In the 1920s, Stalin hand-picked Magnitogorsk, an iron ore mining settlement, as his first Five-Year Plan’s ‘jewel in the crown’^[1] : a Soviet steel city to equal or surpass America’s famed Gary, Indiana. In Russia and internationally, the vast Magnitogorsk complex represented an incontestable symbol of Soviet achievement and burgeoning power. However, this success came at a heavy price for the city’s workers and their families. Even today, ‘death seems to be routinely accepted as the cost of stoking business.’ ^[2] Many succumb to disease and premature death because of long-term exposure to pollution. Yet, MMK remains the city’s leading employer, and most people still cling to a Soviet valorisation of work over health.^[3]

[1] Luhn. [2] Glenn, E.H. (2021) ‘Film Review: Wither the People of Magnitogorsk – “Kombinat,” The Arts Fuse, 2 March. Available at: https://artsfuse.org/223481/film-review-wither-the-people-of-magnitogorsk-kombinat/ Accessed: 4 May 2021. [3] House.