Badge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR "For the development of the Pechora basin" of the 1946 model

An original and rather rare sign in excellent condition. Bronze, enamel. The sign depicts an oil rig and a mine coper on the background of a map of the Komi Republic with R. Pechora, illuminated by the northern lights. Guarantee of authenticity.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR was established in 1946. On this sign, as well as on the sign "Udarnik Ukhtinets", there was no reflection of the active participation of Soviet prisoners in the development of the Pechora basin, located in the extreme north-east of the European part of Russia in high latitudes.

The special purpose concentration camp, which began with 500 prisoners in the Ukhta geological exploration party of the OGPU, grew in connection with the construction of the Northern Railway to hundreds of thousands of WK and required the restructuring of the entire structure of the Ukhtapechlag. A whole network of camps was organized on its territory, each of which specialized in a specific industry: Ukhtizhemlag - exploration and production of oil, radium, Vorkutalag with a separate Intalagpoint - exploration and extraction of coking coal, Ust-vymlag and Logchimlag - logging and the most terrible - Zheldorstroylag. In Kotlas, thousands of prisoners accumulated in the transit prison every spring, all summer they were transported in the holds of barges along the Northern Dvina to the sea, and then up the Pechora to the mouth of Vorkuta. The holds of the barges were divided into 4 floors with a clearance of 0.5 m, and prisoners were transported on these bunks without walking and with poor nutrition. Another way from the Kotlas transfer is in the hold of a special barge to Ust-Vym, then by walking stages to Ust-vymlag, to Ukhtizhemlag. Upon arrival, the surviving prisoners found themselves in even worse conditions. For Ukhtpechlag, the following nutrition standards were established: bread - 800 g per day for those who fulfill the norm, 600 g - for those who did not reach the norm, 500 g - for halves, 400 g - for refuseniks, dystrophics. As a welding - burda, no vegetables. The first fifteen hundred coal miners who arrived in Vorkuta died of scurvy, other diseases, poor nutrition, overwork.

The works of the prisoners of Vorkutalag and Intalag established the high prospects of the Pechora coal basin. In August 1930, the Vorkuta coal deposit was discovered and its development began. In 1931-1932, prospecting and exploration work was carried out at the Talbeyskoye, Zaostrenskoye, Inskoye and Kozhimskoye fields. Analyses of Vorkuta coals have shown that they belong to fatty coking coals. In the middle of 1932, 2 inclined mines with a design capacity of 100 thousand tons of coal per year were laid at the Vorkuta deposit. In 1934, a narrow-gauge railway was laid connecting the Vorkutalaga zone with the Vorkuta-Vom pier on the Usa River. However, the version of the narrow-gauge railway was not viable, the constructed roadbed was sinking, steam locomotives, wagons and prisoners were drowning in swamp swamps. In 1937, by the XVII session of the International Geological Congress, the total geological reserves of coal in the basin were calculated, which were estimated at 36.6 billion tons. In 1937, it was decided to build the Konosha-Vorkuta railway through Kotlas, Knyazhpogost, Ukhta and Kotva. The path of more than 2000 km passed through the dense taiga and tundra, through impassable swamps and stormy rivers. The entire highway route was divided into 4 sections corresponding to the camps of Zheldorstroylag. It was possible to deliver goods to the construction site only during navigation on the river. The main tools were a wheelbarrow and a shovel. By the beginning of the excavation work, the construction site had 2 excavators at its disposal, one of which was delivered with great difficulty to the Achim River, where it got stuck, and the second worked in Knyazhpogost. Tactics for the construction of bedsore roads along the railway track were developed, which made it possible to transfer labor from site to site, transport ballast for filling the canvas, import rails and sleepers, piles and other materials for the construction of bridges. At the beginning of the war, there was a shortage of metal structures. At that time, metal structures were urgently dismantled during the construction of the high-rise part of the Palace of Soviets in Moscow, as well as bridges over the Moscow-Volga Canal and over the Sheksna River. The wires were removed from the Far Eastern highway. On December 28, 1941, the first train arrived in Vorkuta.