#ilycha

[metallurgia]

mindegyik lélegzet halálos

[metallurgia]

[metallurgia]

stalinka disneyland

[metallurgia]

ilych factory newspaper:

1941-1989: LENIN LENIN LENIN LENIN WORKERS FOR THE PARTY GLORY TO METALLURGISTS PROLETARS OF THE WORLD UNITE LENIN MARXISM FIVE YEAR PLAN LENIN

1990: here is your horoscope for the new year

[metallurgia]

a real find: going through the 1990s volumes of ilichevets factory newspaper, i found the first interview with boiko after he was elected as general director, to become the legendary “national director” in the next 20 years whom literally every informants of mine mentions with tears in their eyes.

[metallurgia]

концерты, стихи, песни, караоке / эта как рабочий класс отдыхает

concerts, poems, songs and karaoke - this is how the working class has a rest

excerpt from a poem of a local poet, presented on metallurgy day celebration

[metallurgia]

the mariupol baroque continues: 

today there was a public hearing about the factory emissions in the venues of ilych steelworks. the activists came wearing masks. the hearing was held in a basement where half of the visitors wouldn’t fit, and it looked like this: a woman was reading a document about the emissions, full of numbers, monotonous voice, without a pause. nothing unusual so far if i regard my conference experiences here (the “engage your audience” bullshit didn’t sneak in here yet    from the west), but the fact that there was no sound system and no one could really hear anything strongly suggested the intention of the organizers to create a non-event, fulfilling their obligation on paper but avoiding any possible constructive dialogue. but the audience was not there to be fooled: they started to complain in the first ten minutes, then at one point they completely lost it and attacked the organizers (not physically), outpouring all the tension surrounding the pollution debate. the room became similar to those parliamentary sessions where deputies start a fight (i repeat, no physical atrocities occurred here), and the western media can show in the evening news how barbaric the east has been again.

in the end nothing was achieved: half of the people left, the rest was shouting and directly speaking to the organizers in completely random combinations. even if it wasn’t a conscious effort from the side of the organizers, the performance perfectly symbolized the dynamics between the actors: the angry activists eager to act, and the corporation pouring a hundred percent impenetrable and inflexible monologue in their face. the activists drew the conclusions and requested a bigger room with good sound system for next time. slowly but surely down the road.

[metallurgia]

day of remembrance and grief: ilycha veterans celebrate the anniversary of the beginning of the great patriotic war (june 22)