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Building Stalinism: The Moscow Canal and the Creation of Soviet Space
Today the 80-mile-long Moscow Canal is a source of leisure for Muscovites, a conduit for tourists and provides the city with more than 60% of its potable water. Yet the past looms heavy over these quotidian the canal was built by Gulag inmates at the height of Stalinism and thousands died in the process.
In this wide-ranging book, Cynthia Ruder argues that the construction of the canal physically manifests Stalinist ideology and that the vertical, horizontal, underwater, ideological, artistic and metaphorical spaces created by it resonate with the desire of the state to dominate all space within and outside the Soviet Union. Ruder draws on theoretical constructs from cultural geography and spatial studies to interpret and contextualise a variety of structural and cultural products dedicated to, and in praise of, this signature Stalinist construction project. Approached through an extensive range of archival sources, personal interviews and contemporary documentary materials these include a diverse body of artefacts - from waterways, structures, paintings, sculptures, literary and documentary works, and the Gulag itself. Building Stalinism concludes by analysing current efforts to reclaim the legacy of the canal as a memorial space that ensures that those who suffered and died building it are remembered.
This is essential reading for all scholars working on the all-pervasive nature of Stalinism and its complex afterlife in Russia today.
In this wide-ranging book, Cynthia Ruder argues that the construction of the canal physically manifests Stalinist ideology and that the vertical, horizontal, underwater, ideological, artistic and metaphorical spaces created by it resonate with the desire of the state to dominate all space within and outside the Soviet Union. Ruder draws on theoretical constructs from cultural geography and spatial studies to interpret and contextualise a variety of structural and cultural products dedicated to, and in praise of, this signature Stalinist construction project. Approached through an extensive range of archival sources, personal interviews and contemporary documentary materials these include a diverse body of artefacts - from waterways, structures, paintings, sculptures, literary and documentary works, and the Gulag itself. Building Stalinism concludes by analysing current efforts to reclaim the legacy of the canal as a memorial space that ensures that those who suffered and died building it are remembered.
This is essential reading for all scholars working on the all-pervasive nature of Stalinism and its complex afterlife in Russia today.
352 pages, Hardcover
Published March 30, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 30, 2023
Building an ideology with help of not only architectural edifices but also art is the most evident application of autocratic regimes of 30’s. I believe that those times’ efforts of transformation of people on the way of which they think the best is depending on with their idealism. That strict decisiveness showed the good and bad results through time until today.
Although the book uses an expression that these attitudes in a negative way, rightly, nothing makes these soviet waterway system unsuccessful. Although they violate inmates’ human rights and change nature deeply, they make a Soviet empire that can reach their ruling areas and for from sea districts which is very vital to achieve to be able to develop or exploit. Just as once upon a times’ Roman Empire (to mention that Moscow called the third/fourth Rome after original one and Istanbul is important here just to discover the similarities of empires).
Especially, the conclusion part of the book becomes more provocative by concentrating on gulags. The labourship sources could be supplied, unfortunately, by this way in those days poverish countries.
As an important note, and a historical fault of author, i should mention that Atatürk Dam, in the South-east region of Modern Turkey which supplies water Iraq and Syria was not built during Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s tenure. It is a part of a GAP project and buit in 1980-1990’s.
Although the book uses an expression that these attitudes in a negative way, rightly, nothing makes these soviet waterway system unsuccessful. Although they violate inmates’ human rights and change nature deeply, they make a Soviet empire that can reach their ruling areas and for from sea districts which is very vital to achieve to be able to develop or exploit. Just as once upon a times’ Roman Empire (to mention that Moscow called the third/fourth Rome after original one and Istanbul is important here just to discover the similarities of empires).
Especially, the conclusion part of the book becomes more provocative by concentrating on gulags. The labourship sources could be supplied, unfortunately, by this way in those days poverish countries.
As an important note, and a historical fault of author, i should mention that Atatürk Dam, in the South-east region of Modern Turkey which supplies water Iraq and Syria was not built during Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s tenure. It is a part of a GAP project and buit in 1980-1990’s.
April 26, 2019
A historical study of the construction (concretely and symbolically) of the Moscow Canal, informed by cultural geography methods
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews