Construction of the Tobolsk–Yuzhny Balyk highway: the emergence and overcoming of state-departmental and interdepartmental conflicts (1980–1991)

Veselov Sevostian Igorevich ORCID: 0000-0002-5128-9559 PhD in History Senior Lecturer, Department of Russian History, Budgetary Institution of Higher Education of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Yugra "Surgut State University" 628408, Russia, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Surgut, Energetikov str., 8, room 203 veselov19920304@mail.ru

The historical aspect of the construction of this highway has not only scientific significance, but also public. It is periodically updated in the media and social networks due to the natural and climatic conditions of the Tyumen North and road accidents associated with this road. A natural disaster (precipitation of one and a half months), which occurred on July 20, 2015 on 447 km of the Tyumen– Khanty-Mansiysk federal highway (near the village of Demyanka), led to the formation of massive rain flows, soil erosion and the destruction of a bridge built in 1985. As a result, a washout with a depth of 7 meters and a length of about 30 meters was formed, which led to the suspension of traffic. In the news groups of the cities of the Tyumen region, Khanty-Mansiysk district, it was reported that "the emergency paralyzed traffic on the federal road and cut off the only road artery from south to north from Tyumen" ^[1]. By the evening of July 23, 2015, the federal highway was restored by TODEP road workers and traffic on it was open to all types of transport ^[2]. Thus, the collapse of the highway was promptly eliminated. However, for a few days, two subjects of the federation lost direct land transport links. In order to leave Ugra and YANAO to Tyumen, motorists had to use the Yekaterinburg – Serov – Ivdel – Khanty-Mansiysk highway, bypassing Tobolsk and Uvat.

In this context, it is necessary to turn to the history of the construction of this strategic highway, which was called Tobolsk–Yuzhny Balyk in the official correspondence of the Soviet, party and economic leaders of the Tyumen region. Achievements and difficulties in the development of the transport infrastructure of the oil and gas complex during the construction of the Tobolsk –Yuzhny Balyk highway are an indicative marker of overcoming transport isolation in the context of the clash of state, regional and departmental interests during the transport development of the Tyumen North. The relevance of studying the problems of highway construction is justified by the fact that the history of the construction of the Tobolsk – Yuzhny Balyk highway has not been fully reflected in the works of Tyumen and Surgut historians of the transport development of the West Siberian oil and gas complex, a partial reflection of this problem in the doctoral dissertation of G. Y. Koleva ^[3].

Directly from the territory of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug from the north in 1972-1977, the Nefteyugansk – Yuzhny Balyk highway was laid with a total length of 46.5 km. Its construction was approved by an order of the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated August 26, 1971 at the suggestion of the Ministry of Oil Industry of the USSR and agreed with the USSR State Planning Committee, where all work was planned to be completed by the end of 1975 ^{[4, L. 45-46]}. The document also noted that its financing is carried out at the expense of capital investments of the Ministry of Oil and Gas Industry allocated for the construction of production facilities. This highway was supposed to connect the Southern Balyk, planned by oilmen, as the base city for the development of the Southern Balyk group of fields. The main contractors of oil workers in this area were Nefteyugansk SU-905 and Mamontov SU-926 of the Tyumendorstroy trust. In 1973, SU-905 commissioned the first section of the Nefteyugansk – Yuzhny Balyk highway, with a length of 10 km ^{[5, l. 96]}.

Archival materials show that in 1977 the highway was generally 78.4% ready ^{[6, l. 136]}. In an interview, the head of the Mamontovsky SU-926 site, A. N. Ksenofontov, recalled that in the mid-1970s, "there was no Southern Balyk station as such and this rugged territory was unsuitable for the construction of the settlement. Among themselves, the builders called this highway Nefteyugansk – Mamontovo. SU-905 was building a road from the Yuganskaya Ob, and then there was a hydraulic pump for 9 km and a taiga" ^[7]. Later, the SU-926 section was organized, which built a road to Mamontovo in 1974-1977. According to the explanatory note to the annual report of the trust "Tyumendorstroy", in 1978 the trust still carried out the completion of the highway by structural elements (excavation, coating and laying of reinforced concrete pavement by two-stage construction) ^{[8, L. 439]}. A. N. Ksenofontov explains this fact in such a way that at that time there was art. Pyt-Yakh (Southern Balyk – author's note) and separately the village of Mamontovo, to which the path was 6 km. The oilmen drove mainly along the Lezhnevka, and then the SU-926 road builders made a road with a concrete surface in 1976-1978. And, in fact, further south beyond the railway station of art. The Southern Balyk builders did not advance, which was justified by the need for priority laying of in-field roads of the Mamontovsky, Yuzhno-Balyksky, Teplovsky fields.

In the early 1980s, the construction of the Tyumen-Tobolsk highway was nearing completion in the south of the region, which made it possible to resolve the issue of establishing land communication between the southern and northern parts of the Tyumen Region. And, in fact, to stop using the winter road to Surgut and Nizhnevartovsk. The economic necessity of constructing the Tobolsk –Yuzhny Balyk highway was justified by the tasks of servicing oil pipelines along the future route. In accordance with the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 241 dated March 20, 1980 "On urgent measures to strengthen construction in the area of the West Siberian Oil and gas Complex", the Ministry of Highways of the RSFSR (Minavtodor) was entrusted with laying the Tobolsk -Yuzhny Balyk highway, which was planned to be the head section of the future Tobolsk– Surgut highway. The customer of its construction was the Ministry of Oil Industry of the USSR ^{[9, p. 4; 10, l. 24]}. The general contractor in the North of Western Siberia was the Ministry of Transport and its production association Zapsibdorstroy. However, in the conditions of the workload of the general contracting trusts of the Ministry of Transport of the USSR, the subcontractor for the Tobolsk–Yuzhny Balyk highway was appointed the Minavtodor of the RSFSR, headed by A. A. Nikolaev. According to the memoirs of the head of the regional department "Tyumenavtodor" Yu. V. Kurenkov, the head of Rosdorvostok Ivan Grigoryevich Budko became the soul of this construction ^{[11, p. 320]}.

The design and survey work of the Tobolsk - Yuzhny Balyk highway was carried out by the Sverdlovsk branch of the Institute of "GiprodorNIA" of the RSFSR Minavtodor. Since 1978, the Institute has developed and implemented "Technical guidelines for the use of aerial photogrammetric methods and computers in road surveys", which were actively used in its tracing. Spatial design methods made it possible to take into account the complex landscape of the proposed construction site ^{[12, pp. 272-274]}.

During the study of the area , three sections of the highway were identified:

1) Tobolsk – Demyanskoe (160 km);

2) Demyanskoye – Salym (135 km);

3) Salym – Southern Balyk (175 km).

The estimated cost of the highway project was determined at 316.4 million rubles . Archival documents of the Tyumen Regional Committee of the CPSU dated April 1980 indicate that even before the organization of the contracting trust, the Institute of "GiprodorNIA" was faced with the lack of readiness of the USSR Ministry of Oil Industry to provide a design assignment for the production of survey work. It was also noted that the issue of capital investments in its construction was being resolved rather slowly. However, the Institute, overcoming temporary difficulties, carried out topographic surveys, where the first section of the Tobolsk – Demyansk highway was to be laid. Feasible assistance to the prospectors was provided by the design and estimate bureau of the regional administration "Tyumenavtodor", which selected sites for the deployment of organized construction units of Minavtodor, railway dead ends and residential settlements. In addition , the territory in the suburbs of Tobolsk at the station was prepared . Ingair and Yunost Komsomolskaya for unloading residential and special wagons ^{[10, l. 24]}.

For the organization of construction and installation works (SMR) on the highway, the Minister of Highways of the RSFSR A. A. Nikolaev issued Order No. 31 of July 1, 1980 on the organization of the Siberian Road Construction Trust in Tobolsk as part of Rosdorvostok. Separately, we note that the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR did not establish the procedure for interaction with the customer and the general contractor. Therefore, a special order of the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated 11.07.1980 No. III-13630 "On the construction of the Tobolsk —Yuzhny Balyk highway" specified the direct contractor – the Sibdorstroy Trust as a subcontractor. In accordance with the instruction, the Ministry of Oil and Gas Industry proposed to share the "financial burdens" of the construction of the highway with the help of the equity participation of the USSR Ministry of Gas Industry, the RSFSR Minavtodor and the USSR Ministry of Geology. Since the end of 1980, they have consistently participated in the financing of the SMR on the Minnefteprom and Minavtodor highways ^{[13, l. 172]}. From the first months of the construction of the highway, an intense struggle of ministries and departments for financial and logistical resources begins.

In our opinion, it is appropriate to use the theory of world-system analysis, outlined by I. Wallerstein, when analyzing the horizontal relations of the Sibdorstroy Trust with higher departments ^[14]. The ministries that mastered the North represented departmental world-economies included in the structure of the socialist planned economy – the national economy of the USSR. They were generated by the special conditions of the creation of the ZSNGK, where the norms of behavior and solutions to production and economic issues were regulated by various ministries. In archival documents and memoirs, we can find departmental boundaries and barriers that were directly reflected in the solution of production and economic issues of both the All-Union Ministry of Transport and the republican Minavtodor.

In the context of the formation of a new road construction company, this was due to building relationships with party-Soviet bodies and overcoming interdepartmental conflicts. About his appearance in Tobolsk at the end of July 1980, the first manager of the Sibdorstroy trust, Sergei Semyonovich Shaburov, recalled that when he got off the train in Tobolsk, he had only an order on the organization of the trust in his hands. "There are no people, no headquarters, no equipment, and next year it is already necessary to introduce 40 km of road of the third technical category…The whole of Siberia is in construction, the best specialists were employed on them," recalled S. S. Shaburov ^{[15, p. 460]}. From July 1980 to the beginning of 1981, 3 road construction departments were formed and staffed as part of the trust:

DSU-1 in Tobolsk

DSU-2 in Turtas village of Uvatsky district (then it was relocated to Pyt-Yakh).

DSU-3 was stationed at the Demyanka station of the Uvatsky district.  On October 7, 1980, the Department of Production and Technical Equipment (UPTC) was created in the structure of the trust, and from April 1, 1981, a Freight transport company appeared, which was assigned the tasks of transporting sand and gravel mixture to the highway. Judging by Shaburov's memoirs, the recruitment of personnel to the units was carried out somewhat chaotically. For example, during the formation of the trust, Alexander Maksimovich Osotkin, who had previously worked as the second secretary of the Tobolsk district Committee of the CPSU, was appointed to the position of deputy trust manager for general issues. As the head of "Tyumenavtodor" Yu. V. Kurenkov noted, a significant role in the formation of the production base of the trust was played by specialists transferred from the divisions of "Tyumenavtodor" to various positions – A. I. Klimovich, R. N. Usachev, I. S. Ovchinnikov, V. V. Maltsev, N. I. Motkov, A. L. Sandal, I. I. Shik ^{[11, p. 320]}.

Assistance in the formation of the trust was provided by the chairman of the executive Committee of the Tobolsk Council of People's Deputies, S. E. Lebedkin, who allowed to occupy the former building of the dormitory of the Tobolsk Pedagogical College, where the office of the enterprise and the management apparatus were located. The Tyumenstroyput department of the Ministry of Transport of the USSR played an important role in the daily arrangement of road builders. It transferred the settlement to the station "Yunost Komsomolskaya" with a total area of 5,145 sq. m., where residential premises for IT and workers were repaired. On February 1, 1981, the trust received 828 people, including for DSU-1 with a location in Tobolsk – 421 people, DSU-2 – in Turtas – 300 people, DSU-3 – at Demyanka station – 46 people, UPTK – 20, and the trust apparatus – 41 ^{[16, L. 86]}. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, it is known that almost a thousand units of new equipment were involved on the Tobolsk – Yuzhny Balyk highway, "an army of workers and engineers from Tyumen and other regions of Russia" ^{[11, p. 320]}.

When building vertical relationships in the departmental system of road construction, patron-client relationships characteristic of the Soviet management system and bureaucracy, described by the Australian historian Sh. Fitzpatrick ^{[17, p. 43]}. The manager of the Sibdorstroy trust was directly subordinate to the Minister of Highways of the RSFSR A. A. Nikolaev. He demanded dedication, results and loyalty from the managers and bosses who worked in his ministry. For his part, the patron, as a rule, provided protection, vigorously standing up for "his road workers" if they had trouble with the party-Soviet authorities. Loyalty to subordinates and a serious attitude to the role of patron assumed was one of the characteristics of the higher-ranking leaders of Rosdorvostok, and in general it was characteristic of the Minavtodor of the RSFSR.

In the memoirs of the road workers of Sibdorstroy, the current system of relationships has received a significant reflection. For example, S.S. Shaburov noted that at that time he was lucky with the leaders and lists them all by name: Minister of Highways Alexey Aleksandrovich Nikolaev, his deputy Valery Andreevich Brukhnov, head of the Central Board Ivan Grigorievich Budko – "professionals of the highest class", "the most talented people, "statesmen to the core, dedicated to their work" - such characteristics are given to higher managers. But most importantly, according to Shaburov's memoirs, "they were able to ask and support in difficult times" ^{[15, p. 460]}.

At the origins of the creation of the Sibdorstroy trust were bright and outstanding personalities. The first head of the company, S. S. Shaburov, arrived from Irkutsk. He had extensive practical experience. Under his leadership, the formation and strengthening of the trust's staff went on. In 1982, he was replaced by Vladimir Evgenievich Vorobyov, who, based on the achievements of his colleague, managed to achieve brilliant results. Thanks to the skillful leadership of V. E. Vorobyov, the trust increased its production indicators and began to put 60 km into operation annually ^{[18, p. 94]}.

The Tyumen Regional Executive Committee and the Regional Committee of the CPSU coordinated the construction of highways in the Tyumen region. Among the representatives of the Soviet authorities, the most significant contribution to the formation of the trust was made by the deputy chairman of the regional executive committee in 1980-1984 – V. G. Kholyavko. According to archival data, Viktor Gavrilovich acted as a kind of "pusher" of narrow departmental interests in the instances of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR. So, in January 1982, he petitioned Minavtodor about the need to create a construction and installation department as part of the trust for the construction of production bases of subdivisions, DRP complexes, housing, social and cultural facilities ^{[19, l. 116]}. In April-May 1983, Minister A. A. Nikolaev addressed V. G. Kholyavko that the trust was not being sufficiently shipped crushed stone from the Asbestos quarry management. And the transport commission of the regional executive committee, headed by Kholyavko, transferred part of the rubble to other organizations. Due to the fact that the trust did not have a railway dead end for storage, the newly-existing crushed stone was transferred to enterprises that had their own production base. Realizing that the lack of crushed stone could disrupt the government's task, V. G. Kholyavko, as deputy chairman of the regional executive committee, asked the Sverdlovsk Railway Administration to resolve the issue with the construction of a temporary railway impasse for DSU-3 at the Demyanka station ^{[20, l. 255]}. And, as a rule, the initiatives of the deputy chairman of the regional executive committee concerning the creation of structural units, the provision of the trust, were positively resolved.

 Western Sovietologist D. Haf, explaining the interaction of enterprises with higher departments (Ministries, glavkami) in the USSR, suggested that the heads of the regional committees of the CPSU and regional executive committees were figures who consciously teamed up with business leaders to exert pressure, begging for funds. According to his hypothesis, such unions, when searching for investments and implementing infrastructure projects, represented the optimal feature of the Soviet administrative system. In his interpretation, regional party-Soviet authorities performed coordination functions ^{[21, P. 60-62]}.

Therefore, the leadership of the region tried to promptly solve the current problems of its construction, since almost every year it received alarming messages from the staff of the Sibdorstroy trust. During the first half of 1982 Sibdorstroy asked the regional authorities to assist in the accelerated allocation of land to the Tobolsk Oil Pipeline Administration (the territorial division of Glavtransneft in Tobolsk), which acted as a customer for the construction of the highway. However, the problems did not end there. In August 1982, the Ministry of Geology refused to participate in its construction, and Mingazprom did not make the necessary allocations. Chairman of the Tyumen Regional Executive Committee V. V. Nikitin asked the Council of Ministers of the USSR "to consider the issue of additional allocation of capital investments by attracting the Ministry of Gas Industry and the Ministry of Geology of the USSR." It is significant that V. V. Nikitin, the chairman of the regional executive committee, appeals to the government in order to resolve interdepartmental contradictions at the level of union ministries ^{[13, l. 172]}. This letter reflects the narrative of the struggle of the ministries' interests for financial resources, where no one sought to declare priority allocations for the construction of highways and the early fulfillment of the government's instructions. It is not by chance that the chairman of the Tyumen Regional Executive Committee becomes a representative of group regional interests. According to the memoirs of the head of the Zapsibdorstroy association A. I. Kasparov, it is known that V. V. Nikitin was a match for the first secretary G. P. Bogomyakov. "Sometimes, when the situation at a particular facility seemed completely hopeless, it was enough to dial his phone number and ask for assistance: he moved the heaviest carts from the dead point" ^{[22, p. 94]}. According to Kasparov, party and Soviet leaders in other regions, as a rule, shared power, and Bogomyakov and Nikitin, on the contrary, "harnessed to the team, shared only responsibility" ^{[22, pp. 94-95]}. As already noted, the deputy chairman of the regional executive committee was the "pusher" in any secondary issues of the Sibdorstroy trust. But here it was necessary to reach the level of all-Union ministries and departments. In these narratives, we will definitely see the presence of horizontal links between the party-Soviet authorities and the road workers of the Ministry of Transport, on the one hand, and on the other – a certain dependent position of subcontractors, described above, and the formation of patron-client relationships between production workers and regional elites.

Providing the construction of the highway with design and estimate documentation was a rather difficult problem. At the beginning of 1983, the manager of the Sibdorstroy trust, V. E. Vorobyov, emphasized that the divisions received documentation for sections of the highway with great delay. At the same time, in 1983 it was planned to build 60 km with a coating and to fill 40 km of the roadbed. The necessary calculations were available only up to the Demyanskaya station, and from the Demyanskaya station to the Southern Balyk were not prepared in a timely manner ^{[23, l. 85]}. Despite the memos of the trust's management to the regional executive committee, in 1983-1984 the project of the road section to Salym was not prepared, and the trust was unable to start filling the canvas in advance. In this regard, the construction of the highway was held back. In October 1985, the trust manager optimistically wrote to the chairman of the Tyumen Regional Executive Committee, V. G. Kholyavko, that the units would have project documentation Demyanka – Salym (120 km). But I noted with alarm that instead of 400 thousand rubles for design and survey work on the Salym - Yuzhny Balyk road section, the GiprodorNIA Institute received only 40 thousand rubles. And at the same time, the lack of calculations forced the construction capacities of DSU-1 and DSU-2, which were released after the completion of the Tobolsk – Demyansk section, to stand idle ^{[24, l. 138]}. The lack of interest of the USSR Ministry of Oil and Gas Industry in solving the issues of financing the highway project slowed down its implementation.

But what prompted the industry groups of oil industry influence to such behavior? The answer to this question lies in the fact that at all levels of the Soviet economic bureaucracy, the leaders believed that "their power, prestige, and in many cases, income grow with the expansion of the division they lead" ^{[25, p. 188]}. That is, the rigorous expansion and prosperity of its own production was the main goal of the leadership of ministries, glavkov. By the late 1980s, the Tyumen Regional Committee of the CPSU was increasingly concerned about the problems of road construction. The role of a more energetic "pusher" of the interests of the Minavtodor road workers was played by the Tyumen Regional Committee of the CPSU, whose interests coincided with the regional executive committee. In July 1985, thanks to his appeals to the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, preferential financing was opened for the Sibdorstroy trust and the development of design and estimate documentation for the third section of the highway was carried out. During the inspection of the progress of the construction of the highway, the Tyumen Regional Committee of the CPSU discovered a violation of technological processes, which was reported to the RSFSR Minavtodor. As the Deputy Minister V. A. Brukhnov acknowledged, for violating the technical requirements, the Ministry's leadership "severely reprimanded the chief engineer and strictly warned the trust manager" ^{[26, L. 36]}. The main reasons for production omissions, according to Rosdorvostok, was the lack of workers and engineering and technical workers. Especially among the middle management: foremen, foremen, mechanics, which led to inefficient organization of work of road construction equipment and vehicles ^{[27, L. 21]}.

The manager of the Sibdorstroy trust, S. S. Shaburov, recalled that in addition to the organization of design and survey and production work, in technical and technological terms, "this highway is nothing but solid marsh and swamps 14 meters deep. The work of hell" ^{[15, p. 460]}. Experienced construction personnel played a big role in the difficult moments of the construction of sections of the highway. Alexander Akimovich Avdeev belongs to its legendary pioneers. He arrived in the Tyumen region from Irkutsk, where he had previously been a deputy of the DSR-1 of the Krasnoyarsk– Irkutsk highway. At the invitation of the first manager S. S. Shaburov, he held the position of deputy manager of the trust for construction from 1980 to 1996. In 1984, when road workers passed a difficult taiga section along a wide, long ravine – log for 327 km in "terrible frosts up to -50 degrees", Avdeev was sent to overcome it. On this log, work was carried out day and night. As he himself recalled: "he had to command there" ^[28].

During the construction of the highway, he was in the trailer almost without a break for rest. In 1988, when he turned 50, the trust manager, Alexander Vasilyevich Raketsky, suggested calling this log Avdeevsky. On the anniversary day, he was presented with the colonel's shoulder straps and a photo with a sign "Avdeevsky log". For his harsh temper and exactingness during his years as deputy manager of the trust, A. A. Avdeev was even nicknamed "The Black Colonel" ^[28]. The first trust manager S. S. Shaburov recalled that Avdeev was immortalized quite deservedly: "How much he gave strength and energy to this road is incomprehensible to the mind" ^{[15, p. 461]}.

In the interview we quoted above, A. A. Avdeev constantly mentioned natural and climatic conditions. It is noteworthy that the hereditary road worker did not consider weather conditions to be the main thing, but, on the contrary, the formation of a workable team of road builders, effectively placed at construction sites, understanding what to do and for what. "The main difficulty was to assemble a good professional team. People who know what they're doing. This is the most important and the most difficult. And everything else is nonsense – and we will win the swamp and we will win everything" ^[28].

The main burden of the construction of the Tobolsk – Yuzhny Balyk highway was borne by the drivers of the freight transport enterprise of the Trust (GATP). About 500 GATP drivers participated in its construction ^{[29, p. 12]}. Since 1984, the trust has compiled a Book of Honor of the Sibdorstroy Trust. 24 people were included in the Trust's Book of Honor, including drivers – 7 people, excavator drivers – 6, bulldozer drivers – 4, crane drivers – 3, tractor driver – 1, asphalt plant operator – 1, mobile power plant driver – 1, deputy manager of the Sibdorstroy – 1 trust ^{[30, l. 3-29]}. It is significant that of the employees of the trust's management apparatus, only one deputy construction manager was included in the Book of Honor – A. A. Avdeev, who led the SMR on the highway ^{[30, L. 9ob]}.

In this regard, it is necessary to note a more effective approach of global historians to the study of the history of technology and transport communications in world history. "Recognizing that the natural environment influences events does not mean that geography determines history. I only claim that the environment forced the main actors ... to be inventive," notes Daniel Hedrick ^{[31, pp. 18-19]}. So, for example, it will be quite objective to use this research methodology to the history of the transport development of the North. During the construction of the Tobolsk – Yuzhny Balyk highways, a two-stage method for laying a road surface made of reinforced concrete slabs PAG-XIV, tested in oil and gas fields, was widely used. It was one of the main markers of the ingenuity of the road workers of the Ministry of Transport of the USSR, design institutes and, in a particular case, the practice of using this method by the Ministry of Transport of the RSFSR. In conditions of severe waterlogging of the oil and gas development area, high humidity of the soils used for the roadbed and other specific conditions, the designers envisaged to conduct construction in two stages. At the 1st stage, after pouring the sand-gravel mixture, slabs (or a base of crushed stone) are laid and then movement was opened. After the complete consolidation of the road soil, the 2nd stage was arranged, in which the laid slabs were either shifted or leveled, the joints were welded and homologated with bitumen mastic ^{[26, L. 36-37]}.

Thus, this method was a means of accelerated laying of concrete slabs in a swampy area, where it took time to consolidate the roadbed and at the same time be able to use the highway as early as possible to access the oil fields. Ie, this method represented both the struggle to reduce the time limits of the start of operation of highways, and the struggle with nature in the name of "Big Oil". The two-stage approach significantly accelerated the construction of departmental highways as much as possible in the road trusts of different ministries. However, the mandatory presence of a production culture among middle-level workers (producers of works and craftsmen) was recognized by experts as an essential factor in preventing the poor quality of SMR production on the ZSNGK highways ^{[32, p. 27]}.

By the mid-1980s, the problem with the distribution of financial flows by the ministries involved in the construction of the highway remains unresolved. In July 1985, the Tyumen Regional Committee of the CPSU stated that the main allocations for the construction of the Tobolsk – Yuzhny Balyk highway were realized only by the USSR Ministry of Oil Industry. The "interested" ministries continued to shy away from shared financing: Mingazprom and Mingeology of the USSR ^{[26, l. 34]}. In the context of the events reflected in archival documents, it should be emphasized the existence of a real interdepartmental conflict in the transport development of the region.

When analyzing the contradictions associated with the construction of the Tobolsk–Yuzhny Balyk highway, in the interdepartmental correspondence of various ministries, regional party-Soviet bodies with the Ministry of Finance of the RSFSR, the Council of Ministers of the USSR, RSFSR oil and gas enterprises and road trusts, we identified several problematic cases, which allows us to distinguish two groups of conflicts: state-departmental and interdepartmental conflicts. During the construction of the Tobolsk – Yuzhny Balyk highway, the state-departmental conflict over the distribution of centralized allocations for the construction of the highway is acutely manifested: 1) The Tyumen Regional Committee of the CPSU and the regional executive Committee represent a group of regional interests of the state associated with the narrow-industry tasks of oil workers and their contractor, the Sibdorstroy Trust. The Council of Ministers of the RSFSR further acted as a conductor of the interests of oil workers through road workers and petitioned the USSR Council of Ministers to resolve the issue of deductions for the construction of the highway. 2) On the other side there was a group of influence of Mingazprom and Mingeology. They defended the position of refusing to participate in the financing of the SMR on the Tobolsk – Yuzhny Balyk highway. Consequently, there was an interdepartmental conflict between the all–Union ministries and the Ministry of Agriculture of the RSFSR (it is supported by the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR) on the one hand, and on the other hand, a conflict of interests was formed between the regional authorities and the all-Union ministries (the Ministry of Geology and the USSR Ministry of Gas Industry). However, it should be noted that despite the conflict situation, the level of fulfillment of planned tasks according to the explanatory notes to the annual reports of Rosdorvostok remained stable under conditions of concessional financing by the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR.

Table 1

Fulfillment of the government task on the construction of highways by the organizations of the Council of Ministers of the Union Republics in the area of ZSNGK in 1981-1985 ^{[46, L. 6; 47, L. 3; 48, L. 130; 49, L. 135; 50, L. 6; 51, L. 58]}

Based on the data in the table, the Sibdorstroy trust annually put into permanent operation 40-60 km. Against the background of the achievements of the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Uzbek SSR, the trust periodically exceeded the planned task, for example, in 1982-1983 – by 0.2 km. In his memoirs, the first trust manager S.S. Shaburov emphasized that in the first year only 40 km of the highway was built, and then 60 km were introduced annually. In the explanatory notes to the annual reports of Rosdorvostok for 1981-1983, it was noted with enviable constancy that the plan for the annual commissioning of 60 km of the highway has been achieved. However, judging by the reports for 1984, due to the shortage of plates, the SMR plan for the trust was fulfilled by 92.4%. It follows from this that if the roadbed was put into operation (confirmed by the relevant acts), and as for the road surface, it was not installed everywhere ^{[33, l. 21]}.

Significant changes took place in August 1985, when the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR of August 20, 1985 No. 797 "On the integrated development of the oil and gas industry in Western Siberia in 1986-1990" was issued. According to its main provisions, the Ministry of Oil and Gas Industry, together with the Ministry of Transport, undertook to submit proposals to the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the transfer of existing and under construction departmental paved roads to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transport of the RSFSR – to the public network. In party-government documents, the term "departmental paved roads" was used for the first time, which of course affected the differentiation with public roads ^{[34, L. 7ob-8]}. According to the classification of the Minavtodor of the RSFSR, the Tobolsk – Yuzhny Balyk highway belonged to the III technical category of departmental highways of the Ministry of Oil Industry with reinforced concrete coating, which was exclusively of industrial importance for the maintenance of oil pipelines. Sections of the highway under construction were reclassified as a public highway and were listed for transfer to Minavtodor in 1987-1990 ^{[35, l. 151-156]}.

By January 1988, a long-term program for the construction of ZSNGK highways was developed for the Tyumen Region. Some of them were formed as a backbone network of highways, which in the twelfth five–year plan was to connect with the All-Union one upon completion of the construction of Tobolsk - Yuzhny Balyk. The general disadvantages of departmental affiliation of highways were the initial design for their industry tasks, a significant reduction in the parameters of inter-industrial highways under construction (for example, the width of the pavement made of reinforced concrete slabs was reduced from 8 to 6 m), which led to a decrease in the speed of vehicles and high accident rate. As a result, the chairmen of the Tyumen Regional Executive Committee (N. A. Chernukhin) and ZapSibMVTK under the USSR State Planning Committee (E.N. Altunin) asked Minavtodor to carry out an examination of projects for the construction and reconstruction of a network of departmental highways by territorial organizations and to carry out timely technical supervision of the quality of roads under construction as they are put into operation ^{[36, L. 46]}.

During the discussion of the planning program for the examination of highways under construction between the regional authorities and Minavtodor until January 1988, the Tobolsk–Yuzhny Balyk departmental highway (with entrances to Nefteyugansk and Surgut and access to the territory of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District), now began to be thought of as a key interregional public highway connecting in the future departmental highways of the Tyumen North with a network of republican and national highways values in the south of the region. As of January 01, 1987, 335 km out of 470 km of the Tobolsk – Yuzhny Balyk highway were built ^{[36, L. 47]}.

In March 1988, Chairman of the Tyumen Regional Executive Committee Chernukhin "probed the ground" in the USSR Ministry of Geology on the issue of further financing of the highway with a view to its early commissioning and inclusion in the reference network of highways. The introduction of the highway was supposed, according to the Tyumen Regional Executive Committee, to simplify the transportation of material and technical resources and agricultural products from the south of the Tyumen region to the north. In the future, we will also abandon the annual construction of seasonal winter roads and the use of expensive air transport. On behalf of the Government of the USSR of 11.07.1980, the share participation of Mingeology in the amount of 70 million rubles was provided, including the SMR – 54.5 million ^{[36, L. 99]}.

However, Deputy Minister of Mingeology R. A. Sumbatov wrote that "for 1989-1990, the Ministry provides limited capital investments, which will be directed primarily to fulfill the tasks of decision-making bodies for the development of the socio-cultural sphere in the West Siberian and Caspian oil and gas complexes, the Far Eastern Economic Region and other regions." That is, the question of investments in the construction of the highway by Mingeology remained open ^{[36, l. 105]}. The increase in conflict when agreeing on the issue of further allocations occurred in conditions of ignoring the requests of Glavtransneft by the structures of the Ministry of Geology.

In order to ensure sustainable oil and gas production and consistent development of the ZSNGK public road network, ICTP under the USSR State Planning Committee by the beginning of 1988 developed a concept for the development of a reference road network, aimed at approval by Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR Gorshkov. According to the concept, the inter-industrial highways of the Ministry of Oil and Gas Industry of the USSR, according to their functional tasks, began to be defined as public highways. According to the regional executive committee, on January 6, 1988, about 1,900 km of inter-industrial roads connected key cities and towns of the KhMAO ^{[37, L. 72-73]}. In a reply letter dated March 11, 1988, the Minister of Highways of the RSFSR V. A. Brukhnov agreed on a reference network of highways, where he noted that as the departmental network of highways was brought into good technical condition and the construction of new ones was completed, the ministry did not object to their acceptance on the balance of subordinate organizations ^{[37, L. 77]}. After all the approvals, the concept was approved on December 22, 1988 by the decision of the Tyumen Regional Executive Committee. The Tobolsk–Yuzhny Balyk highway became part of the Tyumen–Tobolsk–Surgut–Nizhnevartovsk–Raduzhny highway corridor. Apparently, after its approval by the regional executive committee and the regional Committee of the CPSU of the main road network of the region, a corresponding letter was written to the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR about the unwillingness of the Ministry of Geology and other ministries to participate in the transport development of the North of the Tyumen region.

State-departmental and interdepartmental contradictions related to the construction of the highway began to be intensively discussed at the republican level. In a memorandum of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR dated May 23, 1989 to the Council of Ministers of the USSR, it was stated that Mingazprom and the Ministry of Geology of the USSR did not invest in the continuation of the construction of the Tobolsk–Yuzhny Balyk highway ^{[38, l. 73,75]}. Until mid-1990, this issue remained unresolved. In June of the same year, the government of the RSFSR stated the fact of the termination of the financing of the SMR by the now united Ministry of Oil and Gas Industry of the USSR. The republican authorities asked the Council of Ministers of the USSR to bring the highway in 1991 to the Southern Balyk (to the North) – 27.4 million rubles. In the end, the Council of Ministers instructed the allocation of "state centralized investments" for the Tobolsk–Yuzhny Balyk highway ^{[39, L. 68-70]}. Serious delays in the receipt of capital investments in the SMR of the highway prevented the opening of a through road connection between Tyumen and Surgut, and also delayed the connection of an isolated part of the highways of oil and gas producing areas with the south of the Tyumen region.

The described events allow us to assert that confusion was growing in the system of central government of the late USSR. Chaotically and inconsistently, the Council of Ministers of the USSR made decisions related to centralized deductions. As the historian N. Mitrokhin notes, since the opening of the Congress of People's Deputies on May 25, 1989, which indicated the presence of strong opposition factions, the public and legal formation of a new policy that ignores restrictions and control by the Central Committee of the CPSU, led to the destruction of the system of sovereignty of the Politburo (to which the USSR Council of Ministers was subordinate). In 1989, 3 heads of the Council of Ministers were replaced, it was dissolved twice, and was renamed the Cabinet of Ministers. That is, from the second half of 1989 until the end of 1991, there was "no formalized economic policy at all" ^{[40, pp. 13-14]}. The main consequence of such changes was the instability of the composition of the Council of Ministers, which directly affected the distribution of financial and logistical resources to road transport ministries.

In 1991, the Ministry of Transport and Construction, according to its departments and subcontractors, reduced capital investments mainly due to the release of centrally distributed resources for the construction of highways in the Tyumen region. The general trend of deterioration of the economic situation in the region forced the Sibdorstroy Trust to gradually turn off the SMR on the Tobolsk –Yuzhny Balyk highway. In August 1989, the head of the Sibdorstroy trust of the RSFSR Minavtodor, A.V. Raketsky, in his letter to the Tyumen Regional Executive Committee, wrote about a rather alarming situation developing in the subordinate road construction departments. Since in 1991 the trust planned to complete the construction of the Tobolsk– Yuzhny Balyk highway, the lack of additional volumes of work was alarming among specialists, which in the future would lead to a reduction in the number of employees and the abolition of a number of DSOs ^{[41, p. 101]}.

It is noteworthy that the ongoing problems in the construction of the Tobolsk – Yuzhny Balyk highway have found a rather peculiar reflection in the public consciousness of Surgut residents. The echo of state-departmental, interdepartmental contradictions generated rumors and unrest among the townspeople, which was noted in the district newspaper "To the Victory of Communism" dated May 26, 1990. The report noted that "there are rumors around the city that the construction of the Tyumen– Surgut highway has been "frozen" again and it is unknown when it will resume" ^{[42, p. 2]}. The drivers of the city were allegedly going to hold a strike on June 1, 1990, and block the Surgut – Nefteyugansk highway with thousands of cars. The newspaper's editorial office replied that it did not have such information. At the same time, the highway caused a general stir in connection with summer vacations and the mass departure of Surgut residents outside the city. The head of the transport department of the Surgut City Executive Committee, V. P. Burtsev, answering the question "by what date the Tyumen– Surgut highway is scheduled to be put into operation and whether it is really frozen," stressed that according to the planned dates, "this highway should be involved this year (1990), but work on its laying has stopped. So this is not a rumor, but a fact." The customer "Tyumenavtodor" and the trust "Sibavtodor" were left without materials. The completion of construction could be expected, according to Burtsev, in 1991, because it almost approached Nefteyugansk ^[42].

The discourses generated by interdepartmental conflicts are interesting because the names of trusts were transformed in the public consciousness (the Sibdorstroy trust built the highway), the acting actors involved in transport development were replaced (the Tobolsk Oil Pipeline Department of Glavtransneft of the USSR Ministry of Oil Industry was the customer of the highway), the problem of leaving during summer vacations by personal vehicles was separately articulated.

The second discourse generated by the Soviet authorities is the desire to force the construction of a highway. In a note dated August 13, 1990, the chairman of the Surgut City Council of People's Deputies, A. E. Loshakov, asked the Tyumen Regional Executive Committee (L.Yu. Roketsky) to "speed up the completion of the construction of the highway." He acts as a kind of "pusher" of local interests of citizens (which is being traced for the first time!), and not a specific department ^{[43, l. 177]}. "On behalf of the deputies and voters of Surgut, I am asking to inform the Presidium of the mountains. The Council on the construction of the Tyumen–Surgut highway, since this issue is not within the competence of the mountains. Advice. The population of the city appeals to the deputies of the regional, district and city Councils with a request to accelerate the completion of the construction of the highway."

Deputy Chairman of the Tyumen Regional Executive Committee Moskalenko, in a letter to his Surgut colleague dated September 13, 1990, noted that "the financing of the construction of the road, according to the instructions of the government, was carried out with the participation of"interested ministries and the Ministry of Finance of the RSFSR, which, in addition, leads the construction of this road." However, in 1988-1989, Mingazprom and Mingeologiya, as we noted above, abandoned equity participation and the pace of construction decreased. But, nevertheless, according to the plan, the highway should now be introduced in 1991, "the issue of financing has been practically resolved", it was noted in Moskalenko's letter ^{[43, L. 53]}.

At the regional level, the issue of the impact on the structures of the former Mingazprom was solved by various methods. In August 1990, the regional executive committee influenced the concern with the usual means of administrative pressure, censuring gas workers on the pages of the regional newspaper "Tyumen Pravda" (in the column "Departments and Territory") for the irrational management structure of the gas industry, the lack of necessary coordination of industry activities in the region, in particular, for unwillingness to finance the construction of the Tobolsk ? Yuzhny Balyk highway ^{[44, p. 1]}. In the new socio-economic conditions, Gazprom switched to long-term lending, and centralized deductions ceased to be used as a method of implementing infrastructure projects in the agro-industrial sector of the region. The regional executive Committee noted that "the management of the concern (T. Rafikov) has given instructions on the transfer of 10 percent to the development of the agro-industrial complex of the Tyumenttransgaz enterprise, where the main source of financing for construction is a long-term loan." In conclusion, the author of the article wrote that the regional executive committee has repeatedly asked to resolve these issues, and the concern headed by Chernomyrdin evades solving these problems, respectively, "on the basis of the above, the executive committee of the regional SND instructed the territorial administration of Promstroybank to suspend from August 10 this year the transfer of funds from subordinate Gazprom enterprises located in the region ..." ^{[44, p. 1]}. It is curious that the author was not specified in the critical material for the Gazprom concern.

The decline in hydrocarbon prices and the drop in oil and gas production rates had a direct impact on financial flows to the economy of the Tyumen region. In 1988, 394.9 million tons were produced in the northern regions of the region, and in 1989 – 383 million tons. The Regional Committee of the CPSU associated the negative impact on the economic situation in the region in the twelfth five-year plan with objective and subjective reasons. Among the first party authorities included man-made disasters and natural disasters in the Soviet Union (Chernobyl accident, earthquake in Armenia). Among the subjective reasons, a general decrease in the responsibility of directors of enterprises for non-fulfillment of contracts, planned tasks, as well as a rapid decline in labor discipline were mentioned ^{[41, pp. 101-102]}.

In September 1991, a short essay by militia Major Belousov was published in Tyumen Pravda about the hardships of drivers of the Surgut and Nefteyugansk districts who move unfinished sections of the Tobolsk – Yuzhny Balyk highway. For example, an insurmountable obstacle during the rainy season was a section of about 15-20 km in the area of the railway station Kut-Yakh. Therefore, many drivers crossed the railway in unidentified places, or directly went to the railway tracks. On August 3, 1991, the driver of the Tatra car on the Kut-Yah – Yung-Yah stretch tried to run over the canvas. However, the car got stuck, and at that time a freight train was traveling from the south, which could not prevent a collision during emergency braking ^{[45, p. 1]}.

The most incredible story happened in April 1991, when about art. There are more than 200 cars piled up. Their drivers barricaded the railway track with sleepers for safety, stopping the movement of trains for a long time. And they also demanded to allocate several tractors for towing equipment through an impassable area. However, no one provided the equipment. And, just this was taken advantage of by enterprising tractor drivers of the DSU-1 trust "Sibdorstroy". For each towed car, the driver was initially charged a "stolnik", then 200 rubles each. Apparently, they did not disdain alcoholic beverages either. Finally, the joint efforts of the transport police and railway workers managed to "break through" the blockade, but it happened after 8 hours. As a result, 36 trains were delayed on this section, and more than 3 thousand rubles were damaged to the Surgut branch of the railway ^{[45, p. 1]}. In this article, specific departments were not designated as the culprits of the unfinished highway, but it was noted that the Surgut branch of the Sverdlovsk Railway repeatedly appealed to the MPS and the Tyumen Regional Executive Committee.

The long–awaited completion of its construction took place on December 26, 1991, when Sibdorstroy road builders put into permanent operation the last section of the Tobolsk - Yuzhny Balyk highway. The total length of this highway was 470 km, which at that time was the only transport link connecting the KhMAO and YaNAO with the Tyumen Region and other regions of the RSFSR. During the work, the builders prepared about 22 million cubic meters of soil for the roadbed, laid about 1 million tons of asphalt concrete mixture, erected 3 overpasses, 31 bridges and, in addition to the highway itself, built more than 200 km of in-field highways ^{[29, p. 12]}.

Thus, even at the design stage of the Tobolsk–Yuzhny highway, and then during its construction, state-departmental and interdepartmental conflicts arose. The ministries that mastered the ZSNGK represented departmental world-economies that protected the sectoral interests of their production without taking into account the socio-economic significance of the highways being built for the autonomous districts of the Tyumen Region. They were complicated by a network of vertical patron-client relationships of road workers of the Tyumen North within their ministry, as well as very complex horizontal ties with the party-Soviet authorities, who acted as representatives of regional group interests of oil workers and road workers in the highest government authorities: from republican and union ministries to the Councils of Ministers of the RSFSR and the USSR. By the mid-1980s, oilmen sought to optimize part of the costs for the design, construction and repair of ZSNGK highways at the expense of the RSFSR Minavtodor/or through the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR or the Council of Ministers of the USSR. In fact, in 1985, the Ministry of Oil and Gas Industry, with the help of the Tyumen Regional Committee of the CPSU, achieved preferential financing for the construction of a highway without direct capital investments. The lack of a specific mechanism for allocating funds caused dissatisfaction on the part of project organizations and led to contradictions with the contractor. The second group of interests was represented by influential ministries: Mingeology and Mingazprom of the USSR. In fact, they were not interested in participating in the financing of the SMR of the main northern highway, and throughout the 1980s they distanced themselves in every possible way from the problems of its construction. State-departmental and interdepartmental conflicts, intertwined with regional contradictions during its construction, delayed the early opening of land transport links with the growing population of cities and towns of the Tyumen North, where the inability to travel on vacation by private vehicle caused outrage. Symbolic was the completion of the difficult and thorny path of the construction of the Tobolsk–Yuzhny Balyk highway on the day of the termination of the existence of the USSR, and therefore the inclusion of the new highway in the regional network of public roads and the unified transport network of the RSFSR/Of the Russian Federation.

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