Overview

Beginning in 1948, the Soviet Union launched a series of wildly ambitious projects to implement Joseph Stalin's vision of a total transformation of nature. Intended to increase agricultural yields dramatically, this utopian impulse quickly spread to the newly communist states of Eastern Europe, captivating political elites and war-fatigued publics alike. By the time of Stalin's death, however, these attempts at transformation -which relied upon ideologically corrupted and pseudoscientific theories-had proven a spectacular failure. This richly detailed volume follows the history of such projects in three communist states-Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia-and explores their varied, but largely disastrous, consequences.

Full Product Details

Author:   Doubravka Olsakova
Publisher:   Berghahn Books
Imprint:   Berghahn Books
Volume:   10
ISBN:  

9781789205022

ISBN 10:   1789205026
Pages:   322
Publication Date:   10 June 2019
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  General/trade ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments List of Tables Abbreviations Introduction: The Stalin Plan for the Transformation of Nature and the East European Experience Paul Josephson Chapter 1. Kafkaesque Paradigms: The Stalinist Plan for the Transformation of Nature in Czechoslovakia Doubravka Olsakova and Arnost Stanzel Chapter 2. Untamed Seedlings: Hungary and Stalin Plan for the Transformation of Nature Zsuzsanna Borvendeg and Maria Palasik Chapter 3. The Conspiracy of Silence: Stalinist Plan for the Transformation of Nature in Poland Beata Wysokinska Conclusion: Environmental History, East-European Societies and Totalitarian Regimes Doubravka Olsakova Name Index Local Index Subject Index

Reviews

This is a necessary book... the first monograph dedicated entirely to how [Stalin's parallel] plans played out in the `people's democracies' of Eastern Europe during Stalin's lifetime and beyond... Olsakova's work is thus a significant addition to extant literature on environmental history and the twentieth century history of Eastern Europe. Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe

Author Information

Doubravka Olsakova is a senior researcher at the Institute for Contemporary History at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, where she leads a working group on environmental history. Her publications include the book Science Goes to the People! (2014), which examines mass indoctrination and the dissemination of science in communist Czechoslovakia.

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