Large format, 9" x 12", in oilcloth-wrapped hard cover, 136 pp., printed in Dmitrov, Moscow Region, the town that was the HQ of the canal's construction, including the technical and administrative offices and the infamous DMITLAG, the main NKVD forced labor camp, the hub which received hundreds of thousands of GULAG prisoners and filtered them to specific work sites.

In excellent condition. The cover shows minor corner bumps and a dark stain at the bottom of the back cover. The internal pages are mildly age-toned, perfectly clean and free of any soiling.

As stated in the pre

Large format, 9" x 12", in oilcloth-wrapped hard cover, 136 pp., printed in Dmitrov, Moscow Region, the town that was the HQ of the canal's construction, including the technical and administrative offices and the infamous DMITLAG, the main NKVD forced labor camp, the hub which received hundreds of thousands of GULAG prisoners and filtered them to specific work sites.

In excellent condition. The cover shows minor corner bumps and a dark stain at the bottom of the back cover. The internal pages are mildly age-toned, perfectly clean and free of any soiling.

As stated in the preface, this technical note was put together for presentation to the technical-economical council of the State Planning Committee of the USSR, printed in just a few copies for the eyes of the members of the council only. For the engineers among us, the entire note is a treasure trove of fascinating technical information. However, the canal was "built on the bones" of hundreds of thousands of GULAG prisoners - 1.5 million of them, according to some sources, and we were looking for information about workforce projections. We found one short paragraph on p. 131. It says that the government commission approving the cost of the canal construction made a resolution to save 43 million rubles by reducing the daily per-person maintenance cost by 7 kopeks and additional 30 million by extending the work day by half an hour. Interestingly, Genrikh Yagoda, Head of NKVD, expressed a dissenting opinion that the proposed economic effect of extending the work day for the GULAG workers was unrealistic because the GULAG labor force, consisting to a large degree of women and persons unused to physical labor, was much less productive than professional construction workers.

Please note that the pen in our photo is for size reference.
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