The Generation of Power: The History of Dneprostroi

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.