- Paperback: 144 pages
- Publisher: Harvard University Press; New edition edition (1 April 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0674354370
- ISBN-13: 978-0674354371
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.5 x 1.2 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,463,136 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Review
In this gem of a book, Loren R. Graham, our foremost authority on Soviet science and technology, draws the reader into the life story of Peter Palchinsky, a remarkable Soviet engineer who was executed in 1929 for treason...Like all memorable books, [this one] leaves the reader wrestling with large questions. The fate of Palchinsky was specific to Stalinist Russia, but the story Mr. Graham tells prompts us to reflect on the tenuous position of the state-supported social critic in all places, at all times. -- Susan Gross Solomon New York Times Book Review Loren Graham has written a wonderful book about the relationship between technology and society. He has woven together an account of the life and work of a Russian engineer, Peter Palchinsky, and an analysis of the failures of Soviet engineering projects. The result is an elegant and concise essay on the dangers of engineering which ignores human values...This superb book distills in a vivid and moving way the results of Graham's many years of research on Soviet science and technology. -- David Holloway Science Loren Graham clarifies important questions concerning the interface between politics and technology, the significance of which extend beyond the Soviet experience. Among the most striking of these is the way his examples illustrate how arbitrary political power can be deployed both to impose irrational policies, which flew in the face of scientific laws, technical parameters and human capabilities, and to misrepresent their consequences for public consumption...This book will provide an invaluable insight into the long-term impact of Stalinism on Soviet technical culture. -- Peter Kneen Times Higher Education Supplement [A] provocative and engaging volume. -- S. Frederick Starr New Republic This remarkable book by Loren R. Graham deals with one of the many independent minds crushed by the Soviet government. -- Hiroaki Kuromiya American Historical Review A terrific read, and a needed reminder of what happens when technology is loosed from social responsibility. -- Chet Raymo Boston Globe
Product Description
Stalin ordered his execution, but here Palchinksy's ghost leads us through the miasma of Soviet technology and industry, pointing out the mistakes he condemned in his lifetime, the corruption and collapse he predicted, and the ultimate price paid for silencing those who were not afraid to speak out. The story of this engineer's life and work, as Graham tells it, is also the story of the Soviet Union's industrial promise and failure.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Exclude the human element from planning at your peril.
23 Aug 1998
Format:Paperback
The Soviet Union became the worldıs second largest industrial power, resisted and defeated Hitlerıs armies in World War II, and finally launched the first artificial satellite and first human into Earth orbit. Despite these achievements the Soviet Union collapsed short of the 75th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution.
This small book looks at the Soviet failure from an engineering view, specifically one engineer, Peter Palchinsky. From the beginning of his career in 1905, Palchinsky firmly believed that engineers should consider economic and social conditions along with their technical calculations. Although he was not a Marxist, Palchinsky was a radical who drew many of his social and economic ideas from Kropotkinıs writings. Palchinsky didnıt support the Bolsheviks but he did welcome the opportunity to help socialist development in Russia. Palchinsky wanted to keep western capitalists out of Russia as much as possible but he did see that in some circumstances western equipment and knowledge were necessary.
The industrialization policy started by the Bolsheviks and carried further by Stalin emphasized gigantic projects controlled directly from Moscow. Some of the characteristics of the soviet projects included no consideration for local conditions, safety sacrificed to output, rushed tempo of the work, and finally no criticism or debate was allowed. Palchinsky did continue criticizing what he considered a disastrous industrialization policy until he was arrested in the middle of the night in 1928 and finally executed in 1929.
The author offers three examples of gigantic ill-conceived engineering projects in the early Soviet Union and three projects of the 1970ıs and 80ıs. These projects included worldıs largest steel mill in Magnitogorsk, the worldıs largest hydroelectric dam on the Dneiper River, and finally the disastrous White Sea Canal built entirely by prisoners. Palchinsky was involved with the steel mill project and a sever critic of the other two projects. Chernobyl is given as a latter day example to show that the Soviet Union never learned its lesson.
After Palchinsky, engineering training in the Soviet Union became narrower and strictly technical after the 1920ıs. Despite the narrowing of the views of engineering profession in the Soviet Union, engineering training became one of the surest ways of securing government positions. After World War II most Soviet officials came from an engineering background, Brezhnev himself was a graduate of an engineering institute.
The lessons of this book go beyond the experience of the Soviet Union. Any political-economic system that centralizes control, stifles debate and criticism, and ignores human conditions may do so at its peril.
3 of 8 people found the following review helpful
School book...
14 May 2002
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I read this for my History, Technology and Science class in college. It is quite intriguing a life that Palchinsky leads. The book starts off telling about his life in general and how it ended, and his influences on Russia. But then halfway through the book, the focus shifts to descriptions of technological failures the Soviet Union encountered and how they struggled to beat other countries in the engineering field.
I don't think this book really gives Palchinsky the credit he desrves and this book certainly isn't all about him, just brief historical facts.
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