The Green Power of Socialism: Wood, Forest, and the Making of Soviet Industrially Embedded Ecology

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Elena Kochetkova

The Green Power of Socialism

Wood, Forest, and the Making of Soviet Industrially Embedded Ecology

Elena Kochetkova

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English

MIT Press
20 February 2024

Politics & government

How the Soviet forestry industry developed a unique form of industrial ecology-a commonsense approach toward natural resources for the economy and society.

How the Soviet forestry industry developed a unique form of industrial ecology-a commonsense approach toward natural resources for the economy and society.

In The Green Power of Socialism, Elena Kochetkova examines the relationship between nature and humans under state socialism by looking at the industrial role of Soviet forests. The book explores evolving Soviet policies of wood consumption, discussing how professionals working in the forestry industry of the Soviet state viewed the present and future of forests by considering them both a natural resource and a trove of industrial material. When faced with the prospect of wood shortages, these specialists came to develop new industry-ecology paradigms. Kochetkova looks at the materiality of Soviet industry through forests and wood to show how, paradoxically, industrial ecology emerged and developed as a by-product of the Soviet industrialization project.

The Green Power of Socialism also discusses how post-Soviet industry has abandoned these socialist practices and the idea of nature as a complicated ecosystem that provides a crucial service to society. Emphasizing the technological and environmental impacts of the Cold War, Kochetkova critically reconsiders two explanatory models that have become dominant in the historiography of Soviet approaches to nature over the last decades-ecocide and environmentalism. Within the context of the current environmental crisis, the book invites readers to reevaluate state socialism as a complex phenomenon with sophisticated interactions between nature and industry. In so doing, it contributes a fresh perspective on the activities of socialist experts and their view of nature, shedding light on Soviet state industrial and environmental policy and its continuing legacy in the present day.

By: Elena Kochetkova
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 203mm, Width: 133mm,
Weight: 369g
ISBN: 9780262547451
ISBN 10: 0262547457
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 20 February 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix INTRODUCTION xiii 1 ALARM OVER THE FOREST 1 2 THE INDUSTRY EXPANDS INTO SIBERIA AND THE FAR EAST 29 3 THE QUEST FOR A NO-WASTE ECONOMY 69 4 REED BECOMES WOOD VALUE 103 5 THE PRESTIGE OF MODERN TECHNOLOGIES 131 EPILOGUE: THE CONTINUITY AND DISRUPTION OF GREEN INDUSTRY IN THE (POST)-SOVIET ERA 157 NOTES 173 INDEX 205

Elena Kochetkova is Associate Professor in Modern European Economic History at the Department of Archeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion at the University of Bergen. She served as a Secretary of the European Society of Environmental History from 2019 to 2021.

Reviews for The Green Power of Socialism: Wood, Forest, and the Making of Soviet Industrially Embedded Ecology

""A compelling new book about the wood and forestry industry in the Soviet Union and its connection to larger industrial developments . . . An excellent addition to the literature on this subject."" —CHOICE