Hero Projects: The Russian Empire and Big Technology from Lenin to Putin by Paul R.Josephson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024. 344 pp. $45.95. ISBN 978‐0‐19‐769839‐6
Journal: The Russian Review
Year: 2024

This book offers an impressive panorama of the large-scale engineering projects undertaken on the Kremlin’s behalf over the past hundred years. The term “heroic” in the book’s title refers to their scale, massive mobilization of human and material resources, and symbolic significance as outstanding achievements of the Soviet people or tangible proof of the country’s ability to compete with other scientific and technological superpowers in the present. Drawing on a rather eclectic collection of s