Stalin. Part 16: The last decade before the war. Underground temple
The idea of building a subway in Moscow arose at the end of the 19th century. However, there was no real need for the subway: the tram could handle it. In the 30s. XX century the situation has changed a lot. The powerful influx of people into the capital led to overloading of land transport. It became clear that the subway was indispensable.
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Stalin's anxiety for himself and the flock is not visible behind the life-affirming reports of the 15th "Congress of Winners" about the incredible achievements of Soviet industry. Dneproges, Magnitka, Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant, Uralmash, dozens of new enterprises in the republics of the Union - all this was a reality. But there was also another side. I. V. Stalin's olfactory psychic cannot but feel the threat from inside and outside the flock. Cleansing and working out the deviators becomes a routine. Despite the public repentance of those who had been fined, at the congress Stalin received 270 votes "against", which indicates a serious concentration of hostility towards him on the part of influential party workers, the party is threatened with a split again. In March 1933, an attempt was made on Roosevelt's life. Stalin seriously fears for his life.
According to intelligence, the White emigration is making plans to physically eliminate Stalin by the hands of the opposition Trotskyists. International tensions are growing. Germany is rapidly militarizing under the leadership of the new Reich Chancellor A. Hitler. While the Versailles Treaty is still in effect, the first German tank building program is called the "Plan for the production of tractors for agriculture." The production of "tractors" has also been established in Soviet Russia. In 1934, the USSR entered the League of Nations, regaining the status of a great power.
Herbert Wells, who returned to the USSR, confessed to Stalin that there was no comparison with the twenties: "There are only two personalities in the whole world whose every word is listened to by millions: you and Roosevelt …" Two olfactory strategists had a difficult game to play. In the meantime, any even the most insignificant external conflict, any internal turmoil was enough to plunge the country, which was just entering the taste of peaceful construction, into the chaos of a new intervention.
Stalin's instinct did not deceive this time either. The outgoing year of 1934 prepared a shock for him: on December 1, SM Kirov was shot dead in Smolny. Fate gave the go-ahead for a large-scale cleansing of opposition "tangles" in the party. The intraparty war against the "nobles" of the old guard and "harmful talkers", no matter how senseless and merciless it may seem, had its own result: the Trotskyist opposition was finally destroyed, which gave Stalin the opportunity to finally distract himself from "Kremlin affairs" and turn to the people - "The cadres who decide everything." It was high time to think about the people - the winner of fascism. And the elite … The olfactory Machiavelli said well about her: "The elite that opposes the people must be eliminated and replaced by the elite representing the people."
1. An underground temple of unity for a breakthrough into the sky
The idea of building a subway in Moscow arose at the end of the 19th century. However, there was no real need for the subway: the tram could handle it. In the 30s. XX century the situation has changed a lot. The powerful influx of people into the capital led to overloading of land transport. It became clear that the subway was indispensable. Limited funds and the availability of only European experience in building stations by a superficial method in rare specialists dictated building the Moscow metro at a shallow depth, economically and without frills.
It soon became clear that the landscape of Moscow is significantly different from the European one, underground floaters and soils unfavorable for construction make ordinary mining impossible. I had to combine all the known methods and along the way to invent something of my own.
The main instruments of labor of the first metro builders were a pick and a shovel, the soil was taken out on wheelbarrows. To the irritation of Muscovites from the inconvenience associated with such a grandiose construction, there were also significant differences in the management of construction. The question of the irrationality of the expensive deep underground metro was very acute. The decisive word was for Stalin. After listening to all opinions, he chooses a deep burial. And not only. The underground stations should become real palaces, not repeating each other either in architecture or decoration. The Russians built on a grand scale even underground. What for?
It is difficult to accuse Stalin of not knowing how to count money. His own asceticism was naturally combined in him with the prudence of a great financier. Was there really little need for the country in the pre-war period to erect architectural masterpieces underground? What was the use of decorating underground stations with works of art? It would seem an absurd waste. And yet Stalin needed just such a metro. In pre-war Moscow, the olfactory ruler erected underground not just train stations and probable bomb shelters. A real temple of unity was being built, a temple of survival at all costs. Works of art here were supposed to play a role in educating people, the bulk of whom had arrived yesterday from the provinces.
"Metro, flashing oak railings" [1], literally bewitched the first passengers. Descending into the dungeon, a person did not feel crushed by the earthly firmament, but fell into the realm of light and beauty, created by the collective labor of many for the good of all. During the German bombing in the summer of 1941, lying on cots at the Mayakovskaya station, crushed by panic, demoralized people saw the shining mosaics of Alexander Deineka "The Day of the Land of the Soviets" - soaring airplanes, blossoming apple trees, a peaceful blue sky. And hope for survival returned to them, the children stopped crying.
Today you can often hear that looking at the mosaics at Mayakovka … is tiring, you have to turn your head up too much. A breakthrough up into the sky, which the brilliant sound-visual Deineka was trying to tell about, is really difficult. The elite mass culture of the USSR, of which the first stations of the Moscow metro are undoubtedly a model, contributed a lot to this breakthrough. In 1938, the Mayakovskaya station project was awarded the Grand Prix at the international exhibition in New York.
The best architects of the country fought for the right to design metro stations. The metro was built not only on a grand scale, but also with a large margin, which made it possible today to avoid expensive reconstruction. For example, one of the first stations, "Komsomolskaya", still receives many times the increased passenger traffic. The emblems of "KIM" (Communist Youth International) can be seen on the pylons. Metrostroy was a shock Komsomol construction site, the profession of a metro builder quickly became honorable. Thousands of people from all over the country underwent professional training here and were involved in collective work for the good of the country. The management did not hesitate to delve into all the details, right down to how much oil the workers put in the porridge.
2. How Stalin rode the subway
Once Stalin decided to take a metro ride. This idea came to him unexpectedly, in the midst of the "Kremlin affairs", the guards were afraid of provocations, but Stalin insisted. The usual concern for his safety released him for a while. Together with his 14-year-old son Vasily and young niece Maria Svanidze, Joseph Vissarionovich went down the escalator to the Park Kultury station, without waiting for midnight when the metro would be closed for passengers, as the head of the metro L. Kaganovich insisted.
Stalin wanted to feel his people. The olfactory does this only in one case: when he is sure of his safety inside the flock. Stalin's instinct did not disappoint this time either. People immediately recognized I. V. and began to greet him loudly, a crush began. “I was nearly strangled at one of the columns,” recalls M. Svanidze. - Delight and applause went over all human measures. I saw nothing and dreamed only of getting home. Vasya worried more than anyone."
Stalin looked completely calm. The feeling of security was given to him by the collective strength of people able to keep him, despite any trials. It was a triumph of his politics, his personal victory of the "gatherer of stones" over the sowers of the "world revolution". Stalin unmistakably felt: organized into a system of a strong and independent state, this people can do everything.
Continue reading.
Previous parts:
Stalin. Part 1: Olfactory Providence over Holy Russia
Stalin. Part 2: Furious Koba
Stalin. Part 3: Unity of opposites
Stalin. Part 4: From Permafrost to April Theses
Stalin. Part 5: How Koba became Stalin
Stalin. Part 6: Deputy. on emergency matters
Stalin. Part 7: Ranking or the Best Disaster Cure
Stalin. Part 8: Time to Collect Stones
Stalin. Part 9: USSR and Lenin's testament
Stalin. Part 10: Die for the Future or Live Now
Stalin. Part 11: Leaderless
Stalin. Part 12: We and They
Stalin. Part 13: From plow and torch to tractors and collective farms
Stalin. Part 14: Soviet Elite Mass Culture
Stalin. Part 15: The last decade before the war. Death of Hope
Stalin. Part 16: The last decade before the war. Underground temple
Stalin. Part 17: Beloved Leader of the Soviet People
Stalin. Part 18: On the eve of the invasion
Stalin. Part 19: War
Stalin. Part 20: By Martial Law
Stalin. Part 21: Stalingrad. Kill the German!
Stalin. Part 22: Political Race. Tehran-Yalta
Stalin. Part 23: Berlin is taken. What's next?
Stalin. Part 24: Under the Seal of Silence
Stalin. Part 25: After the War
Stalin. Part 26: The Last Five Year Plan
Stalin. Part 27: Be part of the whole
[1] "Song of the old cab", to lyrics. N. Bogoslovsky.
