Title of Research

The Great Construction Project and the Little Man: A Case Study of DniproHES, 1920s-1930s

Abstract

This research represents how the image of Dnieper Hydroelectric Station as an industrial giant and as a symbol of Man’s victory over Nature was formed in the 1920s and 1930s. This book demonstrates how the construction of DniproHES and a campaign on writing its history became tools for teaching workers to remember and speak “correctly” about the past and present. Writing the history of the DniproHES started simultaneously with the construction of the power station itself.

This research examines the portrayal of the New Man in this history, demonstrating why Soviet and foreign workers tried to tell about the “self” and the “collective” (us), and what they hid in their tales (for example, the Holodomor of 1932-1933). It shows how and why the New Man of Soviet Ukraine in the 1920-1930s differed from the all-Union concept of what a Soviet citizen should be. Also, this book offers a complex analysis of the differences between DniproHES and other Soviet industrial facilities, including Russian ones.

Short Biography

Oksana Klymenko is a Senior Lecturer in the History Department at the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. She also serves as Technical Secretory of the journal “NaUKMA Research Papers. History.” She completed her kandidat nauk in 2019, supported by scholarships from the University of Giessen and the Shevchenko Scientific Society in the US. She has also received a Junior Visiting Fellowship at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna (Austria). In addition to teaching courses on the history of Ukraine, she participates in international conferences and organizes scholarly events and seminars.