soviet-high-modernism

This chapter analyzes Soviet high modernism's cultural and administrative roots, emphasizing the Bolsheviks' ambition to reshape society through monumental projects and cultural revolutions. It highlights the transnational exchange of ideas between Soviet and American agricultural planners who shared a high-modernist faith in large-scale, mechanized industrial farming. The chapter also critically examines the failures of such industrial farms, which often ignored local contexts and complexities, revealing the limitations of centralized, standardized planning.

Chapter 6 examines the Soviet Union's high modernist project of collectivization, detailing the ideological ambitions and brutal realities of transforming agriculture through state-driven industrialization and social engineering. It highlights the socio-economic restructuring of villages, the coercive enforcement of collectivization policies, bureaucratic inefficiencies, and the cultural as well as ecological consequences of these large-scale reforms. The chapter situates Soviet collectivization within broader historical and ideological contexts, emphasizing both the utopian aspirations and the severe human costs involved.