Magnetic mountain : Stalinism as a civilization / Stephen Kotkin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kotkin, Stephen.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communism--Soviet Union--Case studies.

Communism.

Magnitogorsk (Russia)--History.

Magnitogorsk (Russia).

Soviet Union--Politics and government--1917-1936.

Soviet Union.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxvi, 639 pages)

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, 1997, c1995.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This study is the first of its kind: a street-level inside account of what Stalinism meant to the masses of ordinary people who lived it. Stephen Kotkin was the first American in 45 years to be allowed into Magnitogorsk, a city built in response to Stalin's decision to transform the predominantly agricultural nation into a "country of metal." With unique access to previously untapped archives and interviews, Kotkin forges a vivid and compelling account of the impact of industrialization on a single urban community. Kotkin argues that Stalinism offered itself as an opportunity for enlightenment. The utopia it proffered, socialism, would be a new civilization based on the repudiation of capitalism. The extent to which the citizenry participated in this scheme and the relationship of the state's ambitions to the dreams of ordinary people form the substance of this fascinating story. Kotkin tells it deftly, with a remarkable understanding of the social and political system, as well as a keen instinct for the details of everyday life. Kotkin depicts a whole range of life: from the blast furnace workers who labored in the enormous iron and steel plant, to the families who struggled with the shortage of housing and services. Thematically organized and closely focused, Magnetic Mountain signals the beginning of a new stage in the writing of Soviet social history.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Illustrations and Tables

Acknowledgments

USSR Organizational Structure, 1930's

Note on Translation

Introduction: Understanding the Russian Revolution

Introduction

1. On the March for Metal

2. Peopling a Shock Construction Site

3. The Idiocy of Urban Life

4. Living Space and the Stranger's Gaze

5. Speaking Bolshevik

6. Bread and a Circus

7. Dizzy with Success

Afterword: Stalinism as a Civilization

Note on Sources

Notes

Select Bibliography

Photograph Credits

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 599-608) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9786613520258

9781280080784

1280080787

9780520918856

0520918851

9780585363561

0585363560

OCLC:

47010138