Turbine No. 3. 1927. Stenberg Brothers.
28 3/8 x 42 1/4 in./72 x 107.2 cm
The Stenberg Brothers' riveting Constructivist photomontage illustrates "Turbine No. 3," a film within the classic Soviet trope of industrial drama. Inspired by the Socialist Realist novel Cement by Fyodor Gladkov (see the Sternberg Bros.' "Thirty Days", No. 85), directors Belyaev and Moskvin valorize Soviet builders in a crisis. They've got to save an uncompleted hydroelectric station from a glacier. Just when the crisis appears to be over, an engineer, bedridden in hospital, is studying the plant's blueprints and finds a catastrophic fault in Turbine No. 3. He leaps from his sickbed and rushes to the industrial site to prevent a terrible tragedy. Inset photos include shots of workers donning protective gear, the long march out to the site, and a sailor kissing his beloved goodbye.
