l88 THE SOCIALIST SIXTH OF THE WORLD

of today produce more pig-iron than all the eighty-seven
furnaces of Tsarist Russia.

This dangerous concentration of industry was in no
sense due to lack of raw material in other localities.

Soviet geologists have quickly discovered and mapped
fresh sources of supplies, and prepared the way for the
thrilling story of re-mapping industry and population.

w

In The Times Atlas, in obscure piint, you may find the
place-name Magniinaya (Magnet Mountain), lying 617
metres above sea level and in the extreme south of the
Ural Mountains. On the right bank of the small river
which skirted the mountain lay the Cossack village of
Magnitnaya.

In 1929, wind-swept, flowery meadows lay beyond the
village. Herds of cattle browsed up the slope of the
Atach Mountain. Today one of the world's supreme steel
centres hums and roars where the cattle grazed. The
Atach Mountain was one vast lump of iron ore, con-
taining 63 per cent, of iron, and weighing 300 million
tons. The Magnet Mountain gives it its appropriate
name of Magnitogorsk.

An area of 54 square kilometres was selected for the
site of Magnitogorsk. Five square kilometres were for the
metallurgical plant.

Workers of thirty-five nationalities assembled and built
barracks for workers, a settlement for foreign specialists,
co-operative stores, restaurants, hospitals, nurseries, clubs,
and a theatre. A ferro-concrete dam was thrown across
the little river, and a lake of 13^ squaie kilometres was
formed. The work was done in winter with slightly
heated concrete, the first experiment of its kind in the
world.

Aerodromes were built, railways cut, roads laid: tractors,
trucks, automobiles jostled with caravans of horses and
camels on the new highways. Centuries were telescoped
into months.

Sixty thousand workers settled, built two electric stations,