Secret Documents, Twin Buildings and Legends About the Pilots: the Expedition "Alsib" Is Completed

На трассе ленд-лиза. Фото: Александр Бормотин
На трассе ленд-лиза. Фото: Александр Бормотин

The members of the expedition discovered student notebooks with military orders, got acquainted with the former workers of the ALSIB airfields, and unearthed a pine cone from the 1940s. They talked about how to take aerial photos in strong winds, for what purposes old airfield buildings are now used, and why it is difficult to find a crashed plane, even if you know where it is.

Not by archives alone

Before embarking on the expedition, the researchers had undertaken serious preparation. Painstaking work in the archives made it possible to find out many important details, for example, about how the airfield buildings and runways where the crashed planes remained forever were built. But not all documents reached the central archives.

“At Olyokminsk Airport, we were shown a selection of materials dedicated to its history,” recalls Pavel Filin, Candidate of Historical Sciences. “There were photographs, orders from 1942, individual articles, and very interesting statistics: documents on airport traffic. All this was collected by the former head of the department, Innokenty Semyonovich Evstifeev. He told a lot of facts about the past of the airport, helped to determine when these or those buildings appeared. Unfortunately, only one building has survived since the war, and it is falling apart."

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В здании военных лет. Фото: Рустам Ахунов
В здании военных лет. Фото: Рустам Ахунов

"The director of Olyokminsk Airport Vladimir Ivanovich Razinkov showed us two books. One contains a list of 1942 orders. The second turned out to be a binder of stitched and printed student notebooks – it contained orders from 1943-1944. The notebooks are marked ‘confidential’. The orders themselves are written by hand and contain unique information about the daily life of the airport during the war. In the entire time of the expedition, such documents were encountered for the first time. Having looked through the orders until 1951, I noticed a curious pattern: if in 1945 many of them dealt with rewards, then in the 1950s they were all about punishment and criminal liability. And very harsh: for absenteeism – three months of penal labor with a 25% reduction in wages. Almost all orders of the 50s are in fact court records."

Pavel Filin, Candidate of Historical Sciences, participant of the expedition

Another interesting notebook was found in Vitim. On each page of it, there are notes about the construction of a garage on one side, and on the other – pencil drawings and portraits. The Kirensk Museum contains a correspondence with the wife of a deceased pilot Lobarev, and a page with transporting statistics of 1942-1943. There were other valuable documents that historians carefully photographed, replenishing the "database" collected in the capital's archives.

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Остановка на трассе Алсиба. Фото: Александр Бормотин
Остановка на трассе Алсиба. Фото: Александр Бормотин

“We came to the conclusion that we should devote more time to meeting with local residents and working with museums,” says Ivan Anokhin, director of the Center for Contemporary History. “We met a lot of people who helped us. They shared information about ALSIB, which can’t be found elsewhere. Some people know about the buildings of the war years, others – about the technology that has survived since then, some – about the places where the planes crashed. There are those who still remember the events of the war years, which they saw with their own eyes."

In Omolon, the expedition members were shown a working 1940s American grader, and in Markovo they were told where to find the wreckage of Li-2. You can learn more about this here – Lend-Lease and Russian Ingenuity: How to Make Machines Indestructible and Roof Eternal.

"Not far from the village of Tarat, there was a backup winter airfield. Initially, we did not plan to visit it, since we did not find any mention of it in the archives, but during the expedition it turned out that a memorial dedicated to ALSIB was going to be opened there. When we arrived there, we landed on a literal pasture. In Tarat we were introduced to Matryona Ivanovna Kirenskaya, who worked as a bulldozer operator at the airfield during the war. Now she is 98 years old, and she is a heroine mother who raised nine children – she is very respected in the village."

Denis Ulyankin, head of the geophysical team of the expedition

“When we were in Olyokminsk , we were told about Klavdia Dmitrievna Volozhina, who participated in the construction of the airfield. Now she lives in the village of Olyokminskoye, and we went there to visit her. Klavdia Dmitrievna is 95 years old, but she still remembers well how she cleaned the snow with a shovel, and planes flew overhead. She was 19, and she was afraid of them, would hide. Women and children worked at the airfield then."

Pavel Filin, Candidate of Historical Sciences,  participant of the expedition

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Постройка военных лет, памятник культуры. Фото: Рустам Ахунов
Постройка военных лет, памятник культуры. Фото: Рустам Ахунов

Flying against the wind and a pine cone as a gift

The main task of the expedition this year was the exploration of the ALSIB airfields. The search specialists have collected information on the remaining wartime buildings in their vicinity, studied old runways, and conducted a serious analysis of local soils. At the same time, they experienced the delights of a cruel climate in which our ancestors managed to build a chain of airfields for an air corridor in an incredibly short time.

“We managed to accomplish all the tasks set for the technical surveying,” says the lead scientist of the expedition, Sergei Katkov. “We have carried out geophysical surveys everywhere using a GPR, received radargrams, and now we can clarify the composition of the soil, determine the level of groundwater, and understand how deep the soil was frozen through at one or another airfield. Military surveyors made a survey of the areas that have survived to this day, dug test pits – vertical excavations, which make it possible to judge the structure of the soil strata. All this made it possible to compare the construction methods described in the old documents with the real state of affairs. Even now we can say with confidence that the process and methodology for the construction of most of the facilities were followed exactly."

“When we made a hole in the runway of Tanyurer Airport, we found an unexpected gift from the past. We went deep through 20 cm of peat with the remnants of roots, got to the sand filling – it was quite thick, 80 cm. And at the very bottom we came across a pine cone. Soaked in moisture, stained. This is a kind of hello to us from the builders of 1944, rolled under the sandy pavement."

Sergey Katkov, lead scientist of the expedition

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Экспедиционные будни. Фото: Александр Бормотин
Экспедиционные будни. Фото: Александр Бормотин

“We are satisfied with the results,” concludes Ivan Anokhin. “We managed to do everything necessary both technically and historically. Now there is serious engineering work ahead, which will take at least a month, or even more: we will process data, prepare technical reports. Working in the field is an unpredictable process, primarily due to the weather. At some airfields we had to stay longer than we expected, and there was almost no time left for the others. We will take this into account for the future. It will be necessary to calculate in advance alternative plans of action in case of bad weather."

"When the results of archival work are confirmed, it makes a strong impression. We studied the unusual design of the Uelkal runway in the documents, and then we saw the remains of this runway with our own eyes – really made of wood. We read in the archives that American trucks were used in the construction of Tanurer, and found them, with double license plates – in Russian and in English."

Ivan Anokhin, director of the Center for Contemporary History

Learn more about the finds at Tanyurer Airfield, which the expedition members loved most, and about some others here – Wreckage of war: the “ALSIB” expedition explored four airfields.

“Taking into account the time at our disposal, we have done our best,” believes the head of the geophysical team of the expedition Denis Ulyankin. “The weather sometimes made its adjustments. For example, aerial photography is very difficult in strong winds. When we needed to launch the drone in Olyokminsk, there was a rather strong gusty wind. If the drone is flying against it, it moves very slowly and the battery runs out quickly. As a result, we had to go to the very beginning of the strip, launch the drone downwind, and then slowly fly back low above the ground in order to avoid unforeseen accidents. Almost the entire charge was spent on one such trip. I used up all the batteries photographing all of the airfield. Now, upon our return, we will be stitching the material together."

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Старое здание аэропорта. Фото: Рустам Ахунов
Старое здание аэропорта. Фото: Рустам Ахунов

"During the expedition, we collected information about the remaining wartime buildings. A funny incident happened in Susuman. Our historians asked me to shoot the historic airport terminal from the air. This was necessary because they could not find construction plans in the local archives. They said that at that time it was a skete. I saw a wooden building with a cross on the roof not far from the runway, took pictures of it. I showed the photographs to the guys, and it turned out that I had photographed the ‘wrong’ skete: the required building was literally a hundred meters away. Two sketes nearby, amazing. I had to once again get the drone in the air, reshoot." 

Denis Ulyankin, head of the geophysical team of the expedition

Old buildings are gradually being destroyed. Many have already been lost –  it is important to preserve those that still remain. In Olyokminsk, it is necessary to make a decision whether to preserve or demolish the old airport building from 1942. So far it has been possible to defend it. Local residents do not want to lose the legacy of the past and hope that they will be given the opportunity to open a museum dedicated to ALSIB in the old airport building.

The planes come first

This year, the expedition explored the airfields; in the future, they are planning to seriously engage in the search for the crashed aircraft. Part of the work in this direction has already been done – thanks to all the same local residents. Organizers of local history museums, historians, hunters, fishermen, teachers – all were happy to help the search specialists, and now they have collected a lot of valuable information.

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Ценная находка. Фото: Александр Бормотин
Ценная находка. Фото: Александр Бормотин

“In the Oymyakon museum there are quite a few parts from the P-39 ‘Airacobra’,” says Denis Ulyankin. “They told us that hunters and fishermen would now and then stumble upon some kind of plane ‘standing in the bushes deep in the tundra’. We couldn’t talk with them personally, but we were promised they would be contacted and asked for further details. And at the Yakutsk conference we talked with the author of books dedicated to ALSIB,  Ivan Efimovich Negenbley. In the same place we met with a search squad from local DOSAAF. They have their own museum with a very interesting exhibition; they have collected a lot of information, but they do not have enough funds and energy to explore all the places they know, many of which are difficult to access. We went with them to the crash site of the B-25 Mitchell bomber. We couldn’t see it, the water was high and hid the plane, it was impossible to get to the crash site. Of those who were on board, only one person was buried, the rest remained lying somewhere at the crash site. During low water, we could try to get B-25 out and look for crew members."

“In 1943, two ‘Airacobras’ collided 70 kilometers from Vitim. Major Pavel Morozov died, Captain Ivan Fedotov jumped out with a parachute and was found by a collective farmer Gabidulin who led him out. The farmer was awarded a medal for rescuing the pilot. The official reason of the crash – bad weather conditions. There are, however, two legends among the locals, in which a more dramatic plot is assumed. According to one of them, the tragedy arose because of the love triangle – allegedly the pilots decided to battle in the air for the special lady. According to the second legend, the ‘Airacobras’ were instructed to catch up with the plane hijacked by the pilots who’d been in Stalin's camps, and the catastrophe occurred during the chase."

Pavel Filin, Candidate of Historical Sciences, participant of the expedition

“In the Olyokminsk museum we were shown the remains of the ‘Airacobra’: a cannon, debris, a nameplate,” says Pavel Filin. “In 1985, the director of the museum organized a search expedition with the local people, and they brought it all. While we were there, a woman called, told that her husband had participated in that expedition and was ready to show the plane’s crash site. He was 15 years old at the time, he remembers how they unearthed the engine, but could not lift it, they just left a commemorative plaque. The next day we went there with him, but we were short on time and could not find the wreckage of the plane."

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В память об Алсибе. Фото: Рустам Ахунов
В память об Алсибе. Фото: Рустам Ахунов

"Finding crash sites is a long process," explains Ivan Anokhin. “Even if there is an archival link and eyewitness accounts who accidentally stumbled upon the wreckage, finding the exact location of the accident takes a lot of time, especially in the endless tundra, where the natural landscape is complex: swamps, lakes, forests, undergrowth. Often, crashes occurred tens of kilometers from airfields in complete wilderness. We have already collected a lot of archival information about the locations where the ALSIB's planes fell, we know in which areas this happened. In addition, the information that locals share with us can help. I think next year we will try to find some of the crashed planes. Next winter we will work in the archives again, already understanding what information to pay close attention to, we will get ready. If everything goes well, we will hit the road again in the summer."

ALSIB – the air corridor connecting the USSR and the USA – appeared during the Great Patriotic War. Under the Lend-Lease agreement, the Western Allies supplied us with fighters and bombers, and we needed a year-round and round-the-clock air route along which Soviet pilots could ferry aircraft to the front. Despite the inaccessibility of the areas where the airfields were built, they were erected in the shortest possible time, in just five to eight months. Since 1942, 8,094 aircraft had been delivered to the front along the ALSIB route.

Olga Ladygina