Magnitogorsk, de jeugd van de hoogovens

As a reaction to the positive picture painted by Joris Ivens in his film Pesn o gerojach (SU 1932) (Heroes' Song) of the construction of the iron foundries at Magnitogorsk, Pieter Jan Smit went in search of the true story of this Stalinist prestige project. While volunteers from Eastern and Western Europe went to the Urals in the thirties, most work was done by more than 35,000 forced labourers. Pieter Jan Smit talked to three generations of inhabitants of Magnitogorsk: the original pioneers, their children and the children now growing up in the smoke of the foundries. What has come of the heroes from Ivens' film and what are the ideals of today's 'foundry youth'?