupov and others. In the first part of the work the author describes the state of the Chuya Highway in the early 1920s. The issues of recognizing the tract a highway of state significance and the beginning of a discussion by the Soviet authorities of the possibility of using the right-bank direction instead of the left-bank are discussed here. In the second part of the work the author describes the beginning of extensive restoration work: the restoration of ferry crossings and bridges destroyed during the Civil War and the beginning of survey work at the most difficult sections of the Chuya Highway: in the valley of the Sarasaki and the Chergi rivers (the Komar Pass), search for options for detouring the Seminsky Pass, Arzhany and Red mountains, the possibility of laying a new road on the Chick-Taman Pass. In the third part of the work, the expediency of using the Katun (right-bank) direction of the Chuya Highway is discussed in detail. The issues of confrontation of the local authorities with the Siberian Branch of Local Transport, the beginning of active works on the Biysk-Ulala (Gorno-Altaisk) section are touched upon. Finally, the author comes to the following conclusions: 1. The choice of a new direction for the construction of the Chuya Highway, which turned into a whole epic, ended with the victory of the position of the Oirot regional executive committee, as well as representatives of the Shebalinsky and Ongudai districts, which resulted in the laying of the highway along the city of Biysk, Maima, Ust-Sema, Cherga, Shebalino, Ongudai and Kosh-Agach settlements up to the border with Mongolia. 2. The technical and financial resources of the region and the state to restore the highway in the specified period were very meager, which led to attempts to actively use the labor service and forces of the local population, and to force organizations involved in trade with Mongolia to finance the project. However, these attempts mostly failed, and the construction of the Chuya Highway was entrusted to SibLag, the Siberian Corrective Labor Camp, in the 1930s.

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