The Baikal-Amur Railroad Mainline Economic and Military Significance.

The Bailkal-Amur Railroad Mainline, which is currently under construction and scheduled for completion in 1983, will run north of Lake Baikal parallel to the Trans-Siberian Railroad eastward to Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Here it will connect via a new bridge over the Amur River to an existing rail line and continue on to the Pacific Ocean, thereby forming a second, shorter rail link between the Pacific and the western part of the Soviet Union. In this paper, the author presents a brief description of this new railroad and th area it will serve and attempts to assess the military and economic factors which motivated its construction. Author