Death of the Dream

Not much is different for the young boy building a blast furnace in the Russia of 60 years ago and the youthful coke oven tender who labors in the same factory today

In the early 1930s, when communism still shone with the promise of a bright future, Margaret Bourke-White went to the Soviet Union to capture the seismic changes of a society bent on forging itself anew. The country was a mystery then, and her photographs and journal entries, excerpted here, laid bare the dedication and raw muscle fueling a blast furnace of a nation as it struggled out of feudalism. Sixty years later, TIME invited Anthony Suau to retrace Bourke-White's journey. If her pictures were the positive, his are the negative. The Russia that emerges from Suau's frames is a land of...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!