The Soviet Union was heavily dependent on rail transport, not least during the Russian Civil War and World War II, but also for industrialization according to the five-year plans.

The 1,524 mm broad gauge Salekhard–Igarka Railway, is an incomplete railway in northern Siberia. The railway was a project of the Soviet Gulag system that took place from 1947 until Stalin's death in 1953. Construction was coordinated via two separate Gulag projects, the 501 Railway beginning on the River Ob and 503 Railway beginning on the River Yenisey, part of a grand design of Joseph Stalin to span a railway across northern Siberia to reach the Soviet Union's easternmost territories.