Main entry:

Austin, Richard Cartwright, 1934-

Title & Author:

Building utopia : erecting Russia's first modern city, 1930 / Richard Cartwright Austin.

Publication:

Kent [Ohio] : Kent State University Press, ©2004.

Description:

xii, 225 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-222) and index.
1. The Austin method -- 2. Those Russians are starting fresh -- 3. In a friendly way -- 4. Spirit and ability -- 5. The first communist city in the world -- 6. The first home we have had -- 7. Off the road -- 8. Workers clamoring to get paid -- 9. Every principle seems upset -- 10. To stay here over Christmas -- 11. Work on ice a meter thick or more -- 12. An opportunity given by God -- 13. Here they will fail or triumph -- 14. Fortresses taken by Bolsheviks -- 15. The USSR at the wheel -- 16. Gazelle.

Summary:

"Perhaps the most challenging project under Stalin's first five-year plan was the race to build Europe's largest automobile factory and an adjacent city in just eighteen months. The site chosen was Nizhny Novgorod, later named Gorky, near the Volga River, 500 miles east of Moscow. To design and construct both factory and city, Soviet officials approached the premier industrial builder in America, the Austin Company of Cleveland, Ohio." "Allan Austin, son of the president of the Austin Company, was the youngest of twenty American engineers supervising construction of this Russian city. He wrote many letters to his father and took photographs detailing the struggles involved in this vast undertaking. Author Richard Cartwright Austin uses his father's letters, Russian and American documents, and extensive photographic resources to tell how this cooperation between capitalist and communist, American and Russian, was achieved. From near-breakdown during the initial months, through a Russian winter that called for bravery and ingenuity, to a frantic race toward completion in the final months, Building Utopia reveals the humanity of both communists and capitalists and the contrasts between Russian and American cultures." "Historians as well as scholars interested in early U.S.-Soviet collaboration efforts will be attracted to this compelling story."--Jacket.

Resources:
Table of contents
Book review (H-Net)
Book review (H-Net)

ISBN:

0873387309 (pbk. ; alk. paper)
9780873387309 (pbk. ; alk. paper)

Subject:

Gorʹkovskiĭ avtomobilʹnyĭ zavod History.
Ford Motor Company History.
Austin Company History.
Austin Company
Ford Motor Company
Gorʹkovskiĭ avtomobilʹnyĭ zavod
Automobile industry and trade Russia (Federation) Nizhniĭ Novgorod History.
City planning Russia (Federation) Nizhniĭ Novgorod.
Automobiles Industrie et commerce Russie Nižni Novgorod Histoire.
Automobile industry and trade
City planning
Automobile industry and trade Russia Nizhnii Novgorod History.
City planning Russia (Federation) Nizhnii Novgorod.
Nizhniĭ Novgorod (Russia) History.
Russia (Federation) Nizhniĭ Novgorod
Nizhnii Novgorod (Russia) History.

Form/genre:

History

Holdings:

Location: Library main 325561
Call No.: 325561
Copy: 1
Status: Available