Exploring Russia's Environmental

History and Natural Resources

Funded by a Leverhulme International Network grant, specialists

in several disciplines from British, American and Russian

universities are studying the environmental history and natural

resources of lands that have come under Russian rule. Led by

David Moon of the University of York, they are combining

conventional historical research with field work.

At the heart of the activities are field trips to locations that

illustrate key aspects of the environmental history of these lands:

the Solovetskii Islands in the White Sea; the Chernobyl Exclusion

Zone in Ukraine; and Lake Baikal in Siberia.

The environmental history of Russia and the former Soviet

Union has been generally misunderstood. First thoughts are of

gargantuan schemes to conquer nature, ruthless exploitation of

natural resources, and disasters on the scale of Chernobyl. The

undeniable damage to the environment, however, is only one side

of the story.

Lake Baikal, Siberia, is the world’s oldest and deepest

lake with many rare endemic species. A major religious centre

for millennia, it has become a site of scientific research since the

17th century and nature conservation since 1916. There have

been recent controversies over pollution from paper mills, the

impact of a hydroelectric dam and a planned oil pipeline.

Network Institutions:

The University of York, UK

Glasgow University, UK

Georgetown University, USA

The Ohio State University,

USA

The European University at St

Petersburg, Russia

The National Research

University Higher School of

Economics in St Petersburg,

Russia

Network members exploring the flora of the Solovetskii Islands

The Chernobyl

Exclusion Zone, Ukraine,

site of the 1986 nuclear disaster.

Paradoxically, the removal of the

population from a 30 km radius

around the reactor has created an

important research site into nature

conservation.

Website: www.york.ac.uk/history/research/majorprojects/russiasenvironmentalhistory/

The network aims to:

offer a more nuanced interpretation of the

interaction between the human and natural worlds in

these lands and consider the changing ‘balance of

power’ between them.

locate Russian and Soviet environmental history in a

global comparative perspective in order to question

notions of Russian ‘exceptionalism’ and highlight areas

of Russian innovation.

offer a historical perspective on important

contemporary environmental issues.

take the network partners in new research directions

and contribute to the further development of

environmental history of Russia and in Russia.

Network members navigate the

canals on the Solovetskii Islands

Email: history-russenv@york.ac.uk

The Solovetskii Islands in the White Sea

have important flora and fauna and have been inhabited

since pre-history. From the 15th century, monks

organized fisheries and marine mammal hunting, and

later built a network of canals. The first Soviet labour

camp (gulag) was located here in 1921-39.