A Little Corner of Freedom

A Little Corner of Freedom PDF Author: Douglas R. Weiner
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520928114
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 576

Get Book Here

Book Description
While researching Russia's historical efforts to protect nature, Douglas Weiner unearthed unexpected findings: a trail of documents that raised fundamental questions about the Soviet political system. These surprising documents attested to the unlikely survival of a critical-minded, scientist-led movement through the Stalin years and beyond. It appeared that, within scientific societies, alternative visions of land use, resrouce exploitation, habitat protection, and development were sustained and even publicly advocated. In sharp contrast to known Soviet practices, these scientific societies prided themselves on their traditions of free elections, foreign contacts, and a pre-revolutionary heritage. Weiner portrays nature protection activists not as do-or-die resisters to the system, nor as inoffensive do-gooders. Rather, they took advantage of an unpoliced realm of speech and activity and of the patronage by middle-level Soviet officials to struggle for a softer path to development. In the process, they defended independent social and professional identities in the face of a system that sought to impose official models of behavior, ethics, and identity for all. Written in a lively style, this absorbing story tells for the first time how organized participation in nature protection provided an arena for affirming and perpetuating self-generated social identities in the USSR and preserving a counterculture whose legacy survives today.

A Little Corner of Freedom

A Little Corner of Freedom PDF Author: Douglas R. Weiner
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520928114
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 576

Get Book Here

Book Description
While researching Russia's historical efforts to protect nature, Douglas Weiner unearthed unexpected findings: a trail of documents that raised fundamental questions about the Soviet political system. These surprising documents attested to the unlikely survival of a critical-minded, scientist-led movement through the Stalin years and beyond. It appeared that, within scientific societies, alternative visions of land use, resrouce exploitation, habitat protection, and development were sustained and even publicly advocated. In sharp contrast to known Soviet practices, these scientific societies prided themselves on their traditions of free elections, foreign contacts, and a pre-revolutionary heritage. Weiner portrays nature protection activists not as do-or-die resisters to the system, nor as inoffensive do-gooders. Rather, they took advantage of an unpoliced realm of speech and activity and of the patronage by middle-level Soviet officials to struggle for a softer path to development. In the process, they defended independent social and professional identities in the face of a system that sought to impose official models of behavior, ethics, and identity for all. Written in a lively style, this absorbing story tells for the first time how organized participation in nature protection provided an arena for affirming and perpetuating self-generated social identities in the USSR and preserving a counterculture whose legacy survives today.

Models of Nature

Models of Nature PDF Author: Douglas R. Weiner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Get Book Here

Book Description
Models of Nature studies the early and turbulent years of the Soviet conservation movement from the October Revolution to the mid-1930s—Lenin’s rule to the rise of Stalin. This new edition includes an afterword by the author that reflects upon the study's impact and discusses advances in the field since the book was first published.

Tunguska

Tunguska PDF Author: Andy Bruno
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108898025
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 325

Get Book Here

Book Description
In 1908, thunderous blasts and blazing fires from the sky descended upon the desolate Tunguska territory of Siberia. The explosion knocked down an area of forest larger than London and was powerful enough to obliterate Manhattan. The mysterious nature of the event has prompted a wide array of speculation and investigation, including from those who suspected that aliens from outer space had been involved. In this deeply researched account of the Tunguska explosion and its legacy in Russian society, culture, and the environment, Andy Bruno recounts the intriguing history of the disaster and researchers' attempts to understand it. Taking readers inside the numerous expeditions and investigations that have long occupied scientists, he foregrounds the significance of mystery in environmental history. His engaging and accessible account shows how the explosion has shaped the treatment of the landscape, how uncertainty allowed unusual ideas to enter scientific conversations, and how cosmic disasters have influenced the past and might affect the future.

Into Russian Nature

Into Russian Nature PDF Author: Alan D. Roe
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190914556
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 361

Get Book Here

Book Description
National parks are perhaps the most recognized environmental protection institution in the world and have long attracted the interest of historians. This is the first academic work on Russian national parks. It spans from the years before the Great October Revolution to the present and examines movements to establish national parks from European Russia to Siberia and the Far East. It is a story of grandiose visions in which Russian environmentalists conceived of ways to alter the state's relationship to nature and of demoralizing disappointment when the lofty ambitions of different park visionaries fell far short of their hopes.

From Ruins to Reconstruction

From Ruins to Reconstruction PDF Author: Karl D. Qualls
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 080146241X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 234

Get Book Here

Book Description
Sevastopol, located in present-day Ukraine but still home to the Russian Black Sea Fleet and revered by Russians for its role in the Crimean War, was utterly destroyed by German forces during World War II. In From Ruins to Reconstruction, Karl D. Qualls tells the complex story of the city's rebuilding. Based on extensive research in archives in both Moscow and Sevastopol, architectural plans and drawings, interviews, and his own extensive experience in Sevastopol, Qualls tells a unique story in which the periphery "bests" the Stalinist center: the city's experience shows that local officials had considerable room to maneuver even during the peak years of Stalinist control.Qualls first paints a vivid portrait of the ruined city and the sufferings of its surviving inhabitants. He then turns to Moscow's plans to remake the ancient city on the heroic socialist model prized by Stalin and visited upon most other postwar Soviet cities and towns. In Sevastopol, however, the architects and city planners sent out from the center "went native," deviating from Moscow's blueprints to collaborate with local officials and residents, who seized control of the planning process and rebuilt the city in a manner that celebrated its distinctive historical identity. When completed, postwar Sevastopol resembled a nineteenth-century Russian city, with tree-lined boulevards; wide walkways; and buildings, street names, and memorials to its heroism in wars both long past and recent. Though visually Russian (and still containing a majority Russian-speaking population), Sevastopol was in 1954 joined to Ukraine, which in 1991 became an independent state. In his concluding chapter, Qualls explores how the "Russianness" of the city and the presence of the Russian fleet affect relations between Ukraine, Russia, and the West.

A Companion to Global Environmental History

A Companion to Global Environmental History PDF Author: J. R. McNeill
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 111897753X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 578

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Companion to Global Environmental History offers multiple points of entry into the history and historiography of this dynamic and fast-growing field, to provide an essential road map to past developments, current controversies, and future developments for specialists and newcomers alike. Combines temporal, geographic, thematic and contextual approaches from prehistory to the present day Explores environmental thought and action around the world, to give readers a cultural, intellectual and political context for engagement with the environment in modern times Brings together environmental historians from around the world, including scholars from South Africa, Brazil, Germany, and China

A Short History of Anglo-Saxon Freedom

A Short History of Anglo-Saxon Freedom PDF Author: James Kendall Hosmer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 452

Get Book Here

Book Description


An Environmental History of Russia

An Environmental History of Russia PDF Author: Paul Josephson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521869587
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 351

Get Book Here

Book Description
This environmental history of the former Soviet Union explores the impact that state economic development programs had on the environment.

Sadie's Freedom

Sadie's Freedom PDF Author: Connie Leonard Geron
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1469113473
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Get Book Here

Book Description
Sadie’s Freedom is a story of redemption and forgiveness. For 32 years Sadie has been the faithful wife of a renowned minister. Her seemingly idyllic life is a farce. The marriage has been empty and loveless for years. Circumstances spur Sadie to make a change. She drops her fabulous wedding rings on the dresser, packs a suitcase, and heads for the hills. Literally. She walks away from all the prestige, adoration, and financial security to take on a simple life of poverty and freedom. Here is the story of her survival. At age 53, Sadie hones what few employable skills she has and finds a way to live. Her heart is one of contrition and the Lord steps in to comfort, forgive and provide. Miracles occur. Set in the mountains of North Carolina, this is a tale of victory, joy, courage and honor. Sadie touches lives with her genuine love, making a difference with her efforts as she blossoms in this new light of freedom.

Tyranny to Freedom

Tyranny to Freedom PDF Author: Ludwik Kowalski
Publisher: Ludwik Kowalski
ISBN: 1600473903
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 122

Get Book Here

Book Description
The author's own father was a victim of Stalinism. But this did not prevent the young Ludwik from becoming a dedicated Stalinist and a communist party member in Poland. Tyranny to Freedom: Diary of a Former Stalinist is based on decades of diaries, written in Poland, France and the United States. How did a committed communist react to important political events, such as Stalin's death, revelations of the 20th Congress in the USSR, and the Hungarian uprising? Why did Kowalski return to Poland in 1963, instead of "choosing freedom" in the west? And why did he go public with his anti-communist feelings, after retiring in 2004? Through diary entries, spanning from 1946 and 2008, Tyranny to Freedom is a fascinating story of one man's struggle with finding a political identity and the resulting consequences of a euphoric dream turning into a nightmarish reality of murder and terror. Born in 1931 in Poland, Ludwik Kowalski spent his childhood, up to age 15, in the Soviet Union. His education was completed in Poland and in France. After returning to Poland in 1963 with a French doctorate in Nuclear Physics, he was invited to a scientific conference in the United States, and became a research associate at Columbia University. After retiring in 2004, Kowalski wrote Hell On Earth: Brutality And Violence Under The Stalinist Regime, a short and easy-to-read book for those Americans who know very little about crimes committed under red banners of proletarian dictatorship. Royalties will be donated to a Montclair State University scholarship fund.