About the book-Magnitogorsk used as a case study demonstrating the search for socialism and the problems encountered in pursuit of that goal: the creation of a new "Soviet" man, a new economic structure, and an industrialized civilization. -In context with the historiography of the subject. Synthesizes elements from both revisionist and totalitarianist interpretations, retaining an active view of the subject but at the same time acknowledging the significance of Bolshevik ideology. -The history of the USSR needs to be reincorporated into European history, not excluded as a bizarre anomaly. He draws a continuity from the Enlightenment.