Magnetic Mountain

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. Download Magnetic Mountain – kino-fada.fr This is a phenomenal work It deservesthan 5 stars I read this book again while I was doing research on Japanese fascism in 1930s, and it gave me great insight on the problem of agency of ordinary people under a totalitarian state I really liked the way in which Kotkin deploys the Foucauldian subjectivity analysis yet goes beyond and shows that the state and the people were actually not playing the same game of indoctrination vs resistance Stalinism was a way of life according This is a phenomenal work It deservesthan 5 stars I read this book again while I was doing research on Japanese fascism in 1930s, and it gave me great insight on the problem of agency of ordinary people under a totalitarian state I really liked the w...A detailed look at how one windswept mountain of ore in the freezing steppe was transformed into the largest metallurgical complex in the nascent Soviet Union., ,, ,, .Monumental in every sense of the word An amazing book, it redefines Stalinism in a subtle and penetrating way The narrative arch is great, and the chapters are all gripping.In this book Stephen Kotkin does what might seem impossible He immerses the reader in the complete world of a Stalinist boomtown in the 1930s The people in the new city of Magnitogorsk do not come off as Bolshevik caricatures or Soviet myrmidons, but as real humans facing normal and abnormal problems with all the intelligence and grace they can muster Taking advantage of the full range of published and unpublished Soviet sources, he details what everyday life looked like to people living unde In this book Stephen Kotkin does what might seem impossible He immerses the reader in the complete world of a Stalinist boomtown in the 1930s The people in the new city of Magnitogorsk do not come off as Bolshevik caricatures or Soviet myrmidons, but as real humans facing normal and abnormal problems with all the intelligence and grace they can muster Taking advantage of the full range of published and unpublished Soviet sources, he details what everyday life looked like to people living under one of the most oppressive dictatorships known to man.Kotkin does not dismiss the horrors of Stalinism, but he does argue with the totalitarian interpretation of it, since he shows the innumerable ways individuals escaped its totalizing grasp For instance, he shows how much of the economy was really a shadow economy, where purloined factory parts or cloth went to either independently fulfill the impossible plans of Moscow or into private producti...A highly detailed yet broadly conceived study of Magnitogorsk, a Soviet steel complex and city created on the steppes of Russia as both a model socialist community and an industrial powerhouse Kotkin s incredibly thorough research allows him to tell the story of Magnitogorsk from both above as it was planned, designed, and intended and from below how the actual workers and citizens coped with life Kotkin uses the local ...This book made me want to stab myself in the eye with a sewing needle Kotkin spent 300 some pages saying what he could have said in 100 it s thick with repetition and half of the book was also endnotes 300 pagesyes, you read right His mai...A fascinating text that illustrates the project of building a socialist society under Stalinist terms, and how this process was highly experimental and often contradictory The text suffers from some redundancy, especially in the...The book takes the building of Magnitogorsk, an industrial city built from scratch, as a way to show how people learned to speak Bolshevik and thus both survive within and use the regime thus it complicates hugely the usual top down view of the Soviet Union.This book is what happens when you are one of the first historians allowed into the archives after the fall of the iron curtain Likely a very interesting read, but I lacked the time to really get into it.

• English
• 15 January 2017
Stephen Kotkin
• Paperback
• 639 pages
• 0520208234
• Stephen Kotkin
• Magnetic Mountain