Network conference in St Petersburg 26-28 November 2015

The Network is organising a joint conference together with the National Research University Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg, on 26-28 November 2015, entitled:

Natural Resources, Landscapes and Climate in Russia and Neighbouring Countries

View the Conference programme

Lake Baikal field trip summer 2015

The Leverhulme international network "Exploring Russia's Environmental History and Natural Resources" will be conducting a field trip to Lake Baikal, Siberia, from 25 July – 4 August 2015.

The group will meet in Ulan-Ude and visit various places on and around the lake including the Barguzin Nature Reserve (Russia’s first Zapovednik), the Ushkanyi Islands (home to the nerpa – the endemic Baikal ringed seals Pusa sibirica), Olkhon island (with its important Buriat sites) and finishing up in Irkutsk. Workshops will be held in the Barguzin Nature Reserve and Irkutsk and local experts will be involved throughout. 

An outline itinerary and a brief bibliography of the environmental history of the area are both available on our website.

Olchon Shaman Rock, Lake Baikal. Photo courtesy of Kirsten Buerger via Wikimedia Commons

New Networking website - connect with others working in your field

David Moon and Victoria Beale at the University of York, UK, have created a networking website for people studying the environmental history of Russia and its neighbours. Our main focus is on the Post-Soviet space, the USSR, the Russian Empire and its predecessors. This is a place to discover and connect with others working in the field.

The network is for anyone who identifies themselves as an Environmental Historian, from any discipline, including academic staff/faculty, postgraduate/graduate students and independent scholars who have published in the field.

If this describes you, we invite you to add your profile to the growing number on the website. http://www.reh.spruz.com

Network poster

A poster providing information about the Network is now available to download from the website at http://www.york.ac.uk/history/research/majorprojects/russiasenvironmentalhistory/#tab-7 under the subheading "Network Publicity"

Solovetsky – from spirituality to coercion. And back...

A photo essay on the Network trip to the Solovetsky Islands last August, produced by participant Ion Von Sucala, is now available to view on the website. You can access this, and other essays and information about the trip, at http://www.york.ac.uk/history/research/majorprojects/russiasenvironmentalhistory/events/#tab-2 

Health and Safety for Chernobyl trip

We have now prepared a Health and Safety Briefing for participants on the Network trip to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in July 2014. It is available from the Resources and Publicity page of the website.

This was written by Victoria Beale (Network Facilitator) in conjunction with Ian Haslam (Head of Radiation Protection at the University of Leeds following a meeting between Victoria, Ian, David Moon (Lead Investigator) and  Chris Teeling (Health and Fire Safety Officer at the University of York).

York Talk "Interactions in environmental history" summary

The summary handout from David Moon's 'York Talk' on "Interactions in Environmental History" (8/1/14) is now available from the Resources and Publicity page of the website.

Network showcased at 'York Talks'

On Wednesday 8th January the work of the Network will come under the spotlight in the University of York's inspiring public showcase - 'York Talks' http://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/public-lectures/spring-2014/york-talk/.

Styled on the highly successful ‘TED’ Talks, 'York Talks' will highlight some of the University's most innovative and challenging research in an accessible, fast paced series of 15-minute talks.The aim is to share and explain our research to a wide audience of academics, researchers and the general public.

The event, the first of its kind at the University, illuminates the work of the University's Anniversary Professors, all of whom are leading edge academics appointed in 2013 to mark York’s 50th year. It will be opened by the new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Koen Lamberts in his first public event.

As one of the Anniversary Professors, David Moon will be presenting the work of the Leverhulme International Network in a talk entitled "Interactions in environmental history".

Essays on the Network Trip to the Solovetskii Islands

A number of Network members who took part in the trip to the Solovetskii Islands in August 2013 have contributed essays on the trip to the Network website. These can be viewed at:

http://www.york.ac.uk/history/research/majorprojects/russiasenvironmentalhistory/#tab-7

University of York highlights work of Network

The University of York has published an article about the Network on their website http://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/features/russian-environmental-history/

Prof David Moon presents Network to Leverhulme Trust workshop

On Friday 18 October, David Moon made a brief presentation on the network at a workshop on 'Leverhulme Trust research funding', addressed by Professor Gordon Marshall, the Director of the Leverhulme Trust. This took place in the Humanities Research Centre at York University.

http://www.york.ac.uk/hrc/events/2013-14/autumn-2013/proposition-leverhulme/

More photos from the Solovetskii Islands and St Petersburg

Ion Voicu Sucala is a Ph.D. student at the University of Glasgow researching “The selection of the organisational elite in Communist Romania”. He is a visiting researcher with the Network and has published many of his photos from the recent Network trip to St Petersburg and the Solovetskii Islands on his blog http://argo-traveller.blogspot.co.uk

In particular his photos from the Solovetskii Islands can be found at
http://argo-traveller.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/solovki-islands-august-2013.html and
http://argo-traveller.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/solovki-archipelago-august-2013.html

and his photos from St Petersburg are at http://argo-traveller.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/st-petersburg-august-2013.html

More photos from the trip can be found on the Network website at http://www.york.ac.uk/history/research/majorprojects/russiasenvironmentalhistory/solovkigallery/

St Petersburg - photo by Ion Voicu Sucala

Nicholas Breyfogle's Blog on the Solovki trip

Network Partner Prof Nicholas Breyfogle from Ohio State University has created the blog Enironment–Water–History: Explorations in Ecological History which features a series of posts on the Network's recent trip to St Petersburg and the Solovetskii Islands. You can find it at https://u.osu.edu/breyfogle.1/

To the Blockade Stickleback
The shelling has fallen silent and the bombing too,
But, to this day, praise is sounded
To the blockade little fish
That helped the people to survive
                        — M. G. Aminova
                        –plaque erected for the 300-year anniversary of Kronstadt.

Photo by Nicholas Breyfogle

Field Trip to the Solovetskii Islands - August 2013

Monastery on Solovki - photo by Abi Sutton

In August, Network partners and invited specialists participated in a field trip to the Solovetskii Islands in the White Sea. These islands have a unique flora and fauna and have been inhabited since pre-history, hosting, among others, a fishing community, an Orthodox monastery and the first Soviet labour camp (gulag). The islands are designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and offer rich materials to investigate the relationship between state, society, culture, religion and nature, and the role of science and technology, in Russia’s Arctic region.


The programme for the trip, together with essays and photos by participants, can be found at:
www.york.ac.uk/history/research/majorprojects/russiasenvironmentalhistory/events/#tab-2 

Ohio State University

This article from Ohio State University celebrates the formation of the Network and the contribution of Professor Nicholas Breyfogle.

http://artsandsciences.osu.edu/news/breaking-fresh-ground-environmental-history-takes-a-new-direction

Network website launched

The website for the network is now live at: http://www.york.ac.uk/history/research/majorprojects/russiasenvironmentalhistory/ 

You are welcome to leave comments on the website here.

International Network Established

We are delighted to announce that The Leverhulme Trust has awarded an International Network Grant to the University of York for a project led by Professor David Moon entitled :

Exploring Russia’s Environmental History and Natural Resources

The network will comprise specialists from York and Glasgow universities in the UK, Georgetown and Ohio State universities in the USA, and the European University and Higher School of Economics in St Petersburg, Russia.

The network’s activities will revolve around a series of annual workshops/field trips to specific locations: the Solovetskii Islands in the White Sea; the Chernobyl’ exclusion zone in Ukraine; and Lake Baikal in Siberia. The project will combine field work in these locations with conventional historical research in order to enhance our understanding of the history of Russian scientific research, exploitation of natural resources, environmental disasters, and nature conservation.

By adding field work to conventional historical research we will enhance our understanding of the history of Russian scientific research, exploitation of natural resources, environmental disasters, and nature conservation.

The network will run for three years beginning July 2013.

Members of the network team after a preliminary meeting and workshop on the historic icebreaker Krasin (which was built on the river Tyne in 1916) in St Petersburg in March 2013.