f years, never came out of the fields and into modern society to acquaint themselves with the new ideologies and inventions. They learned a particular skill, and kept it that way in their resistance to change the way of life in which they were comfortable. Magnitogorsk was a haven for the peoples of countries from all over the world, and in Khaibulin's situation, had people coming from an extremity in which the modern world was a foreign idea. Looking to the opposite end of the spectrum, there were people in Magnitogorsk who were not there by choice. Shabkov, who was an ex-kulak, is a prime example as he was a peasant whose community of peasants lived a little better off than most. His community is an example of a collective farm that Stalin implemented, and is a society where all the members use their individual skills to keep the society working. If a member of a collective farm needed something from a household, was not willing to give something up to the collective farm, then charges would be brought up against the person and they would lose their property. The property would then be given to the collective farm and in this, many people were punished without just cause. This happened to Shabkov, as he saw his farm taken and he was sent to Magnitogorsk, to work off his punishment. Even with all the injustice Shabkov underwent, he served his sentence with dignity and was respected as one of the best workers there. In the beginnings of the Soviet Union, and more specifically Magnitogorsk, a diversified group of people from various ethnic, religions, and national backgrounds all put forth their individual efforts to develop the new Russia. The grueling environment that these people lived in developed them into strong and proud workers. In looking to our home front, I cannot find one example that even borders similarities to life in the Soviet Union under Stalin's Five Year Plans. We can study the times, even look to experts in ...
