Editing Moscow Metro (section)

====Mobilization====
The [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] had the power to mobilize; because the party was a single source of control, it could focus its resources. The most notable example of mobilization in the Soviet Union occurred during [[Eastern Front (World War II)|World War II]]. The country also mobilized in order to complete the Moscow Metro with unprecedented speed. One of the main motivation factors of the mobilization was to overtake the West and prove that a socialist metro could surpass capitalist designs. It was especially important to the Soviet Union that socialism succeed industrially, technologically, and artistically in the 1930s, since capitalism was at a low ebb during the Great Depression.

The person in charge of Metro mobilization was [[Lazar Kaganovich]]. A prominent Party member, he assumed control of the project as chief overseer. Kaganovich was nicknamed the "Iron Commissar"; he shared Stalin's fanatical energy, dramatic oratory flare, and ability to keep workers building quickly with threats and punishment.<ref name="Jenks 2000 697–724"/> He was determined to realise the Moscow Metro, regardless of cost. Without Kaganovich's managerial ability, the Moscow Metro might have met the same fate as the [[Palace of the soviets|Palace of the Soviets]]: failure.

[[File:Kievsk APL 31.jpg|thumb|left|[[Kiyevskaya (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line)|Kiyevskaya]] (Line 3) (1954) is decorated with a series of [[mosaics]] by various artists depicting life in [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukraine]] which was then part of the Soviet Union.]]
This was a comprehensive mobilization; the project drew resources and workers from the entire Soviet Union. In his article, archeologist Mike O'Mahoney describes the scope of the Metro mobilization:

{{blockquote|A specialist workforce had been drawn from many different regions, including miners from the Ukrainian and Siberian coalfields and construction workers from the iron and steel mills of Magnitogorsk, the Dniepr hydroelectric power station, and the Turkestan-Siberian railway... materials used in the construction of the metro included iron from Siberian Kuznetsk, timber from northern Russia, cement from the Volga region and the northern Caucasus, bitumen from Baku, and marble and granite from quarries in Karelia, the Crimea, the Caucasus, the Urals, and the Soviet Far East|Mike O'Mahoney|Archeological Fantasies: Constructing History on the Moscow Metro<ref>{{cite journal |last=O'Mahoney |first=Mike |title=Archaeological Fantasies: Constructing History on the Moscow Metro |journal=The Modern Language Review |date=January 2003 |volume=98 |issue=1 |pages=138–150 |jstor=3738180 |doi=10.2307/3738180|s2cid=161592843 }}</ref>|source=}}

Skilled engineers were scarce, and unskilled workers were instrumental to the realization of the metro. The ''Metrostroi'' (the organization responsible for the Metro's construction) conducted massive recruitment campaigns. It printed 15,000 copies of ''Udarnik metrostroia'' (''Metrostroi Shock Worker'', its daily newspaper) and 700 other newsletters (some in different languages) to attract unskilled laborers. Kaganovich was closely involved in the recruitment campaign, targeting the [[Komsomol]] generation because of its strength and youth.