Road of Bones – Siberia
During the terror reign of Joseph Stalin, Siberia became known as the land of exiles where enemies of the state were sent. The “red terror” of Stalin was exemplified in the infamous “Road of Bones” in Siberia.
Road of Bones – Siberia
Known as the “great leader”, Joseph Stalin was a paranoid communist ruler who did more to bring suffering to the Russian people than any foreign enemy. If ever there was a clueless fool, it was Stalin. On top of this, he was also one of the most vicious people ever to exist on the face of the earth. Under his rule, between 20 and 40 million Russians died.
The road of bones in Siberia personifies the evil that was Joseph Stalin. Stalin had a habit of declaring anyone who expressed a view he didn’t like as an enemy of the state. On top of this all intellectuals and professionals were automatically considered traitors. Throw in a dislike for certain ethnic groups, and you had millions of “enemy” Russians. Enemy Russians were arrested, shot without a trial or sent to the infamous gulags.
One of the larger gulag areas was in Magadan. Magadan is located in the extreme Northeast of Siberia and is pretty much the frozen tundra you probably think of when someone mentions Siberia. Winter temperatures can drop to as low as –72 degrees, a temperature which the human body has difficulty functioning in.
With the extremely remote location of Magadan, Stalin had a problem getting prisoners to the gulags. To solve this problem, he ordered a road to be built from Yakutsk to Magadan using the prisoners as laborers. The road was 2,000 kilometers long, 1,242 miles. The road was built year around by prisoners who were suffering from malnutrition.
Northeastern Siberia has major permafrost problems. Due to the extreme cold, the ground will actually freeze into a solid block to depths of four feet or more. Where this occurs, it is literally impossible to dig through the permafrost. Thus we come to the road of bones.
While building the road of bones, thousand upon thousands of gulag prisoners died. Because of the permafrost, they could not be buried. Instead, their bodies were simply left on the side of the road or actually put in the foundation of the road. Thus, the road of bones came to be.
A Russian cliché suggests there is one dead Russian per every meter of road. Considering the road is 2,000 kilometers long, this means there are roughly 2 million dead Russians in the road. The road of bones in Siberia is a true horror of horrors.