Preview

Surgut State Pedagogical University Bulletin

Advanced search

Industrial Water Pollution in the USSR: the Case of the Nerl River (1937–1939)

https://doi.org/10.26105/SSPU.2023.87.6.014

Abstract

This article analyzes the peculiarities of conflicts over industrial pollution of rivers, based on the study of the Petrovsky Distillery case that occurred in 1937–38. The researchers pay attention to the frequent and rather polarized assessments of historians who have studied pollution issues in the context of Soviet environmental history. They examine how public organizations and local government institutions were involved in addressing pollution problems during the industrialization era and how the state prioritized between industrial growth and environmental protection. The authors find that such decisions were made more quickly in the Soviet period than in the late Russian Empire. However, they emphasize that this was partly due to the lack of active participation of local self-government and civic associations, which only initiated investigations, while decisions depended on higher state authorities.

About the Author

I. I. Mantsurov
History and Archives Institute of Russian State University for the Humanities; of Russian State Archive of Literature and Art
Russian Federation

Mantserov Ivan Igorevich — Postgraduate Student of the Department of Source Studies of the History and Archives Institute of RSU for the Humanities, Chief Specialist of the Department of Information and Use of Documents of Russian State Archive of Literature and Art



References

1. Agafonova A. B. Reforma gorodskogo samoupravleniya 1870 goda v kontekste ekologicheskoi istorii [City government reform of 1870 in the context of environmental history] // Bulletin of Surgut State Pedagogical University. 2016. Vol. 6. № 45. Ss. 49–54. (In Russian).

2. Afanas`ev G. Yu. Ekologiya stolichnyh gorodov (po materialam periodicheskoi pechati vtoroi poloviny XIX — nachala XX v.) [Ecology of capital cities (on materials of periodicals of the second half of XIX — beginning of XX century)] // Ekologicheskaya istoriya Rossii: lokal'nye izmereniya i perspektivy integral'nyh issledovanii [Environmental History of Russia: Local Dimensions and Prospects for Integral Studies]. Cherepovets: Sherepovets State University, 2017. Ss. 49–52. (In Russian).

3. O zagryaznenii reki Nerl` stochnymi vodami Petrovskogo spirtozavoda. 23 aprelya — 4 iyunya 1939 [On the pollution of the Nerl River by wastewater from the Petrovsky distillery. April 23 — June 4, 1939] // State Archive of the Russian Federation. F. Р5446. Op. 23. D. 1591. (In Russian).

4. Cherkinsky S. N. Sanitarnye usloviya spuska stochnyh vod v vodoemy [Sanitary conditions of sewage water release into water bodies]. Moscow: Publishing House of the Ministry of Communal Economy of the RSFSR, 1962. 224 s. (In Russian).

5. Brain S. Song of the Forest: Russian Forestry and Stalinist Environmentalism, 1905–1953. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011. 232 s. (In English).

6. Bruno A. The nature of Soviet power. An Arctic environmental history. Cambridge University Press, 2016. 311 s. (In English).

7. Feshbach M., Friendly A. Ecocide in the USSR: health and nature under siege. Ecocide In The USSR. London: Aurum Press, 1992. 408 s. (In English).


Review

For citations:


Mantsurov I.I. Industrial Water Pollution in the USSR: the Case of the Nerl River (1937–1939). Surgut State Pedagogical University Bulletin. 2023;(6 (87)):125-130. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.26105/SSPU.2023.87.6.014

Views: 105


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.


ISSN 2078-7626 (Print)