Measures 6" x 9", 616 pp., cloth-wrapped hard cover with embossed title and Stalin's bas-relief profile. The spine is richly decorated with a map-like embossed ornament and title of the book in deep relief. The book is lavishly illustrated with photos showing the progress of the construction of the canal, photo portraits of its "heroes" and Soviet party leaders, starting, of course, with a full-page lithograph of Stalin. Note his black eyes without the whites! Reminds you of someone? The book is complete with a fold-out schematic map of the entire canal.

In excellent condition. Th

Measures 6" x 9", 616 pp., cloth-wrapped hard cover with embossed title and Stalin's bas-relief profile. The spine is richly decorated with a map-like embossed ornament and title of the book in deep relief. The book is lavishly illustrated with photos showing the progress of the construction of the canal, photo portraits of its "heroes" and Soviet party leaders, starting, of course, with a full-page lithograph of Stalin. Note his black eyes without the whites! Reminds you of someone? The book is complete with a fold-out schematic map of the entire canal.

In excellent condition. The cover is clean, showing negligibly minimal storage wear and corner bumps. The textblock is clean, we did not find any missing pages, the binding is reasonably tight and strong. The back flyleaf shows a partial separation at the hinge at the bottom, easily repairable, if desired.

Thirty-six writers contributed to the creation of this book, among them such giants of Soviet literature as Maxim Gorky, Aleksey Tolstoy, Mikhail Zoshchenko, and many others. The purpose of the book was not only to chronicle the great project which was carried out on the spines of 160,000 prison laborers of whom about 25,000 perished in the process of construction but - hold on to something sturdy! - to extoll the value of hard labor in Soviet prison camps in re-socialization of "hostile elements" and reshaping them into the mold of homo soveticus. All compared to the inhumane and harmful penitentiary systems of the western world, of course. "Arbeit macht frei" indeed! The authors dedicated the book to the XVII Congress of VKP(b), aka "the congress of victors", aka "the congress of the executed" as more than half of its delegates ended up "purged" by Stalin.

The Belomoro-Baltiiski Canal, or simply Belomor Canal as it was popularly known, connected the White Sea and the Baltic Sea and thus provided an important northern waterway for transporting timber and raw materials. It was built exclusively by GULAG prisoners. After the construction was completed in 1933, it was celebrated as one of the greatest achievements of Soviet industrial program, even though it cost thousands of lives of slave laborers.

Please note that the pen in our photo is for size reference.
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