Brezhnev's Folly: The Building of BAM and Late Soviet Socialism (Pitt Russian East European)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.84 (805 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0822961385 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 232 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-05-26 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Ward excels at peopling BAM’s construction sites with a fascinating cast of belligerent, disorganized workers who drink, steal, worry about the environment, and dream of amassing capital rather than building socialism. Imparts both meaning and insight to everyday life in Brezhnev’s Soviet Union. “Ward’s excellent history charts the rise and fall of a vast and impractical construction project. A fine, readable work on a neglected topic that offers insights not just into the construction of BAM, but into the larger realm of youth culture and work culture under Brezhnev.”—Technology and Culture
A good book on a little know subject Chris A good book on a little know subject!It really does delve deeply into planning (or lack there of) of the BAM and its VERY poor execution. VERY highly recommended for anyone interested in the soviet Union and it's collapse.
Begun in 1974, and spanning approximately 2,000 miles after twenty-nine years of halting construction, the BAM project was intended to showcase the national unity, determination, skill, technology, and industrial might that Soviet socialism claimed to embody. More pragmatically, the Soviet leadership envisioned the BAM railway as a trade route to the Pacific, where markets for Soviet timber and petroleum would open up, and as an engine for the development of Siberia.Despite these aspirations and the massive commitment of economic resources on its behalf, BAM proved to be a boondoggle-a symbol of late communism's dysfunctionality-and a cruel joke to many ordinary Soviet citizens. Heralded by Soviet propaganda as the “Path to the Future,” the Baikal-Amur Mainline Railway (BAM)