Stalin’s Railroad
Stalin’s Railroad

Author: Matthew J. Payne

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press

Published: 2010-11-23

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 0822977346

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The Turkestano-Siberian Railroad, or Turksib, was one of the great construction projects of the Soviet Union's First Five-Year Plan. As the major icon to ending the economic "backwardness" of the USSR's minority republics, it stood apart from similar efforts as one of the most potent metaphors for the creation of a unified socialist nation.Built between December 1926 and January 1931 by nearly 50,000 workers and at a cost of more 161 million rubles, Turksib embodied the Bolsheviks' commitment to end ethnic inequality and promote cultural revolution in one the far-flung corners of the old Tsarist Empire, Kazakhstan. Trumpeted as the "forge of the Kazakh proletariat," the railroad was to create a native working class, bringing not only trains to the steppes, but also the Revolution.In the first in-depth study of this grand project, Matthew Payne explores the transformation of its builders in Turksib's crucible of class war, race riots, state purges, and the brutal struggle of everyday life. In the battle for the souls of the nation's engineers, as well as the racial and ethnic conflicts that swirled, far from Moscow, around Stalin's vast campaign of industrialization, he finds a microcosm of the early Soviet Union.

Soviet Railways to Russian Railways
Soviet Railways to Russian Railways

Author: J. Westwood

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2001-12-02

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 0230285872

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In the postsoviet decade Russian railways remained highly centralised, evaded the upheavals of mass privatisation, and remained the backbone of a demoralised economy. Preserving much of Soviet practice, the Railways Ministry mounted a skilled rearguard action that achieved a gradual and considered adaptation to the market economy rather than the pell-mell, western-orientated, liberalisation that afflicted other branches of the economy. This book describes that rearguard action, and goes on to show how railway managers are coping with the new conditions.

Soviet Railways to Russian Railways
Soviet Railways to Russian Railways

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2001

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781349399215

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In the postsoviet decade Russian railways remained highly centralised, evaded the upheavals of mass privatisation, and remained the backbone of a demoralised economy. Preserving much of Soviet practice, the Railways Ministry mounted a skilled rearguard action that achieved a gradual and considered adaptation to the market economy rather than the pell-mell, western-orientated, liberalisation that afflicted other branches of the economy. This book describes that rearguard action, and goes on to show how railway managers are coping with the new conditions.

Putinomics
Putinomics

Author: Albrecht Rothacher

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-05-20

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 3030740773

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This book sheds new light on the political economy of Russia under Putin’s rule. The author, a former EU diplomat, presents a historical review of the Russian economy and 60 years of state-communist mismanagement, followed by oligarchic privatization. The book offers profound insights into Putin’s rule and the power mechanics of the state-dominated management of the Russian economy. It identifies and assesses the lack of rule of law, together with an arbitrary and often corrupt administration that systematically discourages entrepreneurship and the emergence of an independent middle class. Furthermore, the book discusses Russia’s budgetary policy, its dependence on the export of natural resources, state-owned enterprises and their privileges, and Russia’s external trade. This hard-hitting, substantial analysis debunks the myth of Russia’s economic might and is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the economic realities of the Eurasian continent, or considering doing business with Russia.

A Brown Man in Russia
A Brown Man in Russia

Author: Vijay Menon

Publisher: Glagoslav Publications

Published: 2018-05-10

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 1911414771

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A Brown Man in Russia describes the fantastical travels of a young, colored American traveler as he backpacks across Russia in the middle of winter via the Trans-Siberian. The book is a hybrid between the curmudgeonly travelogues of Paul Theroux and the philosophical works of Robert Pirsig. Styled in the vein of Hofstadter, the author lays out a series of absurd, but true stories followed by a deeper rumination on what they mean and why they matter. Each chapter presents a vivid anecdote from the perspective of the fumbling traveler and concludes with a deeper lesson to be gleaned. For those who recognize the discordant nature of our world in a time ripe for demagoguery and for those who want to make it better, the book is an all too welcome antidote. It explores the current global climate of despair over differences and outputs a very different message – one of hope and shared understanding. At times surreal, at times inappropriate, at times hilarious, and at times deeply human, A Brown Man in Russia is a reminder to those who feel marginalized, hopeless, or endlessly divided that harmony is achievable even in the most unlikely of places.

Lenin on the Train
Lenin on the Train

Author: Catherine Merridale

Publisher: Metropolitan Books

Published: 2017-03-28

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 1627793011

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"A gripping, meticulously researched account of Lenin's fateful rail journey from Zurich to Petrograd, where he ignited the Russian Revolution and forever changed the world. In April 1917, as the Russian Tsar Nicholas II's abdication sent shockwaves across war-torn Europe, the future leader of the Bolshevik revolution Vladimir Lenin was far away, exiled in Zurich. When the news reached him, Lenin immediately resolved to return to Petrograd and lead the revolt. But to get there, he would have to cross Germany, which meant accepting help from the deadliest of Russia's adversaries. Germany saw an opportunity to further destabilize Russia by allowing Lenin and his small group of revolutionaries to return. Now, drawing on a dazzling array of sources and never-before-seen archival material, renowned historian Catherine Merridale provides a riveting, nuanced account of this enormously consequential journey--the train ride that changed the world--as well as the underground conspiracy and subterfuge that went into making it happen. Writing with the same insight and formidable intelligence that distinguished her earlier works, she brings to life a world of counter-espionage and intrigue, wartime desperation, illicit finance, and misguided utopianism. This was the moment when the Russian Revolution became Soviet, the genesis of a system of tyranny and faith that changed the course of Russia's history forever and transformed the international political climate"--

Railways and the Russo-Japanese War
Railways and the Russo-Japanese War

Author: Felix Patrikeeff

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2007-02-06

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1135764972

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This book explores the nexus between railways and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) - the first modern war, and one in which the railways played a key part. Felix Patrikeeff and Harry Shukman examine some of the key dimensions of the Russo-Japanese War, most notably how uncomfortably technological and human dimensions of Russia‘s war effort interleaved in the course of the conflict.

To the Edge of the World
To the Edge of the World

Author: Christian Wolmar

Publisher: Atlantic Books Ltd

Published: 2013-11-07

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 1782392041

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Christian Wolmar expertly tells the story of the Trans-Siberian railway from its conception and construction under Tsar Alexander III, to the northern extension ordered by Brezhnev and its current success as a vital artery. He also explores the crucial role the line played in both the Russian Civil War -Trotsky famously used an armoured carriage as his command post - and the Second World War, during which the railway saved the country from certain defeat. Like the author's previous railway histories, it focuses on the personalities, as well as the political and economic events, that lay behind one of the most extraordinary engineering triumphs of the nineteenth century.

Solovyov and Larionov
Solovyov and Larionov

Author: Eugene Vodolazkin

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2018-11-01

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1786070367

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'THE MOST IMPORTANT LIVING RUSSIAN WRITER' New Yorker A groundbreaking and gripping literary detective novel set in Soviet-era Russia, from the award-winning author of Laurus and The Aviator Can we ever really understand the present without first understanding the past? From the winner of the 2019 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Prize, and the author of the multi-award winning Laurus, comes a sweeping novel that takes readers on a fascinating journey through one of the most momentous periods in Russian history. What really happened to General Larionov of the Imperial Russian Army, who somehow avoided execution by the Bolsheviks? He lived out his long life in Yalta leaving behind a vast heritage of undiscovered memoirs. In modern day Russia, a young student is determined to find out the truth. Solovyov and Larionov is a ground-breaking and gripping literary detective novel from one of Russia's greatest contemporary writers.

To the Finland Station
To the Finland Station

Author: Edmund Wilson

Publisher: New York Review of Books

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 548

ISBN-13: 9781590170335

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Presents a critical and historical study of European writers and theorists of Socialism in the one hundred fifty years leading to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and discusses European socialism, anarchism, and theories of revolution.