The Transcaspian Canal () was a proposed canal to divert the

Amu Darya The Amu Darya ( ),() also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia, which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Ku ...

River from the

Aral Sea The Aral Sea () was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan to its north and Uzbekistan to its south, which began shrinking in the 1960s and had largely dried up into desert by the 2010s. It was in the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakhst ...

and into the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

. It was first proposed by

Tsarist Tsarist autocracy (), also called Tsarism, was an autocracy, a form of absolute monarchy in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire. In it, the Tsar possessed in principle authority and ...

engineers and later considered by

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

officials. Proponents argued that the project would return the Amu Darya into its supposed old bed. Several other similar proposals were made in the early 20th century, including a Kazakh-Turkestan Canal to connect

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

with the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

. The projects were not seriously considered after the late-1920s, when a campaign was launched to ridicule "fantastic" hydraulic projects. In 1928, over a dozen hydraulic engineers operating in Central Asia were tried for mismanaging the irrigation system and "devising intentionally fantastic projects".

Proposals

Following the

Russian conquest of Central Asia In the 16th century, the Tsardom of Russia embarked on a campaign to Territorial evolution of Russia, expand the Russian frontier to the east. This effort continued until the 19th century under the Russian Empire, when the Imperial Russian Army ...

, multiple suggestions were put forward for the construction of a transcaspian canal. Those who supported the project had Orientalist views and believed it would return "the hivanoasis to cultured life".

Glukhovskoi's proposals

Among the initial proposals was one presented by Aleksandr Glukhovskoi in 1868. He argued that such a canal would allow ships sailing down the

Volga The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

to reach

Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...

via

Bukhara Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...

. His proposal was backed by the Ministry of Transport of the Russian empire. Many of Glukhovskoi's original reports and proposals were lost during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

and a 1924 flood. In June 1925, the Water Section of the State Planning Committee discussed the project. Among the plans considered was one made by Gluvoskoi in 1893.

Rizenkampf's proposals

After the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

, Georgii Rizenkampf () proposed to build a 1,600-km (1,500-

verst A verst (; ) is an obsolete Russian unit of length, defined as 500 sazhen. This makes a verst equal to . Plurals and variants In the English language, ''verst'' is singular with the normal plural ''versts''. In Russian, the nominative singul ...

) canal stretching from the upper reaches of the Amu Darya in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

through the

Karakum Desert The Karakum Desert ( ; rus, Каракумы, p=kərɐˈkumɨ), also spelt and (; ), is a desert in Central Asia. The name refers to the shale-rich sand beneath the surface. It occupies about 70 percent, or roughly , of Turkmenistan. The po ...

in Turkmenistan all the way to the Caspian sea. In his 1921 book entitled "Trans-Kaspiiskii kanal (Problema orosheniia Zakaspiia)" (), Rizenkampf argued that the canal would support the growing of cotton in the region. He predicted cotton would become the "fulcrum of life in Transcaspia".

Criticism

By the late 1920s, a media campaign was launched to ridicule large water diversion projects in Central Asia. In February and March 1928, 23 hydraulic engineers and water managers working in Central Asia, including those who had proposed a transcaspian canal, were tried in Tashkent. At the time the ''

London Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fo ...

'' reported that "Until recently the authorities in Moscow boasted of these 'fantastic projects,' but now apparently they need scapegoats to mollify the native population." Historian Maya K. Peterson similarly argued that the trial was aimed to "distract from Soviet failings and find scapegoats".

References

Citations

Sources

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External links

Glukhovskoi's ''Transcaspian Canal'' (1921)
(in Russian) Caspian Sea Macro-engineering Proposed canals