During the post World War I era, many European countries were rebuilding, and the Soviet Union saw this as a chance to catch up. The Soviet Union, under Joseph Stalin’s rule, implemented the five-year plan as strategy for rapid industrialization (Hunt, 846). A great example of Stalin’s five-year plan was the construction of Magnitogorsk, a city based around a massive factory. This construction flawlessly captured Stalin’s goals for progression, efficiency, and conquering nature (back cover). The novel Time, Forward! took place in 1932 and described, in detail, the construction of Magnitogorsk. This novel hinted at the spirit of the times. In the novel, one of the engineers, Margulies, decided to push concrete pouring to its limits. His rival, assistant chief of construction, Nalbandov wanted the downfall of Margulies, and decided to write him up. Nalbandov thought of two charges. The first was that Margulies recklessly sacrificed the quality of the cement for more cement production; this recklessness went against the current scientific understanding of concrete, and the quality would not suffice. The second would show Margulies going against Soviet policies of increasing tempos, as he did not allow the next shift to pour an even larger amount of concrete (314). The second charge was less scientific, but it was more in the spirit of the times because those who hindered progress should be punished. One may wonder, what was the spirit of the times? When Joseph Stalin came into power, he instilled in the public sphere that the Soviet Union would no longer accept backwardness (Hunt, 846). The spirit of the times was all about progress, efficiency, and conquering nature; this spirit is what pushed the Soviet Union away form their backw... ... middle of paper ... ...amble against nature paid off that winter, and the dam was completed; technique conquered nature (183). Politically Margulies’s idea once again embodied the spirit of the times, he conquered nature for the benefit of the Soviet Union; Stalin would be proud of Margulies’s innovation. Given these points, the spirit of the times was all about progress, efficiency, and conquering nature. The Soviet Union, led by Joseph Stalin, wanted to rid itself of backwardness and did that in many ways. The city of Magnitogorsk embodied the spirit in ways including: the rapid creation of the city, record breaking production of cement within the city, creating new time efficient cement creation processes, and conquering nature in the dead of winter. This city was a success for Stalin because it embodied the spirit of the times to create a more efficient and progressive Soviet Union.
He goes with some other workers to a state run farm outside of Magnitogorsk to help repair tractors he remarks, “everything, in fact, had been thought of, he said, 'except good land and men to work it'.”7 This was the issue with Stalin's “revolution from above” be built these grand cities that were essentially just large plants like Magnitogorsk, but the people lived in horrible conditions, the collectivized farms that were meant to support the food supply for the workers of Magnitogorsk had bad land and nobody to work to the farms. In theory Stalin's plans could work, but the people, the land, the infrastructure could not feasibly attain the end result that was needed, it just wasn’t possible. For Stalin's plans to have worked he needed to be in the right place and the Soviet Union, and the unforgiving landscape just was not it. Things got so bad that Scott writes, “ the new Bolshevik government sent inspectors to every village to look for hoarded bread.”8 Scott writes, “ during the early thirties the main energies of the Soviet Union went into construction. New plants, mines, whole industries, sprang up all over the country” but he also recalls, “the new aggregates failed to work normally.
Pouring concrete does not seem to be an important job to most people, and writing an entire book about pouring concrete also seems banal. But if you look at the underlying social commentary of a nation going from the old Imperial Russia, to the new Soviet Union, it speaks to the power of people coming together to achieve a single goal. The Book Time, Forward! by Valentine Kataev shows how people from all over Russia came together to become the people of the Soviet Union. Stalin used his first five year plan to unify the people to work toward a single goal of updating Russia, and making her a world power. Kataevs book Time, Forward! shows unity through a concrete pouring competition, and the people of the Soviet Union swiftly move forward
Time, Forward! Is set during the middle of Stalin’s first five year plan. The entire novel spans a 24 hour period and takes place on a construction site that mixes and pours concrete. The novel centers on a shock crew that specializes in mixing concrete and their attempt to break a world record for most concrete poured in a single day. Through out the story these proletarian worker have to over come many obstacles in order to achieve the impossible. In the end the workers achieve this great feat only to find out that another crew had broken their record the very next day. There are multiple examples of socialist realism that can be found in the book. One of the more prominent examples from the book is when Marguiles initially finds out that the concrete pouring record was broken he immediately starts to formulate a plan to set a new record. Like stated earlier one of the main aspects of socialist realism is it promotes to the party policy and is relatable to the working class. During this time period there was a great emphasis put on being as productive as possible. At times manager would go to drastic measures to accomplish quotas set by the government. Sometimes going as far as putting sawdust in dough to substitute for the lack of flour they needed to bake bread. If the novel were to show factory works cutting corners it would have
Stalin’s hunger for power and paranoia impacted the Soviet society severely, having devastating effects on the Communist Party, leaving it weak and shattering the framework of the party, the people of Russia, by stunting the growth of technology and progress through the purges of many educated civilians, as well as affecting The Red Army, a powerful military depleted of it’s force. The impact of the purges, ‘show trials’ and the Terror on Soviet society were rigorously negative. By purging all his challengers and opponents, Stalin created a blanket of fear over the whole society, and therefore, was able to stay in power, creating an empire that he could find more dependable.
According to Medvedev, Joseph Stalin’s leadership style was one that was molded from his need to control the situation and paranoia. Stalin did rely on his close network of political allies to effectively rule, but decisions that could affect the U.S.S.R must be authorized by him and no other person. (Medvedev 115) This made party members very nervous and also very repla...
Kronstadt deserves special attention for several reasons. The workers, soldiers and sailors at Kronstadt used the Revolution to build "a bustling, self-governing, egalitarian and highly politicized Soviet democracy, the like of which had not been seen in Europe since the days of the Paris Commune."3 This was the great promise of Kronstadt, which Trotsky praised as "the pride and glory of the Russian Revolution."4 Nowhere in Russia, however, was the failure of the revolution so dramatically illustrated as at Kronstadt. After the Bolsheviks consolidated their control of the base in mid-1918, Kronstadt made one last "desperate attempt to restore and reactivate its radical Soviet democracy."5 This...
For instance, in “Industrialization of the Country,” written by Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin discussed the need for Russia to industrialize in order to compete with the rising, surrounding nations of the world such as Germany, France, England, and the U.S. Stalin believed that Russia must do whatever it takes, even if it meant going to war, to make sure Russia did not fall too far behind the other world powers, both technologically and economically, in the race for industrialization; he believed that doing so would result in a return to capitalism for Russia. He believed that winning the industrialization race was the final missing piece to the puzzle that could propel socialism towards its victory in Russia (Stalin, p. 331). In order to accelerate the industrialization process, Stalin created a Five-Year Plan in 1928, which involved the collectivization of agriculture, a policy in which three to five percent of the wealthiest farmers were either killed, sent to labor camps or sent for resettlement on inferior soils (PWH, p.
The external conflict of nature against man never becomes resolved, as nature ends the man and his goals. For example, the severe cold weather prevented the man fro...
“Modern man does not experience himself as a part of nature but as an outside force destined to dominate and conquer it. He even talks of a battle with nature, forgetting that if he won the battle he would find himself on the losing side” (E.F. Schumacher, 1974).
In the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, there are many themes, symbols, and motifs that are found throughout the novel. For my journal response, I have chosen to discuss nature as a prevalent symbol in the book. The main character, Montag, lives in a society where technology is overwhelmingly popular, and nature is regarded as an unpredictable variable that should be avoided. Technology is used to repress the citizens, but the oppression is disguised as entertainment, like the TV parlour. On the opposite end of the spectrum, nature is viewed as boring and dull, but it is a way to escape the brainwashing that technology brings. People who enjoy nature are deemed insane and are forced to go into therapy. Clarisse says “My psychiatrist wants to know why I go out and hike around in the forests and watch the birds and collect butterflies,” (Bradbury 23) which shows she is a threat to the control that the government has put upon the people by enjoying nature.
Lenin led the path to communism but died in 1924 of typhus. In 1929, Stalin took absolute power of Russia, later becoming the U.S.S.R or the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin had complete totalitarian control of Russia, making it a world superpower by industrializing fast. Joseph Stalin ultimately did more good in Russia/U.S.S.R than harm because of his economic technique of industrializing the country in a short time and his politically stable control of the U.S.S.R although he murdered many for the expansion of the country. The main strategy that Joseph Stalin used to make the U.S.S.R powerful was by speeding up the industrialization.
Joseph Stalin started a sequence of five-year plans in the 1920’s planned to change the Soviet Union from a society filled with peasants into an industrialized soc...
Nature is tremendously beautiful in all of its glories and it has unequivocal power to do anything that it wishes. Mary Shelley explores the strength of nature through her horror novel, Frankenstein. Negative effects are introduced throughout her novel that are the result of a catalytic event in the life of Victor Frankenstein. His witnessing of a lightning strike at the age of 15 turned him to science and nature which powered his ambitious life and led to the destruction of it.
Stalins rise as a dictator over the USSR in 1929, was a struggle for power. It was set by Lenin, in his testament, that Stalin was not to takeover control as the party leader, and to be removed from his position as General Secretary, as Stalin in Lenins eyes had lack of loyalty, tolerance, and politeness. However, different factors, such as Lenins funeral, Stalins position as General Secretary and the rise of bureaucracy, and Stalins relationship to Kamenev and Zinoviev, made it possible for Stalin to become the undisputed leader over the USSR in 1929. This essay will discuss the methods and the conditions, which helped Joseph Stalin rise to power.
One of the main reasons that Stalin stayed in power was by implementing modernity into a society that had previously been stuck in a traditionalized environment. Fitzpatrick describes how Stalin changed peoples lives in the Soviet Union by advancing there means of production to bring them up to speed with the rest of the western world. Stalin's production of more factories led to the increase in the work force. Along with the increase in size, the work force became more diversified with the addition of women.