Time, Forward! (novel)
| Author | Valentin Katayev |
|---|---|
| Original title | Время, вперёд! |
| Country | Soviet Union |
| Language | Russian |
| Publisher | Krasnaya Nov (1932) |
| Media type | print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Preceded by | The Embezzlers |
| Followed by | A White Sail Gleams |
Time, Forward! (Russian: Время, вперёд!, translit. Vremya, vperyod!) is a novel by Valentin Katayev, first published in the January-October (Nos. 1-10) 1932 issues of Krasnaya Nov magazine. It came out as a separate edition in 1933. 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.
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.
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.
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