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Title: Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism As a Civilization by Stephen Kotkin ISBN: 0-520-20823-4 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.56 (9 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Very important!!
Comment: That's an important book on Stalinism and Soviet Union. It presents new extremely interesting and well documented information about key aspects of life and politics mainly during the Stalinist period. What makes this book really important though is that this information is used in a structured way to substantiate a well-defined interpretation of Stalinism as civilization. Kotkin is not the first researcher to analyze USSR in these terms (many people see the Soviet regime as a peculiar type of theocracy), but it is one of the first attempts to study the civilizational aspect in such depth.
Another achievement of the author is he manages to transcend the ideological commitments and polarizations that are connected with his broader theme. "The Magnetic Mountain" is a sober, academic study of Stalinism and therefore, it is bound to displease those who are looking for excuses for the Soviet regime or those who looking for stongly worded condemnations and connections with present enemies.
My only criticism is that, unless I missed the references to it, Kotkin does not mention E. Wallerstein's essay "Capitalist civilization". I believe that the approaches of the two authors have many parallels and it would have been interesting to compare them.
Rating: 5
Summary: Narrow and Illuminating Study
Comment: Kotkin has done excellent work here in Magnetic Mountain. This is a landmark study on the building of an industrial city in the Soviet Union during the Stalinist era. It's extremely bizarre that some have taken the view that it is a pro-Stalin work. I can only conclude that they haven't read Magnetic Mountain but only certain reviews or are so head-in-the-sand dogmatic that they render any view outside of cold war totalitarian model as pro-Stalinist.
Especially ironic is the Stalinist tone of many who oppose any view outside this strict cold war construction. Like it or not the facts are many who lived in the Soviet Union during that era believed in communism as their salvation and future. I've lived in Russia and have seen the older generation protesting in pro-Stalin demonstrations in St Petersburg's Palace Square. Stating this doesn't make Kotkin pro anything. It makes him a historian.
Kotkin's rendering of Magnitogorsk is great history. From the initial idealistic workers that established the city, he quickly shows the disillusionment that occurred when theory and practical organization clashed. Labor shortages abound in this workers paradise ironically because workers couldn't stand the conditions. Kotkin shows how internal passports and party cards gradually began to be used to make sure workers could not move freely or that party members could be monitored.
Not that all was oppression. He correctly describes how many used the opportunities that were available to proceed with gaining an education in the evening technical programs that proliferated in the Magnitogorsk community.
Kotkin does not shy away from the effects of the purges, but he does describe them as being focused particularly on party members. With the benefits of communist party membership came the dangerously increased odds of being targeted in the purges. He's especially effective in his description of how the balance of power was structured between the technical experts running the factories, the local communist organization and the NKVD.
This is good history. It may ruffle feathers, but more importantly it illuminates the complexity of life in the Soviet Union. Citizens in the SU were much more involved, benefited from and bought into the dogma of Soviet marxism much more than the Conquest cold war scholarship of that era showed. Having spoken to many of the older Russian generation myself I've seen the confirmation in the discussions.
Ignore the lock-step cold warriors; if you are a historian of left, middle or right wing views you'll find this is history well worth reading.
Rating: 4
Summary: Fascinating Book, But Limited Conclusion
Comment: At several points in Magnetic Mountain, the Stalinist state appears like "Bizarro" world, where up is down, people permanently dwell in "temporary" cities, and claims of exceeding expectations really meant falling far short of the goal. Yet, according to Stephen Kotkin, all of these apparent contradictions were perfectly sensible and functional within Stalinist civilization. Kotkin, in his analysis of Magnitogorsk --the industrial centerpiece of Stalin's five-year plans-- demonstrates how and why society functioned, treating Stalinism in an analytical style not unlike those employed by anthropologist observing and explaining the bizarre behavior of non-western "others". Kotkin considers Stalinism as civilization rather than solely a political ideology because it provided unique ways of thinking, speaking, living, organizing, and constructing.
Kotkin's work is an excellent blend of theoretical models and empirical evidence. The book, dedicated to Michel Foucault, embraces many of the suggestions proffered by the late theoretician, such as the definition of "power" as a defining rather than an oppressing "force" and the need to explore power on the micro-level. And true to form, Kotkin locates power in a wide variety of domains- from the divide between the imagined and real layout of Socialist City to a list of names and profession tacked onto the front of a workers' barrack. Kotkin convincingly demonstrates that while party ideology and administrative policy was imposed from above, it was by no means absolute. Realities within and without the "official" system created spaces that shaped resistance and defined the ways in which the individuals could utilize the to accommodate their needs/interest. For example, Kotkin argues that policies that outlawed rent and obligated the state to house and employ gave individuals considerable justification for acting against and successfully resisting the efforts of "officials" trying to enforce decisions on housing and work allocation determined by the State apparatus. True to his Foucauldian sympathies, Kotkin maintains that Stalinism defined what it meant to be a good Soviet citizen and, unwittingly, the legitimate ways in which the good citizen could contest the unpopular policies.
Kotkin's micro-level archaeology of power in Magnitogorsk upsets the totalizing reputation of totalitarianism. Stalinism offered ample ideology but skimped on the details of just how Marxist/Leninist analysis related to developing a real industrial community. Rather than dictating and imposing the minutiae of everyday life, Kotkin claims that it was the incessant disharmony between ideology and practicality, as manifested in the institutional split between the Party and Administration, that created the contradictory atmosphere within Magnitogorsk, and, paradoxically, permitted resistance but also facilitated repression. Overlapping and unspecified jurisdictions made it difficult to determine who was in charge of what, but the rivalries generated by this discontinuity of policy and practice ultimately fueled the purges. Ironically, the many ways in which Stalinism empowered the worker, by allowing worker-run newspapers, elevating the worker as a mythical hero, and iterating the Marxist/Leninist values of equality, brotherhood, and collective ownership, the Stalinist state promulgated the language that allowed individuals to contest the State's designs. The nature of criticism was tailored to the system. In newspapers, local officials in the party or Soviet could be legitimately critiqued within the bounds of acceptable discourse-- what Kotkin terms, "Speaking Bolshevik". By claiming that all aspects of Soviet society were controlled by workers, Stalinist Russia may have unwittingly achieved this goal. Contrary to the totalitarian myth, Stalinism did not transform the Soviet population into inert slaves of the State.
In Kotkin's estimation, Magnitogorsk in the 1930's is indicative of the general social dynamics that defined the Stalinist State. Magnitogorsk was undoubtedly important in terms of its economic output and as a symbol of Soviet progress under Stalin; the city itself, was clearly saturated by the strange interaction of myth and reality, ideology and novelty, that made Stalin and his Soviet Union into international enigmas. However, Kotkin's claims that Magnitogorsk was a representative microcosm are questionable. A major component of Kotkin's narrative is Magnitogorsk's fundamental "newness". According to Kotkin, Magnitogorsk was a region with little historical baggage, devoid of local power dynamics, large populations, or interests that could obstruct Stalin's grand design. Moreover, on the sparsely populate plains east of the Urals, Marxist/Leninist ideologues had the rare "clean slate" from which to imagine their ideal city. Magnitogorsk's unique characteristics raise the questions: Did Stalinism function comparably in Kiev, Moscow, or Leningrad? What Kotkin generally describes as resistance and his numerous examples of unclear and ill-planned State policies may have been primarily the products of Magnitogorsk's lack of precedence and not something inherent to Stalinism. While an excellent regional study, Kotkin's work needs to be considered in a comparison to other sites of heavy Stalinist intervention and to cities/regions that existed long before the Bolshevik revolution.
For both the theoretically and empirically minded, Kotkin's work is rewarding. Strict Foucauldians may bristle at the degree of "agency" Kotkin allows his subjects and empiricists will undoubtedly raise the issue of Magnitogorsk's, but it is a engaging book that effectively explains why people not only tolerated, but embraced Stalinism. Magnetic Mountain is by no means the definitive book on the first decades of the USSR but it is an important historiographical contribution to the still woefully under-researched Soviet Union.
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