The Generation of Power The History of Dneprostroi [Hardcover]

Dneprostroi, a dam and power plant that was one of the most monumental construction projects of the Bolsheviks' First Five-Year Plan, was a milestone in American-Soviet cooperation and the fruit of the labor of more than 60,000 workers. Little known in the West, Dneprostroi was famous in the USSR--as the largest earth dam in Europe in the 1930s, it represented the first of the giant projects so favored by Stalin. Anne Rassweiler's informative history of this project reveals new aspects of the struggle between Trotsky and Stalin, the debate on the use of foreign advisers, the importance of foreign technology, and the devastating effects of collectivization on the industrial projects of the First Five-Year Plan. Her study also provides insight into the entry of women into the industrial work force and the interaction between party leaders, party membership, and enterprise officials as they sought to realize one of the most ambitious projects in Soviet history.

A refreshing corrective to older, traditional studies of the period and a welcome addition to other recent studies of Soviet industrialization. --Journal of Social History

An important case study, which one will enjoy reading. --Soviet Studies

Rassweiler's welcome book is the first full-length study in English of any of the major construction projects of the Stalin years. --Russian Review

A solid piece of research. --Journal of Modern History

A fascinating account...What is distinctive about this book is the way in which it uses a case study to further our comprehension of the social forces, including those related to technology, associated with Stalinist industrialization. --Technology and Culture

To be welcomed as the first scholarly treatment of Soviet industrialization to focus on a single enterprise....A pathbreaking book. --American Historical Review

A fascinating analytical hislc(