Author | Valentin Katayev |
---|---|
Original title | Время, вперёд! |
Country | Soviet Union |
Language | Russian |
Genre | Socialist realism |
Publisher | Krasnaya Nov (1932) |
Media type | print (Hardback & Paperback) |
Preceded by | The Embezzlers |
Followed by | A White Sail Gleams |
Time, Forward! (Russian : Время, вперёд!, romanized: Vremya, vperyod!) is a novel by Valentin Katayev, first published in the January–October (Nos. 1-10) 1932 issues of Krasnaya Nov magazine. [1] It came out as a separate edition in 1933. [2] The book takes place over the course of one day and describes the attempts of a group of shock workers to break the record for most batches of concrete mixed in a day. [3]
The novel was adapted by Katayev into a screenplay for a 1965 movie.
The novel was based upon the experience its author had in 1931, during his several months' stay in the city of Magnitogorsk, which was still then in the process of being constructed and built. Katayev described it as a 'historical chronicle', driven by the idea of "mobilizing the contemporary readership," but also making a panoramic report on the extraordinary events of the Soviet industrial revolution he'd been witness to, using structures and rhythm experiments to enhance the live, cinematic effect. [1]
The whole book takes place over a 24-hour period on a construction site in the Ural Mountains during the early 1930s, the heyday of Stalin's Five-Year Plans. The novel is centered on an attempt to beat a concrete-pouring record set elsewhere in the Soviet Union by a shock brigade in Kharkov.
In the morning, Margulies, chief of the construction's sixth sector, wakes up and hears that Kharkov beat the concrete-pouring record. Many workers, like Mosya, immediately propose a counterplan to beat the record. In order to ascertain whether beating the record is feasible, he decides to call his sister in Moscow to obtain a recent report on the limits of concrete pouring. Margulies soon examines the day-to-day operations of the site to figure out how he can optimize production, but he initially forbids Ishchenko, a leader of one shock brigade, from trying to beat Kharkov's record.
Nalbandov, chief engineer of the construction, frets about the attempt to break the record; he thinks the effort is not worth the risk. He goes to see Margulies and tell him that allotting less to each mixture is unsafe. Nalbandov believes quantity cannot be raised without sacrificing quality, whereas Margulies believes that proper techniques can allow raised production without sacrificing quality. Nalbandov resents Margulies for his previous successes on the construction, and does not order Margulies to stop his attempt in the hopes that the concrete is of inferior quality.
During this time, the novelist Georgi Vasilyevich is at the construction site to find inspiration for his latest work. Also visiting the site is Ray Roupe, a rich American tourist, who explores the site and exhibits almost comical naïveté. Nalbandov spends most of the day showing him around and it is noted several times that he likes the “cultured” Americans.
Meanwhile, Sayenko and Zagirov, two wayward workers from one of the shifts, gamble together. Around noon, Katya, having successfully found Professor Smolensky, transcribes the report, which demonstrates that it is theoretically possible to beat Kharkov's record. Margulies’ attitude changes, now believing that the brigades can, and should, try to beat the record.
Soon before the beginning of his shift, Ishchenko's wife goes into labor. He stays at the hospital for a time, but soon abandons his wife to return to the worksite and help the crew with the record.
Sayenko and Zagirov venture to a Kazakh settlement, where they get drunk and eventually fight. Sayenko exploits and beats Zagirov, forces him to drink, and insults him for his ethnicity. Zagirov escapes Sayenko's clutches and returns to the construction site to work the last few hours of the shift.
After leaving the site briefly, Nalbandov accosts Margulies again about what he sees as a reckless increase in production. Margulies is willing to do anything to increase production as long as it can be proven to increase efficiency. Nalbandov disapproves of Margulies's actions but nonetheless refuses to act on his disapproval. He lets Margulies continue, but with the stipulation that the concrete will be tested for quality later.
It begins to rain heavily, making work hard but the men fight the through. At one point they must use a fire hose to clear mud off the planking; but in the end they overcome the elements and work continues.
Because of the increased tempo of the shift, several problems arise. At one, the site runs low on cement, and Korneyev demands more cement to beat the record. The warehouse refuses his request, claiming the shift is over its cement quota already. Kutaisov eventually gets the chief to surrender. Korneyev appropriates two railroad cars of cement and brings them to the site without authorization.
Additionally, Semechkin shuts off the water supply as the crew approaches the record again citing the need to “maintain cost accounting” with a meter. However, Margulies has the water restarted.
The crew produces 401 mixtures by the official end of the shift, but Margulies, arguing the time for the stoppage of the water should not be counted, orders the men back to work for the time that the water was off, enough time to get their tempo to 429 mixtures. Ishchenko is immediately accepted into the party and his fellow workers all receive entry into the Komsomol, the Youth Communist League.
In the second to last chapter, Kataev finally places the omitted first chapter, as a dedication to his friend Sasha Smolyan.
Finally, it is revealed at the very end that all the test cubes passed a test by Nalbandov, vindicating Margulies; however, the last lines convey that a crew from another distant site has already beaten the record set by Ishchenko's crew not even a day after they achieve it, thus signaling the forward progress of the Soviet labor front.
Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most widely used building material. Its usage worldwide, ton for ton, is twice that of steel, wood, plastics, and aluminium combined.
A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel (aggregate) together. Cement mixed with fine aggregate produces mortar for masonry, or with sand and gravel, produces concrete. Concrete is the most widely used material in existence and is behind only water as the planet's most-consumed resource.
Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in the early 19th century by Joseph Aspdin, and is usually made from limestone. It is a fine powder, produced by heating limestone and clay minerals in a kiln to form clinker, grinding the clinker, and adding 2 to 3 percent of gypsum. Several types of portland cement are available. The most common, called ordinary portland cement (OPC), is grey, but white portland cement is also available. Its name is derived from its resemblance to Portland stone which is quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. It was named by Joseph Aspdin who obtained a patent for it in 1824. His son William Aspdin is regarded as the inventor of "modern" portland cement due to his developments in the 1840s.
Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ductility. The reinforcement is usually, though not necessarily, steel bars (rebar) and is usually embedded passively in the concrete before the concrete sets. However, post-tensioning is also employed as a technique to reinforce the concrete. In terms of volume used annually, it is one of the most common engineering materials. In corrosion engineering terms, when designed correctly, the alkalinity of the concrete protects the steel rebar from corrosion.
The Battle of Balaclava, fought on 25 October 1854 during the Crimean War, was part of the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–55), an Allied attempt to capture the port and fortress of Sevastopol, Russia's principal naval base on the Black Sea. The engagement followed the earlier Allied victory in September at the Battle of the Alma, where the Russian General Menshikov had positioned his army in an attempt to stop the Allies progressing south towards their strategic goal. Alma was the first major encounter fought in the Crimean Peninsula since the Allied landings at Kalamita Bay on 14 September, and was a clear battlefield success; but a tardy pursuit by the Allies failed to gain a decisive victory, allowing the Russians to regroup, recover and prepare their defence.
Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder, polymeric, or a combination of both. Metal strips often divide sections, or changes in color or material in a pattern. Additional chips may be sprinkled atop the mix before it sets. After it is cured it is ground and polished smooth or otherwise finished to produce a uniformly textured surface. "Terrazzo" is also often used to describe any pattern similar to the original terrazzo floors.
Asphalt concrete is a composite material commonly used to surface roads, parking lots, airports, and the core of embankment dams. Asphalt mixtures have been used in pavement construction since the beginning of the twentieth century. It consists of mineral aggregate bound together with bitumen, laid in layers, and compacted.
Building material is material used for construction. Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, rocks, sand, wood, and even twigs and leaves, have been used to construct buildings and other structures, like bridges. Apart from naturally occurring materials, many man-made products are in use, some more and some less synthetic. The manufacturing of building materials is an established industry in many countries and the use of these materials is typically segmented into specific specialty trades, such as carpentry, insulation, plumbing, and roofing work. They provide the make-up of habitats and structures including homes.
A laborer is a skilled trade, a person who works in manual labor types, especially in the construction and factory industries. Laborers are in a working class of wage-earners in which their only possession of significant material value is their labor. Industries employing laborers include building things such as roads, road paving, buildings, bridges, tunnels, pipelines civil and industrial, and railway tracks. Laborers work with blasting tools, hand tools, power tools, air tools, and small heavy equipment, and act as assistants to other trades as well such as operators or cement masons. The 1st century BC engineer Vitruvius writes that a good crew of laborers is just as valuable as any other aspect of construction. Other than the addition of pneumatics, laborer practices have changed little. With the introduction of field technologies, the laborers have been quick to adapt to the use of this technology as being laborers' workforce.
A concrete mixer is a device that homogeneously combines cement, aggregate, and water to form concrete. A typical concrete mixer uses a revolving drum to mix the components. For smaller volume works, portable concrete mixers are often used so that the concrete can be made at the construction site, giving the workers ample time to use the concrete before it hardens. An alternative to a machine is mixing concrete by hand. This is usually done in a wheelbarrow; however, several companies have recently begun to sell modified tarps for this purpose.
Ready-mix concrete (RMC) is concrete that is manufactured in a batch plant, according to each specific job requirement, then delivered to the job site "ready to use".
The Heron Road Workers Memorial Bridge is a bridge in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It connects Baseline Road to Heron Road and allows east–west traffic to cross both the Rideau River and the Rideau Canal just south of Carleton University. The current bridge was finished in 1967, one year after a bridge collapse killed nine workers and injured over sixty others in the worst construction accident in both Ottawa and Ontario history. It was renamed in 2016 to commemorate the victims of that accident.
The water–cement ratio is the ratio of the mass of water to the mass of cement used in a concrete mix:
Pervious concrete is a special type of concrete with a high porosity used for concrete flatwork applications that allows water from precipitation and other sources to pass directly through, thereby reducing the runoff from a site and allowing groundwater recharge.
Roman concrete, also called opus caementicium, was used in construction in ancient Rome. Like its modern equivalent, Roman concrete was based on a hydraulic-setting cement added to an aggregate.
A concrete plant, also known as a batch plant or batching plant or a concrete batching plant, is equipment that combines various ingredients to form concrete. Some of these inputs include water, air, admixtures, sand, aggregate, fly ash, silica fume, slag, and cement. A concrete plant can have a variety of parts and accessories, including: mixers, cement batchers, aggregate batchers, conveyors, radial stackers, aggregate bins, cement bins, heaters, chillers, cement silos, batch plant controls, and dust collectors.
Time, Forward! is a 1965 Soviet drama film directed by Sofiya Milkina and Mikhail Schweitzer based on a novel with the same name and a screenplay by Valentin Kataev. The film was produced by Mosfilm, a unit of the State Committee for Cinematography (Goskino). The famous musical score was composed by Georgy Sviridov.
The Dnepropetrovsk maniacs are Ukrainian serial killers responsible for a string of murders in Dnepropetrovsk (Dnipropetrovsk) in June and July 2007. The case gained additional notoriety because the killers made video recordings of some of the murders, with one of the videos leaking to the Internet. Two 19‑year-olds, Viktor Sayenko, born 1 March 1988, and Igor Suprunyuk, born 20 April 1988, were arrested and charged with 21 murders.
Concrete has relatively high compressive strength, but significantly lower tensile strength. The compressive strength is typically controlled with the ratio of water to cement when forming the concrete, and tensile strength is increased by additives, typically steel, to create reinforced concrete. In other words we can say concrete is made up of sand, ballast, cement and water.
After the Wehrmacht occupied the Channel Islands on 30 June 1940, they assessed the existing defences to determine if they would be of use. The Germans found the Islands' fortifications antiquated and woefully inadequate for modern warfare.