Books
MAGNETIC MOUNTAIN

Stephen Kotkin

Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization 

In May of this year we where traveling to the Ural area and on this occasion we where also visiting the city of Magnitogorsk. Founded in 1929 as a „utopian project“ the city was built complete from scratch around a mountain of iron ore. This book is telling about the Komsomolsk (member of the communist youth movement) which went there to built out of nothing not only the steel work (actually still the world largest Iron- and Steelwork) but a complete city (which has now a population of about 450.000). And it is showing the other side of stalinism too: Forced labour (Magnitogorsk was also part of the gulag system), the purge of 1937/38, all the mismanagement and utopian dreams which never came true. If you want to learn more about this time, about the utopian visions of the UdSSR, about hardship and idealism this book is really worth reading...

Synopsis from Amazon

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 story. 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.

BORDERLINES [II]

Day 4

After spending the night in Yekaterinburg we drove along the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains southwards to the plains of the South Ural. After Chelyabinsk the landscape was changing fast…

Long straight roads, leading through the steppe, brought us to the industrial city of Magnetogorsk. Located on the extreme southern extent of the Ural Mountains by the Ural River, it was named for the Magnitnaya Mountain that was almost pure iron.  

Still the largest iron an steel works in Russia: Magnetogorsk

Although the iron ore extraction began already in 1759, the rapid development of Magnitogorsk stood at the forefront of the Five-Year Plans in the 1930s. Members of the Komsomol, the youth division of the Communist Party, constructed the town (which has today about 400.000 inhabitants) and the iron and steel works, which are still today the largest in Russia.

In 1937 the town was declared a closed city (a status that was removed only after 50 years during peristroiska).

Komsomol Monument in Yekaterinburg

The Order of Lenin for Magnetogorsk

The city played an important role during World War II because it supplied much of the steel for the Soviet war machine, earning an "Order of Lenin", the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union. Today, with the depletion  of the substantial local iron-ore reserves, magnetogorsk has to import raw materials.

Day 5

The River Ural, which is dividing Magnetogorsk, is in this part of the country the borderline between Europa and Asia. So when going down to the south we had to swing back and forth the two continents for a few times…

Driving for about two hours through the rural countryside we reached the ancient place of Arkaim.

Arkaim is the center of the socalled "Land of the Cities", within the borders there is a compact group of fortified settlements of the Bronze Age. It is called a "proto-city" which had its own alternative way of development which was different in many aspects from other routes of a civilization. The site is generally dated to the 17th century BC. Earlier dates, up to the 20th century BC, have been proposed.

The Arkaim archaeological site

Since its discovery, Arkaim has attracted public and media attention in Russia, from a broad range of the population, including esoteric, New Age and pseudoscientific organizations. It is said to be the most enigmatic archaeological site within the territory of Russia.  The similarity of latitude, date, and size to Stonehenge made it to a popular place especially on June 21 of every year…