In the Name of the Great Work: Stalin's Plan for the Transformation of Nature and its Impact in Eastern Europe

by Doubravka Olšáková (Editor)

Beginning in 1948, the Soviet Union launched a series of wildly ambitious projects to implement Joseph Stalin’s vision of a total “transformation of nature.” Intended to increase agricultural yields dramatically, this utopian impulse quickly spread to the newly communist states of Eastern Europe, captivating political elites and war-fatigued publics alike. By the time of Stalin’s death, however, these attempts at “transformation”―which relied upon ideologically corrupted and pseudoscientific theories―had proven a spectacular failure. This richly detailed volume follows the history of such projects in three communist states―Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia―and explores their varied, but largely disastrous, consequences.

322 pages, Paperback

Published June 10, 2019