“This is how graves are dug, not houses”
Stalinist infrastructure and those who built it
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The autobiographical records of a Soviet construction engineer who worked for the OGPU-NKVD secret police, provide an insight into a world that is largely unknown: the emergence of the structural and material infrastructures which enabled the terror of the Stalin era. The life story of Alexei Vshivkov shows who formed the backbone of Stalinist society. It was not firm believers in the ideology or enthusiastic workers, but frightened ordinary Soviet citizens who wanted to provide for their families and see their children grow up.
(Osteuropa 8-10/2016, pp. 349–361)