“USSR in Construction was a journal published in the decade of 1930 to 1941, as well as briefly in 1949, in the Soviet Union. It became an artistic gem and counter-current in the first year of socialist realism....

“The Journal was published in Russian, French, English, German, and, from 1938, Spanish. The journal informed readers abroad of the hyper-construction taking place within the nation, and portrayed the emergence of the Soviet Union as a leading industrial power...

“The first issues of USSR in Construction tended to focus upon large state projects, particularly those related to industrialization. The scope of the journal quickly expanded, however, with later issues focusing on different ethnic republics and regions, various building projects, new transportation routes, and themes of daily life such as children, the arts, and athletics, in addition to special political issues.

“The journal was published over the course of eleven years and brought together articles by esteemed writers such as Alexander Fadeyev, Isaac Babel, and Sergei Tretiakov, with montages composed from images created by the Soviet Union's most talented photo-journalists: Max Alpert, Arkadii Shaikhet, Georgii Zelma, Boris Ignatovich, Semion Fridland, and George Petrusov. El Lissitzky and Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers designed the overall layout and cover arrangements for a number of issues, as did Alexander Rodchenko and his wife, Varvara Stepanova.” Source: Wikipedia

Also see here for a digital display of numerous images from various USSR in Construction issues by Russian Art and Books. 

Below are several spreads from issue No. 34. 

Courtesy of the International Center of Photography Permanent Collection. 

USSR in Construction

Date: March - April 1935

Artist and Related People:

Periodical: USSR in Construction, Russian, 1930-41, 1949

Artist: Alpert Maks Vladimirovich, Russian, 1899 - 1980

Artist: Semen Friedland (Fridland), Russian

Artist: M. Glider

Artist: Winter

Artist: Ismail Urasov, Russian, 1900 - 1973

Artist: Viktor Kinelovsky, Russian

Dimensions: Overall: 16 1/2 x 12 1/8 x 1/8 in. (41.9 x 30.8 x 0.3 cm)

Medium: Photogravure

Credit Line: Museum Purchase, 2012

Place published: Russia, Moscow

“Under the Tsar, the Far East was truly a land of eternal sleep. Throughout its boundless spaces, from Manchuria to the Arctic Ocean, these were only a few scattered wooden townlets. Until recently, the natural wealth of the region not only lay without use, but was simply unknown. 

“It is useless to study the present day Soviet Far East from old maps. They will only mislead you. The Far East Region changes year by year, in places where deserted forests stood for thousands of years. New Towns, factories, mines railways have appeared and are still springing up. 

“The principal branches of economy in the Far East - fish, coal, and oil - have grown from technically backward enterprises of a semi-handicraft type into big, progressive industries. 

“New coalfields have been opened up, mines are being dug in the stupendous coalfield of [?], which contains in its seams 100,000 to 150,000 million tons of coal. New industries have been created - non ferrous metallurgy, river shipbuilding, the manufacture of gold mining equipment, the production of iodine, etc. The gold mining industry of the far east is developing at a speed such as Klondike never knew in its best years.

“Collective farms own 90% of the total sown area of the Far Eastern Region. In order to realise the meaning of the figure, it is necessary to recall that formerly in the Far Eastern villages the greater part of the land belonged to rich Cossacks, who fiercely exploited the labour of the farm labourers  and the poor peasants. Year by year, socialist agriculture in the far east is increasing its sown area, introducing new crops. The Soviet Far East is inhabited by over 80 tribes and nations. Before the establishment of the Soviet power, these people dragged out a pitable existence like slaves, semi-savages. Nowadays big cultural work is being energetically carried on in all the native settlements in the Chunhot (?) Peninsula Kolyni, Kamchatka, schools, cultural bases, hospitals, children’s nurseries have been built. 

“Intense building work is going on all over the enormous territory of the Soviet Far East, which has been freed for ever from the whiteguards and the interventionists.

“The Soviet Far East has become an impregnable fortress of defense.”

  “Vladivostok is one of the biggest transit ports of the Pacific Ocean. The flags of almost all countries of the world fly from the masts of the ships that enter this port.”

“Before the revolution, Khabarovsk was a dull town of wooden houses, a town of officials. Soviet Khabarovsk is a big industrial centre with a population of 100,000. The new buildings erected in the last few years have completely changed the face of the town.”

The City of Youth. “The town factory has sprung up in a wild and forbidding locality. It is being built by the Leninist Young Communist League. In Spring 1932, the first groups of Young Communists - workers from Moscow, Leningrad, Gorki, Odessa, Donbass - began to arrive at the site of the future town of Komsomolsk. Gigantic cranes, steam shovels, thousands of tons of cement and iron, everything that goes nowadays to form the harmonious organism of a rapidly growing industrial town, is the result of the heroic labour of the proletarian youth. For this reason, the town is called “Komsomolsk,” the city of youth. It has already 25 000 inhabitants.” 

“Neat cottages, schools, clubs, children’s nurseries, have grown up on the land won from the wild forest.”

“Not long ago, the chief means of communication in the Far East were forest tracks. Nowadays the chief districts of the region are connected by railways and highroads, the system of which is being constantly extended by new construction. For instance, the is the Baikal-Amur line, the second track on the Ussurisk Railway, the wonderful smooth highway laid through the forest and over the hills from Khabarovsk to Komsomolsk.”

“Fisheries are scattered along the entire shore line...We only started whaling in the Far East in 1933, but now is widely practiced. Cutting up a whale on the whaling ship “Aleut.”

“Jewish Settlers”

“Birobijan is the Jewish autonomous region which forms part of the Far East Region. Jewish settlers came from the western and southwestern districts of the Soviet Union, from America, Germany, Argentine and other countries to the deserted and impenetrable Siberian forests, to build up a new life entirely different from the life of the old  miserable Jewish townlets. They put up their first dwellings - tents - in the forest. Building work began...”

“Ever since 1928, when the first settlers came in the virgin soil of Birobijan, the cheerful sounds of creative work have never ceased in this country. Century-old trees fall and roads appear in the forest. Houses arise, the glare of electric light blazes out; a cement works is being built at Londoko; coal is already being mined in Biro; a factory has been built for making lime. A clothing factory and other enterprises are at work. Scores of schools, colleges, institutes, have arisen; there are theaters, a radio station, a library with 20,000 books, hospitals, nurseries, health resorts. The population of the region is growing year by year.”

(Right page) “You will not find the shrinking, downtrodden Jews of the ghettos in Birobijan. The people of Birobijan - they are Com. Gefen, the best mower of the Waldheim collective farm (1); Com. Lazar Ugodnikov, the bee-keeper of Birofeld collective farm (2); Com. Serel, manager of the Stalinfeld collective farm (3); Joseph Abramski, the best herdsman of the Inor collective farm (4).”

(Left page) “I think that the Jewish nationality of Birobijan will not be a nationality with the characteristics of the Jews of the ghettos of Poland, Lithuania, White Russia and even Ukraine, because it is already giving birth to socialist ‘colonisers’ of a free, rich land, to people with big fists and strong teeth, who will be the forebears of a new strong nationality within the family of Soviet peoples.” (from a talk of M.L. Kalinin to a delegation of Moscow workers).

“In these places where the combines of the Birobijan collective farms now harvest the wheat, stood the wild and seemingly impregnable forest, backed by barren and solitary hills...”

“The types of the Jewish ghetto can only be found now on the stage of the Birobijan Jewish theater.”

Children of the Far East. “A happy life assumed to the children of the Far East Children’s nurseries, kindergartens, are scattered all over the region. All the children, beginning with the age of 8, go to school. The children spend summer holidays in pioneer camps.”

Northern Nationalities. “As a result of the Leninist-Stalinist national policy, over 80 nationalities populating  the Far Eastern Region have been raised from the darkness of poverty and set on the broad road of material and cultural prosperity. The numerous tribes of the native population of the Far East have all the rights of the basic population of the Soviet Union. The participate actively in the political and state life of the great country, elect their soviets, have their own schools, where the lessons are given in the native language, build hospitals and new cultured houses, use modern implements for fishing and agriculture.”

“Living quarters for students in the Korean pedagogical college in Vladivotok.”

“Nanal camp on the river Tungusk.”

“Com. Blucher, commander of the Far Eastern Special Army, said at this congress: ‘If an enemy attacks our country, the Red Army is ready to fight. But you must also be ready to defend your socialist country just like the Red Army. That means - not one grain must be lost out of the harvest! It means - healthy, strong horses! It means more grain, more vegetables, potatoes, hay!’ And the collective farmers replied to the commander: ‘Comrade Blucher, when that happens, say the word and we shall give the best shock workers, strong horses and plenty of grain.’”

(Left page) “Across the hills and valleys” Who in the Soviet Union does not love to sing the stirring song of the Amur Par Tisans and the fighting at Volochayev. And in these parts famous from the popular song, a monument has been erected on Volochayev Hill to the memory of the Fallen Heroes.”