The historical and journalistic essay "The Way to the North" examines the issues of forced labor and the fate of prisoners of war of the First World War (soldiers and officers of the German and Austro-Hungarian armies) during the construction of the Murmansk Railway 1915-1918. For the first time, extensive archival material is involved in scientific circulation, mainly from the funds of the National Archive of the Republic of Karelia. The essay will be of interest to university teachers, teachers, students and schoolchildren, local historians, citizens of European countries participating in the First World War, interested in the fate of their ancestors who died on the construction of the northernmost railway at the beginning of the 20th century.