Inscriptions

The Turk-Sib is the first-born giant of Socialist railroad construction in the USSR. The stretch of the Turkestan-Siberia highway extends for one and a half thousand kilometers through incredibly difficult conditions, almost completely in the desert. Turk-Sib is the largest of all railroads constructed in recent times throughout the world.
With the speed of its constuction we have suprassed not only Europe but America too. Turk-Sib was constructed in 4 years - one year and five months less than the originally scheduled time, moreover this success was achieved thanks to enthusiasm, shock work, and the socialist competition of all the collective of hero-construction workers, who managed to overcome all the difficulties of the work.
The grand opening of the Turk-Sib was held on the May day holiday of 1930.
The main economic role of the Turkestan-Siberia railroad stretch lies in the fact that it allows for the possibility of converting Central Asia into a region of solid cotton production, freeing the USSR from needing to import this raw material.
From an underdeveloped, for the most part cotton-producing region, Kazakhstan, thanks to the Turk-Sib, is being converted into a highly-developed region for agriculture and industry (the steel path of the Turk-Sib runs through the regions richest in non-ferrous metal deposits and coal). Vast perspectives have opened up for Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in terms of growth of national proletarian cadres and national culture.

Picture by the artist K. A. Sokolov
LL: OGIZ-IZOGIZ, 1932
LR: [printing information]