Why was the Suez Canal also depicted on the old packs of the White Sea Canal

  • Aug 26, 2022
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Why was the Suez Canal also depicted on the old packs of the White Sea Canal

The White Sea-Baltic Canal named after Stalin is one of the most famous monumental projects of the Soviet Union, surrounded by many myths, both white and black (mostly) in nature. Among the people, the Belomorkanal is known primarily due to the cigarettes of the same name. The design of the pack of the latter has changed several times. However, it has always been a map with the designation of man-made water bodies.

Working conditions were difficult. |Photo: evrookna-mos.ru.
Working conditions were difficult. |Photo: evrookna-mos.ru.
Working conditions were difficult. |Photo: evrookna-mos.ru.

The White Sea Canal was built to connect the White Sea and Lake Onega for transport purposes. It was created in record time from 1931 to 1933. The canal, 227 kilometers long, with 19 locks, was built mainly by the efforts of the Belbaltlag prisoners. The number of construction prisoners changed throughout the construction. However, the largest number of prisoners was concentrated here in 1932 - 108 thousand prisoners. Due to difficult working conditions, the death rate at work was 2.24% or 1,438 people in 1931, 2.03% or 2,010 people in 1932. 1933 was a truly black year in the history of Belomor construction. Then 10.56% of prisoners or 8,870 people died.

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The years 1932-1933 became black for many regions of the USSR. |Photo: censor.net.
The years 1932-1933 became black for many regions of the USSR. |Photo: censor.net.

The high mortality in 1933 at the construction site was due to a sharp deterioration in the food supply of the Belbaltlag camps against the backdrop of a massive famine that swept the country in 1932-1933. Famine was fierce on the territory of the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Kazakh ASSR, in particular in the regions of the Central Black Earth Region, the North Caucasus, the Volga region, the Southern Urals, and Western Siberia. There was a famine due to an extremely unfortunate coincidence of natural and human circumstances: the drought of 1932, forced collectivization with the assumption of many mistakes, protest from the peasants in the form of destruction of the crop, as a response of the authorities to attempts at socialization property. According to various estimates, from 1.8 to 8.8 million Soviet citizens died of starvation.

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The opening of the channel was an important event. |Photo: Twitter.
The opening of the channel was an important event. |Photo: Twitter.

As for Belbaltlag, 12,484 prisoners were released following the construction of the canal. Another 59,516 people had their sentences reduced for hard work. Contrary to popular misconception, the construction of the White Sea Canal has never been among the "Great construction projects of communism." Nevertheless, this hydroengineering design was actively used in order to propaganda. Initially, the White Sea Canal was seen as one of the symbols of the re-education of prisoners with the help of labor. Today, the Soviet practice of labor camps seems to many to be blasphemous, inhuman and terrible. But do not confuse camp labor with hard labor, which was practiced as a punishment in the Russian Empire. Penal servitude is labor completely alienated in favor of the state, in other words, unpaid. Camp labor in the USSR was paid. Of course, funds were withdrawn from the wages of prisoners for supplying them with clothing and food. The point is that camp labor was positioned as a way not only to temporarily isolate a person, but also to re-educate him, and at the same time use it for the purposes of states.

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Belamor cigarettes have become one of the symbols of the era. ¦Photo: Twitter.
Belamor cigarettes have become one of the symbols of the era. ¦Photo: Twitter.

Therefore, the White Sea Canal, as strange as it may sound (and blasphemous for some), was a kind of symbol of “new life”. And also one of the greatest achievements of the Soviet people, which was put on a par with other famous channels on planet Earth, such as the Kiel Canal in Germany (Kaiser Wilhelm Canal) and the Suez Canal in Egypt. Exactly at propaganda purposes artist A. Tarakanov and placed Suez, Kiel and Belomor on the front side of a pack of Soviet cigarettes. Subsequently, the packaging was changed and the names of foreign channels were replaced with Soviet ones: the Moscow and Volgo-Donskaya channels. As you might guess, all this was supposed to serve as a reminder and illustration of the achievements of the Soviet system.

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Source:
https://novate.ru/blogs/040622/63187/