The BAM: Russia's Unknown Trans-Siberian Train🇷🇺

these carriages are carrying the mineral  wealth of eastern siberia westwards towards   moscow and further afield and that is made  possible for one reason the bam railway in the 1970s with the soviet economy stagnating  brezhnev wanted to open up the vast untapped   wealth of eastern siberia to do so he had to  build a railway line across that vast land   it was the greatest engineering project of  the 20th century it was known as the balm   the baikal amorska mainline today we're  going to take a journey across it join me behind me next to taisha railway station is an  old tower that was built in 1906 before the soviet   revolution and this is in fact the last piece of  pre-revolutionary architecture we're going to see   for the remainder of our trip on the barn  because everything we're going to see the   the infrastructure the railway stations the  hotels the shops everything was built for the bomb   in the 70s and the 80s before  that there was nothing but forest to bring luck onto our journey we're going  to rub old golden lenin's head here in thai   bring me luck lenin cheers trains don't stop for long on the bomb so you have  to jump on as soon as he gets here 22 carriage 22. special oh lovely old school russian train the dream over there you can see the trans-siberian main  line branching away to the right it's heading   south south to irkutsk south of lake bakal  we're now directing off in this direction   to the north of the lake and across the  middle of siberia our first stop tomorrow   morning will be severe by cask northern  baikal that means bye-bye trans-siberian oh bye-bye trans-siberian i can't emphasize and reiterate enough just  what an engineering marvel the balm railway is   every mountain we pass through had to be  tunneled every river we cross had to be   bridged every forest had to be hacked down and  tracks laid for hundreds and hundreds of miles   the soviet governments had billions  of rubles building the farm railway   and what was supposed to enrich the  soviet economy almost bankrupted it we're just passing by so many abandoned  cranes and bulldozers and trucks and   all this stuff that was built or  brought here to build the bad railway   and then soon afterwards just abandoned  no longer needed wow this is going to be   one of the most fascinating trips i've  ever taken in the former soviet union wow on the side of people's houses  in the villages are like bear skins   just drying on the side of wooden  houses oh and here's our cleaner wow gotta keep the band tidy we've stopped off in a town called vegeta   let's buy some doshirak red if they've got some  in this shop they better bloody have the bed wow what a great shop here in old  vivirovka or wherever he's called   we've got doshirak soviet lemonade look how cosy it looks little station building  warm light inside potted plants snow on the ground   like a christmas scene if only there wasn't  a russian dude snoring in the opposite bank this guy's nasal cavities are a real piece of work  hasn't stopped snoring since he got on the train now two o'clock in the morning  i've not had a minute sleep yet oh 4 40 in the morning minus five but i'm wanting  to come out here just to escape that bloody snorer   let's have a look at the old railway station  here in the town of what i think is called   lena judging by what's written on the side of the  building lena because this town obviously stands   on the river leona a river that flows from  lake baikal all the way up to the arctic sea   and now into that ocean anyway let's  see what's inside the railway station check out the snow here we have some fried pill mini a  real food of the north siberian food what we gonna do about this dude in our coupe the  fact that he's slightly snoring it's keeping me   awake that's not a major problem the problem is  when we get to subverted by cows tomorrow morning   how am i going to feel if i'm shattered that's all  i'm worried about anyway let's eat some peel many   jump back on the train hopefully fall asleep well  before we jump back on the train i thought we'll   have a quick look outside the front the station  and look what i've seen there's a little monument   to the builders of the bam railway celebrating  45 years and here they are three of them   and over here i don't know if you can see this  in the dark oh it's colt there's a statue of   some dude some dude who probably discovered this  part of siberia for the russian imperial crown   mr evanu gaokinu ivanu gaokinu  there he is in full glory well that was probably the worst bloody  night of my life thanks to old matey boy   here snoring all night but um anyway check out  the view how beautiful it is here in siberia   look at it and there's the  culprit who kept me up all night so i see one butcher let's go and check this town out what a night check out old soviet soviet severe bay calse railway station god i'm  barely awake lads i'm barely awake where's the   restroom upstairs or down here down here wow let's  see what the hotel rooms look like here in savaira   by carlton i've never stayed in a railway station  before it might be the way forward in the future foreign okay okay in the lovely hotel room of several  bay castle railway station i'm going to   sleep for a few hours boys i'll um see you  later probably on the shores of lake vaquel well i think we've just discovered the ultimate  trans-siberian travel hack why stay in hotels when   we can stay in flipping soviet railway stations  for a tenor a night and what a soviet railway   station is let me tell you about it look at it box  all this railway station like the rest of the town   here surveyed by cars was built by the leningrad  com somole and it's meant to represent a big sail   look at the sail and there's the mast i mean it  doesn't look much like a sail to me but anyway   because of lake baikal that's why they built  a big kind of sailing ship and there it is guys you know in england when you buy a pair of  boots or a jacket and it says you can wear it to   minus five we're here in old several bay cows when  you advertise a pair of shoes it says you can wear   it to minus 60 degrees centigrade minus bloody  60 degrees that's what life is like on the bam   wow and check out this street name i'm  just loving old bam adventures check it out this road outside the railway station  is called prospect 60 years of the ussr wow don't know what to say   i've got that fuzzy feeling inside of me again  that head in some petersburg railway station what a town is um who arrived here in the bam days when they were  building the bam this town was built in the 70s so   when you meet someone you can always say  when did you move here because there was   pretty much no one born here unless you're well  i suppose religion a little bit younger than me i want to show you this sign up  here that says prospect leningradski   this is the main street that runs through  severe bay cal so normally the main street in a   russian city or a former soviet city would  be called kirov or lenin communism but not   here and that's because this town was built as  i said before by people from leningrad all the   towns along the barn were built by different  nationalities there were towns built by uzbeks   towns built by tajiks towns like this one built  by people from leningrad and all the towns have   their own individual their own individual little  bit of flavor and little architectural motifs when   you go to a town built by the estonians there'll  be little things there that remind you of estonia this is the old shopping  center of savara bay kaosk   the old soviet shopping center  it's probably a lot different now foreign the restaurant lending grad there's a sign  up there that says restaurant men in grad hello but the lady the old babushka  old publisher the babushka she said   to me those closed down long ago but it  used to be delicious things have changed   now several bakehouse but everything used to be  called leningrad restaurants streets buildings   here in front of palace of culture we've got a  statue that says baam dairoga road of friendship   and here you've got people from the different  republics you've got an obvious and obviously   asian man maybe a caucasian lady and a couple  of russians and that's because as i said before   people came from all over the former soviet union  all the republics and other communist countries   east germany hungary to build the ban railway  bringing all these people together bam road of   friendship and it's still a friendly place let's  go and check out the palace of culture called   jelez nadaroznik the railway worker everything's  bloody bam everything's bloody bam in this part   of the world isn't it anyway let's go and see if  they'll let us inside have a little look around wow look at this our beretta wow i don't think there's any country  in the world that likes a palm tree   quite like the russians or probably the soviets royally priests is wow check this place out the old soviet arboretum  here in severe bay coast wow even got a pond   well full of turtles wait foreign back on the mean streets of sevilla  bakalsk right then i think it's time we um   go down to lake baikal itself and check it out well guys check it out the wondrousness  that is lake bay cal check it out this huge   inland sea in a sense that stretches all  the way down almost to mongolia check it out   let's go down to the water's  edge and have a closer look well apparently doing that means  i'm going to live to a ripe old age   even longer than i would have lived if i take  an old versili's hundred-year-old elixir of   life from babushka's recipes anyway this is lake  baikal and what a bloody stunning place it is   wow russia has just got some of the most  beautiful scenery looking at the mountains   wherever they are in the distance whatever  range that is wow and it's so clean the water being here on the shores of bacal the greatest  of the great lakes it makes all the hardships   of travel on the trans-siberian worth it the  snoring companions the lack of decent food   the change in time zones are huge distances  it's all worth it when you see a place like this is foreign is well our train further east is leaving in about  10 minutes so we've got just enough time for a   little pasta meal and a glass of compote here  in the railway station stolovaya and this meal   because i know some of you like to know the  prices of things came to a grand total of 75   rubles which is 75 pence so um yeah maybe not the  greatest culinary meal but um one of the cheapest foreign i get the feeling there's going to be  some kids keeping me awake at night bye-bye siberia because he's the coupe compartments on the bam are just  full of miners men who have traveled from   western russian towns to come here to  work underground for a month or two   exploiting the gold the diamonds the coal the  copper the mineral wealth of the ban region the bomb however wasn't only built to exploit  the riches of eastern siberia it was also built   to protect the nation the soviet union in  the 1960s china and the soviet union fell   out which led to in 1969 a brief border war  however that border war exposed how vulnerable   the trans-siberian was to being  cut off by an invasion from china   thus cutting off the eastern seaboard and hence  the soviet government decided to build a railway   along which they could move troops and  weapons in the event of an invasion   safer from the reaches of the chinese  communist army and hence they built the bomb well we've arrived for five minutes in novi this town was built 1976 by the latvian consumer  and over there we've got latvian script on that   tower and we've got houses that are a little  bit like latvian houses with the wooden roofs   the wooden balconies wow we're in a  little piece of latvia here in siberia   and check out behind the train the amazing  geography i don't know if you can pick it up or   not but the mountains in the distance look at them  a huge mountain range must be 2 000 meters plus   wow what a beautiful setting old novi or oyan is here is are you latvian dogs no alrighty is the enjoyment that you have on any train journey  in russia depends in large part on how nice your   private nietzsche are providing is the lady  carriage attendant she'll give you your bedding   make you cups of tea and i had the best two on  the entirety of the barn because they just gave me   as a present this russian railway glass and  holder so from now on i'm only drinking my   tea on this journey from this balm railway  glass maybe some beer too at some stage foreign welcome to tinder capital of  the bomb built by moscowites come on tinder railway station don't let me down well once again we've discovered that the railway  station rooms are the way forward 15 quid bargain before we go exploring the town i  want to show you these magnificent   oil paintings that tell the story of how tinder  was built check this out you can see the first   people that arrived with their luggage when it  was just forest and nothing else in their tents the original geologists and engineers crossing  rivers with their horses and their bags wow this   amazing amazing railway station you get art you  get culture and a railway station look at this   one these are all the bumps in their families  celebrating the completion look it up there beautiful tinder let's hope so  anyway let's walk up to the center   and see what the muscovites managed  to build here so far from home let's check our soviet library built by moscowites is is let's see what the kids of this town are reading  in this children's library this one oh first love   well we're in the town of tinder so i suppose  um yeah it's fitting saucy little devils what i've stumbled upon the bam wall of hotties  here in the town of tinder let's do some swiping well here we go then tinder in tinder  now you three percent you can join in too   let's see we've got wow hello elena definite  swipe right what a hottie oh crikey look at   these couple of alexanders crikey couple  of heartbreakers in the town of tinder   oh nina nina's got a sparkle in her eye look  at her i've got a thing for nina swipe right right any of you ladies want to take on sergey   looks like he'd be fun on a date huh  oh and here we have elyessa swipe right oh yekaterina where have you  been all my life swipe right well that brings our time on the bam to an end  there's nothing left to do but to raise our   railway cup in a toast to the  builders of the baikal amur   mainline because they weren't just  legends they were soviet legends

Channel: bald and bankrupt

Views: 3,777,104

Keywords: Russia, BAM railway, Siberia, USSR, Soviet Union, bald and bankrupt, Communism

Id: f2d7kJPimyE

Length: 34min 57sec (2097 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 26 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/RobRoy2350]

I would have preferred the southern route but I'm sure his choice will be fun and interesting none the less. Let's Go!

[u/jacobeekman]

Kind of disappointed he went north, was hoping he would take the more Asian route through the Mongolic territories.

[u/[deleted]]

My god Baikal is absolutely stunning