1937 Stalin

What was the year 1937 like for the Soviet people? In modern perception, it is the year of the Great Terror and repression, but did it remain so in people's memory? Historian Yaroslav Bushmitsky (known as the blogger Memoirist) based on Soviet and foreign publications argues that for contemporaries, the year 1937 was the heyday of the young Soviet country and a year of great achievements: cultural, scientific, and industrial. 1937 was an industrial upsurge: tens of thousands of new factories were built, dozens of new cities were established. In that year, the Soviet coat of arms appeared, pensions by age were introduced for the first time, and elections to the Supreme Soviet were held for the first time. Soviet athletes won the Workers' Olympiad in Antwerp, the Moscow Art Theatre received standing ovations in Paris. Soviet scientists created a drifting station at the pole, held an international geological congress, and opened a unique physical institute. Chkalov flew to the USA via the North Pole. "Stalin's 1937" is a book about what the country actually experienced in this pivotal year for the Soviet Union.