Engineer M. A. Ruffel

The Reconstruction of Stalinogorsk

From the Erisman Central Sanitary Institute

Built during the Stalinist five-year plans, Stalinogorsk could rightly take pride in its fine buildings and the quality of its public amenities. Housing complexes equipped with all the latest sanitary and technical installations had been constructed, along with palace-theaters, cinemas, schools, hospitals, bathhouses, laundries, and other facilities. The city received good-quality water from two water-supply systems fed by artesian water from the Upinsky aquifer, one serving the northern, or factory, district and the other the southern district, or socialist town. All institutions and enterprises and the overwhelming majority of residential buildings had indoor water supply and sewerage.

The brief occupation by Hitler’s plundering army at the end of 1941 caused extensive destruction to Stalinogorsk’s municipal services. Administrative buildings, theaters, some schools, the hospital, and the largest housing complexes were either completely or extensively destroyed and partly burned. Since the buildings were not heated during the occupation, and the occupiers naturally gave no thought to draining the water, all the heating, water-supply, and sewerage systems froze and were put out of service. The external water and sewer networks were also extensively damaged by the fascist barbarians. The pumping stations were partly flooded and partly frozen. The sewage treatment facilities were destroyed, and their wooden components burned. Laboratory equipment was looted. The bathhouses and laundry were badly damaged. The failure of the sewerage system and the cessation of refuse collection inevitably affected sanitary conditions throughout the city. Not only were the surrounding courtyards contaminated, but so were all the houses that had been destroyed or partially damaged. As a result, both parts of the city fell into an extremely unsanitary condition during the occupation.

Local workers who returned with our glorious Red Army energetically set about restoring municipal services. Boiler houses, bathhouses, the laundry, the electrical substation, and barbershops are now operating. Some of the water-supply pumping stations have been repaired and put back into operation, and the external network has been partially restored. The city’s residents, as well as municipal trade institutions and enterprises, are already receiving water through outdoor hydrants. Measures are being taken to restore the rest of the water-supply system and the domestic sewage facilities, including pumping stations, pipelines, the external network, and treatment facilities.

To provide practical assistance in restoring municipal services, the People’s Commissariat of Municipal Services of the RSFSR and the Committee for Scientific and Technical Assistance in Restoring Facilities Destroyed by the German Occupiers, established under VSNITO, sent a team of specialists to Stalinogorsk in February. After a technical meeting on site, at which the overall extent of the damage to the city’s infrastructure was established, the team directly surveyed the destroyed facilities, determined the nature and extent of the damage, and outlined the measures needed to restore facilities requiring urgent and immediate attention. At the same time, team members provided practical assistance to local workers, both through individual advice and by preparing a preliminary design for equipping a sanitary inspection and disinfection station at the bathhouse in the southern district.

…of the city and the acceptance in Ryazan of an electric motor to replace the one that had failed at the pumping station.

A plan has been adopted for urgent and priority work to restore the city’s municipal services: 1) urgently organize and establish the operation of the city fire brigade and the protection of the city; 2) restore fire hydrants and public water standpipes; 3) adapt part of the ground floor of the socialist city’s bathhouse for use as a sanitary processing station and disinfection chamber; 4) convert one of the residential buildings into a hotel to replace the one destroyed; 5) repair breaches in residential buildings and restore the roof battens; 6) urgently clean all vacant premises and residential buildings, board up the doors, and cover the window frames with oiled paper.

For the restoration of the water supply and sewerage systems, the following measures are planned: 1) restore the external sewer network and the pumping stations in the southern district and pumping station No. 1 in the northern district by April 1; 2) complete the restoration of the water supply system and the remaining sewerage and treatment facilities by May 1; postpone restoration of the biofilters at the northern district’s treatment facilities until 1943; 3) restore the second water main in the southern district by April 1 to prevent possible interruptions in the water supply; 4) complete construction and install the equipment for pumping station No. 3 in the northern district in a new brick building, because the old wooden building is unreliable and expenditure on its repair would be inadvisable; 5) begin in the near future to investigate new sources of water and prepare a plan to expand the northern district’s water supply system; 6) establish sanitary protection zones around the water supply systems of the southern and northern districts.

The work already begun has shown that these measures can and will be completed quickly.

Besides the water supply and sewerage systems, the general sanitary condition of the city is no less important to its overall sanitary well-being; much remains to be done in this respect. The most urgent and vigorous measures must be taken to clean the city, which has been contaminated by the fascist occupiers. To assist the municipal services department’s sanitation office, plans have been made to mobilize all residents free from work—housewives and young people.

Medical and sanitation workers bear a major responsibility in this regard. Sanitation workers must conduct extensive educational and advocacy work among the population. In this endeavor, all medical workers can provide substantial assistance to the sanitary inspectorate.

Stalinogorsk, like other Soviet cities liberated from temporary occupation, can and must once again become a flourishing, clean, and healthy city—a truly socialist city.