Exploring Russia's Environmental
History and Natural Resources
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.
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.
The network aims to:
Lake Baikal, Siberia, is the world’s oldest and deepest
 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.
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 members navigate the
canals on the Solovetskii Islands
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 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.
Email: [email protected]
 The National Research
University Higher School of
Economics in St Petersburg,
Russia
Website: www.york.ac.uk/history/research/majorprojects/russiasenvironmentalhistory/