如今，80英里长的莫斯科运河是莫斯科人休闲的来源，也是游客的渠道，为莫斯科提供了超过60%的饮用水。然而，过去对这些日常活动影响重大：这条运河是由斯大林主义鼎盛时期的古拉格囚犯修建的，数千人在修建过程中丧生。
在这本内容广泛的书中，辛西娅·鲁德（Cynthia Ruder）认为，运河的修建在物理上体现了斯大林主义的意识形态，它所创造的垂直、水平、水下、意识形态、艺术和隐喻空间与国家统治苏联内外所有空间的愿望产生了共鸣。鲁德借鉴了文化地理学和空间研究的理论结构，对致力于并赞扬这一标志性斯大林主义建筑项目的各种结构和文化产品进行解释和语境化。通过广泛的档案来源、个人采访和当代纪录片材料，包括各种各样的文物——从水道、建筑、绘画、雕塑、文学和纪录片作品，以及古拉格本身。建筑斯大林主义的结论是，通过分析当前收回运河遗产的努力，将其作为纪念空间，以确保建造运河的受害者和死者被铭记。
这本书对所有研究斯大林主义及其复杂来世在当今俄罗斯无所不在性质的学者来说都是必不可少的读物。
vBuilding Stalinism: The Moscow Canal and the Creation of Soviet Space
Today the 80-mile-long Moscow Canal is a source of leisure for Muscovites, a conduit for tourists and provides the city with more than 60% of its potable water. Yet the past looms heavy over these quotidian activities: the canal was built by Gulag inmates at the height of Stalinism and thousands died in the process.
In this wide-ranging book, Cynthia Ruder argues that the construction of the canal physically manifests Stalinist ideology and that the vertical, horizontal, underwater, ideological, artistic and metaphorical spaces created by it resonate with the desire of the state to dominate all space within and outside the Soviet Union. Ruder draws on theoretical constructs from cultural geography and spatial studies to interpret and contextualise a variety of structural and cultural products dedicated to, and in praise of, this signature Stalinist construction project. Approached through an extensive range of archival sources, personal interviews and contemporary documentary materials these include a diverse body of artefacts – from waterways, structures, paintings, sculptures, literary and documentary works, and the Gulag itself. Building Stalinism concludes by analysing current efforts to reclaim the legacy of the canal as a memorial space that ensures that those who suffered and died building it are remembered.
This is essential reading for all scholars working on the all-pervasive nature of Stalinism and its complex afterlife in Russia today.
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