A major production site of Soviet KV and T-34 tanks in WWII, the town of Cheliabinsk in the Urals was nicknamed 'Tankograd', its civilian machine-building factories swiftly converted to arms production. This book gives a social, economic and political panorama that describes everyday life in a typical Soviet company town during the Stalin era.

LENNART SAMUELSON has been doing Archival Research in Russia since the early 1990s. His publications include Plans for Stalin's War-Machine: Tukhachevskii and Military-Economic Planning, 1925-1941 and Stalin, NKVD and the Repressions, 1936-1938, co-authored with Vladimir Khaustov.

List of Illustration Foreword Cheliabinsk as a Mirror of Russia in the Twentieth Century From the Civil War to the Five-year Plans The Industrial City as Socialist Vision and Soviet Reality The Tractor Factory's Civilian Production and Military Potential Stagnation and Streamlining in the Whirlwinds of Terror, 1936-39 Industrial Preparedness in Cheliabinsk 1939-1940 Production Conditions for Heavy Tanks in the Urals 1418 Long Days on the Home Front in the Southern Urals The New Military-Industrial Complex in Cheliabinsk during the Cold War Historical Memory and Research in Today's Cheliabinsk Bibliography Index