Carpe Diem Haiku *Tayshet*

In the mid-1970s there was a very popular expression among the young people across the Soviet Union – “to go to build the BAM”. In fact it was more than just an expression – like a hope, a dream… Or the plan for the bravest ones. Partly a duty, being a good Soviet citizen who helps to build his/her country but partly it was also about adventure out in the wild Siberia.

The very first kilometer of the BAM (“The Baikal–Amur Mainline” – broad gauge railway line in Russia) is in Tayshet, with the mainline streaching all the way to the Pacific Ocean at Sovetskaya Gavan. By the end of 1974 approximately 50 000 young people from all the 156 000 applicants had moved to the BAM service area. In 1975 and 1976 there were inaugurated 28 new settlements there as well as built 70 new bridges, including the Amur and Lena ones. Although In 1930s one section of the BAM was built by the Gulag system labor camp inmates, in 1970s the Soviet General Secretary L.Brezhnev announced that the BAM will be contructed with clean hands only, rejecting any use of prison labor.

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empty bus stop
road disappears in morning mist
time to follow dreams

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Carpe Diem Haiku Kai