Social Science Research Council

“An Environmental History of Russian and Soviet Modernization Efforts, 1861-1941”

This project will offer an environmental interpretation of modernization efforts in late imperial Russia and the Soviet Union. It will examine physical landscapes, interactions between humans and the environment, and conceptions of nature in order to enlighten our understanding of Russian and Soviet environmental history during a period of major economic, social, and political change. Through the combination of focusing on material changes in the environment and transformed human/nature interaction and on a cultural examination of ideologies and different peoples’ understanding of the natural world, this project will point to new ways to think about modernity and modernization. Specifically, this work of environmental history will scrutinize the impact of the pervasive ideology of Russian “backwardness,” examining how the obsession with this putative condition influenced the treatment of the environment. It will also assess lived experience of people in these diverse environments, discussing, for instance, conflicts between peasants and forestry experts, transformations in the ways that ethnic minorities raised livestock, and forced migrations of prisoners to harsh tundra lands. Finally, this dissertation will compare the fate of the natural world under different political regimes, highlighting continuities and ruptures where they exist.

In order to interrogate how agricultural and industrial projects affected humans and the natural world, this dissertation will entail a comparative case study involving three regions located in Russia’s famous biomes: the Moscow Province in the forested zone of the country, the Orenburg region in the southern steppe lands, and the Kola Peninsula (the Murmansk region) in the northern tundra and taiga. In each region under investigation the project will concentrate on a different branch of economic activity: forestry in Moscow, animal husbandry in Orenburg, and metal and chemical production in Murmansk. The research will include analysis of geographical scholarship, local newspapers, regional literature, diaries, memoirs, and archival documentation.