Mastodawn

I've just been deep down one of those Internet rabbit holes.

The Interhelpo project in (what is now) Kyrgyzstan was set up as a utopian society by Czechoslovak people who travelled by train - that took about a month - from Žilina - where I was last month.

It's a fascinating story of dreams, hopes, success, and crushing defeat.

https://jacobin.com/2024/03/kyrgyzstan-bishkek-interhelpo-co-operative-soviet-union-utopia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interhelpo

#history #Zilina #utopia #UtopianSociety #USSR

When Communists Tried to Build Paradise on the Steppe

From 1925 to 1932, a thousand Europeans took the monthlong train ride to Soviet Kyrgyzstan as new members of the Interhelpo workers’ co-op. Their story tells of the utopian hopes placed in the Soviet project — and how they were crushed.