ISBN: 9780822941668

The Turkestano-Siberian Railroad, or Turksib, was one of the great construction projects of the Soviet Union’ s First Five-Year Plan. As the major icon to ending the economic "… Mehr…

The Turkestano-Siberian Railroad, or Turksib, was one of the great construction projects of the Soviet Union’ s First Five-Year Plan. As the major icon to ending the economic " backwardness" of the USSR’ s minority republics, it stood apart from similar efforts as one of the most potent metaphors for the creation of a unified socialist nation. Built between December 1926 and January 1931 by nearly 50,000 workers and at a cost of more 161 million rubles, Turksib embodied the Bolsheviks’ commitment to end ethnic inequality and promote cultural revolution in one the far-flung corners of the old Tsarist Empire, Kazakhstan. Trumpeted as the " forge of the Kazakh proletariat, " the railroad was to create a native working class, bringing not only trains to the steppes, but also the Revolution. In the first in-depth study of this grand project, Matthew Payne explores the transformation of its builders in Turksib’ s crucible of class war, race riots, state purges, and the brutal struggle of everyday life. In the battle for the souls of the nation’ s engineers, as well as the racial and ethnic conflicts that swirled, far from Moscow, around Stalin’ s vast campaign of industrialization, he finds a microcosm of the early Soviet Union. Media >, [PU: University of Pittsburgh Press]<