It is related that Stalin once requested that a canal, a highway, or a railroad be built between points A and B. Angered by the ineptitude of civil engineers and others who procrastinated by introducing all possible considerations and complications into this simple task, he demanded a map of the region to be given him, grabbed a ruler and a pencil, and presto—he drew a straight line between the two points. As his thumb was unintentionally protruding over the edge of the ruler, a small bump appeared on an otherwise straight line. And this is precisely how his small project was implemented. His thumb, enlarged to scale, can still be seen as it was originally inscribed into the flat landscape of the Soviet Union. Were one to travel from point A to point B or vice versa, one would not notice anything unusual.

Addendum (October 8, 1983)

An aesthetic vision, a creative impulse, or at least an appreciation of geometric simplicity and transparency, is discernible in this formidable intervention. With all due respect, a historical parallel comes to mind: the gigantic engineering projects proposed and sometimes executed by Christo. Stalin can be considered as Christo’s unrecognized precursor, whose dreams, undreamt of since the inauguration of the Enlightenment, were thwarted only by the abysmal poverty of the First Land of Socialism and the destruction of the Great Patriotic War.