Imperial Desert Dreams (eBook)

Cotton Growing and Irrigation in Central Asia, 1860-1991

Julia Obertreis (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2017 | 1. Auflage
536 Seiten
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Unipress (Verlag)
978-3-8470-0786-9 (ISBN)

Infos

Beamte, Ingenieure und Wissenschaftler des Russischen Reiches und später der Sowjetunion planten die Ausweitung und Modernisierung der Bewässerungssysteme und des Baumwollanbaus in Zentralasien. Die Studie, die das heutige Usbekistan und Turkmenistan untersucht, betont die diskursiven und politischen Kontinuitäten über die Zäsur von 1917 hinweg. Einer der zentralen Topoi war die Umwandlung von ?toten? Steppen und Wüsten in ?blühende Oasen?. Der high modernism erreichte seinen Höhepunkt in den Nachkriegsjahrzehnten. Seit den 1970er Jahren entwickelte sich eine Öko-Kritik an der sowjetischen Modernisierung, die in der Perestrojkazeit an Fahrt aufnahm. Letztendlich trugen die ökologischen und ökonomischen sowie sozialen Folgewirkungen der wachstumsfixierten Modernisierung zum Zusammenbruch des kommunistischen Regimes bei.   Officials, engineers and scientists in the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union envisaged the expansion and modernization of irrigation systems and cotton growing in Central Asia. Focusing on the region of today's Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, this book highlights the continuities in discourse and policies beyond the historical divide of 1917. One of the central topoi was the transformation of 'dead' lands into 'blossoming oases'. High modernism policies hit their peak in the post-war decades. From the 1970s, an ecological critique evolved which gained momentum in the Perestroika period. Ultimately, the grave ecological, economic and social consequences of the growth-fixated modernization contributed to the downfall of the Communist regime.

Prof. Dr. Obertreis ist Inhaberin des Lehrstuhls für Neuere und Neueste Geschichte mit dem Schwerpunkt der Geschichte Osteuropas an der Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.

Inhalt

Title Page 4
Copyright 5
Table of Contents 8
Body 12
Acknowledgements 12
Introduction 16
People, Geography, and Agriculture 26
Concepts, Approaches, and Questions 34
Sources, Languages, and Transliteration 48
I. Russian Colonial Rule in Turkestan, 1860–1917 50
The Motivation for the Conquest 52
The “Blossoming Oases” 57
A Cotton Fever 61
Local “Customs” and Local Knowledge 66
Engineers' Fantasies 77
The Ancient Riverbed of the Amu Darya 82
The Opening Up of the Hungry Steppe 86
The “Obituary List” of Failures and Moral Superiority 90
The Striving for “Cotton Autonomy” 97
The Legal Framework and Scepticism about “Capitalism” 104
The Ministry of Agriculture and the Turkestan Agricultural Society 116
The Taming of Nature through Infrastructure, 1910–1914 122
The First World War 131
Conclusion 133
II. Soviet Nation-Building and Stalinism, 1917–1944 140
The Advent of the Bolsheviks 141
Georgii K. Rizenkampf and his Cotton and Irrigation Program 148
“National Delimitation” and the “Land-Water Reform” 157
The Collectivization of Agriculture and the First Five-Year Plan 164
The Attack on “Bourgeois Specialists” 172
Haste, Coercion, and Incentives: Cotton Growing in the 1930s 179
Progressive Methods in Agriculture and the Experience of the Peasants 189
Terror 198
Stagnation in Irrigation Construction and Management 202
Scientific Institutes and the Training of (Indigenous) Specialists 207
“People's Construction” 214
The All-Union Agricultural Exhibition of 1939 and the Republics' National Designs 223
The Second World War 231
Conclusion 237
III. High Modernism in Central Asia, 1945–1969 246
Stalinism and Cotton Growing after the War 249
Agricultural Politics after Stalin 253
The Educational Boom and the Training of Indigenous Experts 265
The Hungry Steppe: a Microstudy 274
The New Zone 281
The Memoirs of the “Hungrysteppers” 287
Akop Sarkisov and the Recruitment of Cadres 290
Leadership Styles in the “Hungry Steppe Construction Trust” 302
Personal Networks: from Yangier to Tashkent to Moscow 305
Central Asians and the Druzhba narodov 315
“Teachers and Educators” 320
The “River of Happiness” – the Karakum Canal 322
The Drainage Problem 330
The Backwardness of the Others 335
“Engineerization”, “Chemicalization”, and “Mechanization” 340
Local Knowledge 357
“Irrational” Water Usage: the 1960s 360
Conclusion 367
IV. A Time of Crisis, 1970–1991 372
The Water Crisis 375
The Diversion of Siberian Rivers as a Solution to the Problem 383
The Cotton Crisis 388
The Individual Experience 391
Nature Protection and De-Stalinization 393
The Society for the Protection of Nature 398
An Ecocritique Emerges 401
The Cotton Scandal 411
Politics and Opposition during Perestroika 418
Debates in the Press and Environmental Scandals: Health 427
The Diversion Debate 429
The Vodniki under Fire 434
The Reaction of the Authorities 443
The Growth of Ethnic Conflict 447
Chemicals in Agriculture 448
Cotton and National Pride 451
A Feeling of Loss and Despair 455
Conclusion 458
Conclusion 464
High Modernism 464
Continuities between the Tsarist and Soviet Periods 471
Indigenization and the Cotton Contract 474
The Crisis of Soviet Modernity and Environmental Aspects 479
Central Asia Post-Soviet 483
Glossary 492
List of Maps and Illustrations 496
Bibliography 500
Index 528

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 11.12.2017
• Reihe/Serie: Kultur- und Sozialgeschichte Osteuropas / Cultural and Social History of Eastern Europe
• Reihe/Serie: Kultur- und Sozialgeschichte Osteuropas / Cultural and Social History of Eastern Europe
• Reihe/Serie: Kultur- und Sozialgeschichte Osteuropas / Cultural and Social History of Eastern Europe.
• Reihe/Serie: Kultur- und Sozialgeschichte Osteuropas / Cultural and Social History of Eastern Europe.
• Zusatzinfo: mit 38 Abbildungen
• Verlagsort: Göttingen
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
• Schlagworte: Agrargeschichte • Geschichte • Ökologie • Sowjetuinion • Zentralasien
• ISBN-10: 3-8470-0786-6 / 3847007866
• ISBN-13: 978-3-8470-0786-9 / 9783847007869