Industrial Life in a Limiting Landscape

An Environmental Interpretation of Stalinist Social Conditions in the Far North

Bibliographic Data

ID9969656
AuthorsAndy Bruno (0000-0002-8723-324X, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume55
IssueS18
Pages153-174
Publication date2010-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Review of Social History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-8590 • E-ISSN: 1469-512X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020859010000532
OpenAlexW2106211408
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited27

This paper offers an environmental history of a group of forced migrants who were sent to work on a Soviet industrial project in the far north during the 1930s. As part of the drive to industrialize the country rapidly, the Soviet state deported thousands of peasants who had been declared class enemies to the previously desolate Khibiny Mountains in order to serve as the labor force for a new socialist mining town. These forced migrants became known as “special settlers”. I argue that the integration of the environment as a dynamic force in the social history of Stalinism enriches current explanations for why the Soviet state was often unable to carry out its intentions during industrialization. I also maintain that through the pursuit of the global process of industrialization, the Soviet government contributed to making the special settlers in the Khibiny Mountains vulnerable to natural hazards

Archaeology · Economic history · Government (linguistics · Industrialisation · Limiting · Natural (archaeology · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · State (computer science · Work (physics · Engineering · History · Law · Soviet and Russian History · Urbanization and City Planning · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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