Behind the Urals: An American Worker in Russia's City of Steel

The western view of Russia is critical of its lack of individual freedoms; the mock justice system, and the fear of being denounced with a one way ticket to Siberia.This book is a first hand experience of an American working in the Urals to build a large steel factory. It relates that most of the Russian workers believed they were building a better future. They were proudly patriotic; they loved their homeland.It shows the evil genius of Stalin and his determination to industrialized the country at any and all costs. And his realization that to protect these industrial centre's in the Urals and Siberia far away from the range of enemy aircraft.This strategy paid off in the defeat of Germany.The book shows the vast mineral deposits of the country.But the book fails to explain why the Russian people are so easily controlled. First by Stalin and today by Putin.

This is an amazing first-hand account of Stalin's Russia, written by a young American who went to work in 1932 at the great new steel city of Magnitogorsk in the Urals. It contains much first hand evidence on working and living conditions, on social moods, on corruption, on repression and on heroism.One key question is how reliable a witness is Scott? It is clear that he is trying to present a generally upbeat picture, but he is also willing to depict enormously harsh conditions at Magnitogorsk, especially in the early years. He paints a mood of simultaneous suffering and Gung Ho spirit, where living conditions were appalling, working conditions wildly unsafe, muddle and waste abounded, but where all this was seen as a temporary and necessary transition to a better future.This was written in 1942, after Scott returned to the US. Scott praises the great foresight of Stalin in building an immense industrial complex in the Urals ("Stalin's Urals Stronghold") beyond the reach of invading German armies. He emphasizes both the enormous sacrifices in building Magnitogorsk and other Urals plants and the vast industrial power of these new factories. Given the dark context of 1942, this was probably a very welcome message in both the USSR and the USA.I was surprised by the liveliness that Scott describes in plant meetings. Criticism of the system itself, or of the high leadership, seems to have been entirely taboo. However, vigorous grassroots criticism of local plant management, or production methods, or specific social problems (such as the workers canteens) appears to have been common and even seems to have been encouraged, perhaps partly as a safety valve or as a way to spur on mid-level leaders.Another surprise was the importance of financial incentives. Higher work grades earned significantly higher pay, so workers studied industriously to qualify for the higher grades. (Improved education was a key goal of the regime, so the incentives here were clearly deliberate.) But income was also tied to production. If the group targets were exceeded, pay could be boosted (even doubled). But if the targets were missed, pay could drop. At a higher level, the overall plant income and expenditures were tracked assiduously, although at the very top, Moscow seemed more interested in total raw production than "profit".In the originally published text, Scott often comes across as well intentioned but distinctly naïve. However, this enlarged edition also includes some private notes that Scott provided to the US Moscow Embassy in 1938. These show a considerably more skeptical and insightful side, for example in analyzing the different groups at Magnitogorsk and explaining how some groups, such as the former kulaks, were permanently embittered against the regime. He is also explicit in describing the impact of what we now call the Great Terror. "Life is cruel in the Soviet Union and the regime knows no pity."Scott, like other foreign workers, was eventually forced to leave Magnitogorsk as the Soviet authorities became increasingly fearful of foreigners in the later 1930s.Overall, I found this a fascinating study. When reading this, I think we have to be watchful that Scott, even when skeptical, still tends to see events through somewhat rose-tinted glasses. When he describes horrific conditions, or even major purges, he will often quickly assert that these were necessary steps to a greater end. (And perhaps, in the dark context of 1942, that view is understandable.) Similarly, as a former Soviet resident, he often unthinkingly accepts the regime's official positions, for example in believing that the secret NKVD trials are "fair", without himself having any evidence of them. But, if we keep those rose glasses in mind, this is still a fascinating source of raw primary data for life in a heroic but almost impossibly harsh age.

This book is amazing, and an important balance to some other U.S. citizens' accounts, who (understandably!!) focus on their time in gulag.Scott was a True Believer, and went to the Soviet Union to build a brave, new world. He absolutely minimizes the horrors of that time, and glosses over so much evil done in the name of "progress". Ironically, he himself had to flee Magnitogorsk overnight or else face Gulag and likely death. I wonder if he genuinely didn't know what happened to the millions swallowed up by the purges?On to the better stuff... This is a first hand account of the early Soviet experiment, which, I admit, from his point of view seemed to be a wonderful, miraculous exercise. They really did reduce illiteracy, illness, and many other social evils, while rapidly industrializing. He finds a wife, has some children, receives some education... An amazing time and he must have been so conflicted to leave, and in the way he did -- friendless, penniless, in fear for his life.The value of this book is definitely in the view it gives of Magnitogorsk alone, versus the context it gives into the larger picture. Easy to read while not being trite and shallow.

An interesting book explaining one man's journey and his immersion into the Soviet system of central economic planning and the Soviet workers who made it possible.In this book the author talks through his motivations for going to the USSR, his hopes and ambitions and his eventual disillusionment with the socialist system.