Where is The Road of Bones?
Road of bones is the nickname of kolyma Highway which is in the remote reaches of eastern Russia.
A stretch of a Russian Federal highway that links the port town of Magaden with yakutsk, a major river port. It is about 2000 km long.
The road’s nickname refers to its ominous history in the Soviet era.
Locals refer to it simply as Trassa, which is Russian for ‘The Route’ as it is the only road between the two towns.
Construction of the road began in the 1930 after gold was discovered in the Kolyma region.
Under the Stalin regime ,hundreds of gulag camps employing forced labour were established.
Over the next 20 years thousands of forced labourers worked with nothing more than pickaxes and wheelbarrows to build the road.
Many labourers died from exhaustion , starvation and also very brutal cold as it is one of the coldest inhabited regions on earth with winter temperatures dropping to – 50 degree Celsius. Many workers were simply shot because they were not found working hard enough. The dead workers were buried right there, in and around the road ,their bones which gave the road its name.
Today the road is in a very bad state of disrepair. Large parts of the unpaved road are reduced to slushy mud puddles in summer and collapsed bridges make it impossible for vehicles to pass. Moreover, if anyone gets stranded on this road in the middle of nowhere it can be fatal.
There are several memorials dedicated to travellers who have lost their lives on this road.
However the road’s danger quotient lures adventure -seeking motorcyclists from around the world and is hailed as a great road trip.
The Road of Bones Siberia History
There is a part of the Kolyma Highway in Siberia, Russia known as ‘the road of bones’.This road has a dark and tragic history which is closely associated to the Soviet Union’s Gulag system, during the 1930s and 1940s.For the construction of the road forced labour were employed which included prisoners,political enemies and labours who had to endure harsh conditions like wxtreme cold weather and difficult physical labour.
Why is it called the road of bones in Kolyma?
The construction of the Kolyma Highway, also known as the “Road of Bones,” was done by the Gulag prisoners. The road connects cities of Magadan and Yakutsk and it passes through tough landscape of siberia where it is remote and frozen cold. Many prisoners died during the construction of this road and hence it got the ominous nickname ‘the road of bones’.
Thousands of prisoners perished during the construction of the Kolyma Highway, and it is said that their remains were used in the foundation of the road. The road is looked as a symbol of the human lives lost and and their suffering during Soviet regime and the forced labour who endured to build it.Even today the road is challenging and desolate route, making travellers remember of its dark history.