DANUBE-BLACK SEA CANAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00047R000100490006-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 10, 2013
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: August 13, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

NY L4 ItJ
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr2013/05/10 : CIA-RDP82-00047ROO0100490006-0
COUNTRY Rumania
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
SUBJECT Danube-Black Sea Canal
PLACE
ACQUIRED
DATE
ACQUIRED
THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DEFENSE
F 16RE UNITED STATES, WITHIN THE MEANING OF TITLE IS, SECTIONS 793
AND 794, OF THEU. U.N. CODE, AS AMENDED, ITS TRANSMISSION OR RAVE
CATION OF ITS CONTENTS TO OR RECEIPT BY A 13PIALIT PERSON 19
PROHIBITED BY LAW. THE REPRODUCTION CF THIS FORM I9 PROHIBITED.
SOURCE
NO. OF PAGES 2
NO. OF ENCLS.
(LISTED BELOW)
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
In The Danube Black Sea canal was started in late 1948 or early 19149#
It wad to extend from Cerna Voda 20N-2802F,to Midia D.21N-G28141 and was to be finished in 10 years,. Two sluce gates were
planned; one at Cerna Voda, the other at Midiae Nidia was to
replace Constanta as the main Rumanian Black Sea port, with a
harbor twice as large as that of Constanta.
that the canal will not be f ini_shed in twenty years, because only
two excavators were being used; the rest of the work being done
by hand I heard that sand often caves in on the workers,
2. The canal project headquarters were located in Bucharest, and were
known to me as the Danube Commission. The countries which will
use the canal, the USSR, Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia,
and. Austria, 'contributed funds for the project,, The technical.
and administrative_headciiarters were in Constanta on Ovidiu
Square "Constanta"' All participating countries
were represented at headquarters.
3. Free workers, and members of the "Construction Army" (politically 50X1
unreliable draftees-not admitted to the regular Rumanian Army)
were used.-as laborers on the project, in addition to political
prisoners many available prostitutes
in Bucharest (seven truckloads full) were sent to the project 50X1
to work as clerks and cooks. the total number
of workers was between eight and 10 thousand. The free workers
and "Construction Army" lived in barracks in the area. The 50X1
prisoners lived in camps guarded by frontier troops. Mortality
among the prisoners was said to be excessive.
It.
This
was a political prisoners sector about five km from Cerna Voda
and about 50 m from the tracks. The prisoners were working
energetically with shovels, wheelbarrows and trucks, under the
supervision of civilians, on a section about two or three
hundred meters in length,
CLASSIFICATION
CRETE SEC TY INE ORNATION
DISTRIBUTION
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr2013/05/10 : CIA-RDP82-00047R000100490006-0
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr2013/05/10 : CIA-RDP82-00047R000100490006-0
SECRET/SECURITY IIQFORMOTION
50X1
50X1
Engineers on the canal project earned between 30 .and 40
thousand?lei; "Normatori", who tested earth, earned from
12 to 16-thousand lei; trues drivers, diggers, and wheel-
barrow pushers received between 10 and .1k thousand lei per
month.
The project had its own Danube navigational facilities; which 50X1
consisted of four tugs and eight barges.
l this pro ect.will have its own radio transmitting 50X1
facilities.. radio ?perAtors?were.being
sought, at ea am es ranging rrom it) to 25 thousand lei. -
However., none of-the proposed radio stations at Bucharest,
Constanta, Mtdia., Poarta Alba or Cerna Voda.bad been established
-end-
SECRET/SECURITY INFORMATION
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr2013/05/10 : CIA-RDP82-00047R000100490006-0