D. Olšáková (Hrsg.): In the Name of the Great Work

H-Soz-Kult. 2019. No. 2.

Elie M.

On a famous poster from 1949, Stalin bends over a map of the Soviet Union representing the South-East of the country criss-crossed with gigantic shelterbelts. Dressed in full Generalissimo apparel, smoking the pipe and holding a pen to correct the map, the dictator displays the perspicacious smile of a sage who knows that the future belongs to socialism. „We will defeat drought, too!”, the poster reads. After having crushed the murderous armies of Nazi Germany to the West, Stalin turns now to the East of the country to fight another invader: the dry winds supposedly blowing from the deserts of Central Asia and bringing desolation to the steppes of the Volga region. Indeed, in 1946/1947 hundreds of thousands old and new Soviet citizens had died of famine in the European part of the country.

Keywords: history of USSR, поздний сталинизм, History of Stalinism, Великие стройки СССР