The Turkestano-Siberian Railroad, or Turksib, was one of the great construction projects of the Soviet Union s First Five-Year Plan. As the major icon to ending the economic "backwardness" of the USSR s minority republics, it stood apart from similar efforts as one of the most potent metaphors for the creation of a unified socialist nation.
Built between December 1926 and January 1931 by nearly 50,000 workers and at a cost of more 161 million rubles, Turksib embodied the Bolsheviks commitment to end ethnic inequality and promote cultural revolution in one the far-flung corners of the old...