I thought that the fundamental thing the movie/documentary was trying to show was the different meaning of labor in communist times to the different ethnic groups of Magnitohorsk. As shown by the brief propaganda film, the city was founded for the production of iron ore found in the Ural Mountains. The location of Magnitohorsk is significant for it startles the two continents, Asia and Europe. Consequently, its ethnic diversity is one which is similarly spit. And the thing that brings the two ethnic groups together in Magitohorsk? Labor, work.

However, these two ethnic groups, those from eastern Russian and those relocated from Tartarstan, have very different opinions and outlooks on the labor that is forced upon them. The film follows the two families, the older Tartar couple and the old women who was married to Victor Kalmykov to display these different outlooks as well as the oppression of both groups by the ruling class.

Looking first at the Kalmykovs, they originally embodied Soviet ideals of labor. Viktor lived to work always overproducing, described as, “when he picked up a spade it was like a toy to him.” Labor to Viktor was his life purpose and he graciously did it for the good of the state. And he was rewarded for doing so, given his own room and publicly praised.

Labor for the Tartar couple showed differently. They were content in their home and forcefully removed and transported in cattle cars to Magnitohorsk in a concentration camp like inhabitants. Labor to them was imprisonment.

Both of these groups, however, regardless of their outlook on labor were eventually oppressed by the government. Where Viktor was executed (with only vague reasons given by the film) and his wife forced into interrogation, the Tatar couple remained displaced working in the factory.

The film, importantly, ends on a contemporary note showing two interviews with a mother and a single scientist. These two interviews beg the question of is this sort of forced labor over? Is the oppression that Viktor and the Tartar couple experienced done with?

Yes and no. Although not as blatant, the two interviews show a lack of opportunity for both the mother and the scientist. When asked if she thinks her son will have to work in the factory the mother responds, (paraphrased) “I hope not” with a dark glint in her eye as she ponders this likely eventuality. The scientist women when asked if she wants children responds, (paraphrased) “that is a luxury that I cannot afford” and she remarks that although she can travel freely now (paraphrased), “I cannot afford it.” The similarities of the old and the news tie to their labor and their lack of freedom are astounding.