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| The V. I. Lenin Steel Mill, Magnitogorsk, popularly known as Magnitka. Built on a hill of iron ore in the Urals, 800 miles east of Moscow, safe from enemy attack and prying eyes. The centerpiece of Stalin’s first five-year plan, 1930–34, proof that the USSR could produce as much steel as the West. ("Stalin," after all, means "man of steel.") The plant was built in only four years, with conscripted labor and sympathetic Western volunteers, and it covers more than twenty square miles. Magnitka made steel for the tanks and guns of the Great Patriotic War, and for cars, trucks, and bridges today. At its peak, it employed more than 100,000 workers and fed half a million. Central planner’s fantasy and industrial colossus, also a first-rate ecological disaster. It is too important to the Ural region and the Russian economy to allow it to die. |
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