Talk:Baikal–Amur Mainline

No such POW deaths statistics in referenced book
I checked the reference number 3. Pages 71-73 contain no paragraph saying that "150,000 died of overwork and starvation", "only 10% returned home" and so on. I can provide the copy of referenced pages on request. The said paragraph was deleted as an original research with no correct references. MikhailAnd (talk) 11:37, 23 August 2013 (UTC)

$14 billion
Sorry, if this question sounds stupid, but I'm German and I need to know this: Does 14 billion mean $$14\star10^{12}$$ or $$14\star10^9$$?

I ask this question, because I read this at this German site:
 * In German, French and "classic" British English, one billion is a thousand million, ($$10^{12}$$). In the USA (and now in nearly every English-speaking country), the billion is $$10^9$$. ...

--217.250.2.177 12:58, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

I believe billion in this article is used in the "American" sense ($$1*10^9$$), which would be logical, since the price is given in United States dollars. Either way, though, it's a lot of money. 4.243.152.247 02:51, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Wikitravel Link
Perhaps this page should be linked to the Baikal-Amur Mainline page in Wikitravel? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.176.21.135 (talk) 05:23, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

✅ - added the link. Slambo (Speak) 11:16, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Japanese POWs?
I find it hard to believe there were significant numbers of Japanese POWs in the USSR to build this thing. The USSR only declared war on Japan very late in the conflict, as in like a week before the Americans dropped the nuclear bombs. Does anyone have a source on this claim? 70.112.5.250 (talk) 14:44, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Yes there were at least 250.000 Japanese soldiers from Kwantung Army who spent ten years 1945 - 1956 in Soviet prison camps in Amur and Far East regions. The Russians even confiscated number of locomotives and rolling stock form Manchuria, transferred them into Soviet Union and regauged them from standard gauge to Russian gauge. In addition many sections of the Baikal - Amur Magistral were originally in 1930´s opened as construction projects by NKVD and the railway building was entrusted to GULAG. Aaron Naftali Frenkel was a big boss in the main BAM prison camp before being transferred by Lazar Kaganovich to the important position inside NKPS. (Peoples Commissariat of Ways and Communications). The lack of co-ordination between two Soviet Ministries caused the re-routing part of BAM section Tayshent - Bratsk in the 1950s because it was running in the area which was to be flooded above the huge Bratsk damm and hydro power station. Just like in European Russia where Suda - Vosnyesensk part of the railway section had to be closed and lifted because it run partly in the area which become Rybinsk water reservoir in 1943 - 1947. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.112.175.156 (talk) 17:48, 3 July 2008 (UTC)


 * I would add that these war prisoners were "stuck" in the Soviet Union /who was obliged to feed them/ because Japan refused - to this day actually - to sign a peace treaty with the USSR. I believe thatwas mostly because of the islands and Sakhalin issue.
 * All the other prisoners of war have returned by the time the Japanese were released .. despite the official state of war persisting between Japan and USSR as of 1956. 83.240.61.104 (talk) 22:04, 4 February 2024 (UTC)