The USSR as a hydraulic society: Wittfogel, the Aral Sea and the (post-)Soviet state

Abstract

Wittfogel's Oriental Despotism is not only a scholarly exposition of the 'hydraulic hypothesis' but also a political polemic about Soviet 'totalitarianism'. Wittfogel does not mention that these two themes are connected: the USSR itself may be construed as a hydraulic state, especially in the Central Asian periphery, where expansion of irrigation depended on and cemented the power of the apparatus. The environmental consequences famously include the regression of the Aral Sea. This article first explores irrigation in Soviet Central Asia: while there was a connection between the centralizing tendency of Soviet bureaucracy and water's susceptibility to political control, environmental problems were exacerbated by relatively weak control from the centre and by material qualities of water which escaped control. I then draw on my ethnographic research in Aral'sk, Kazakhstan, to examine the role of hydraulic infrastructure in imagining the strong, centralized state. I take Wittfogel's particular constellation of connections between water, infrastructure and power as a Cold War artefact, which I compare with accounts of Soviet hydraulic projects from inhabitants of the Aral region today. Finally, I examine post-Soviet projections of statehood through a recent dam which has restored part of the Aral and mixed local reactions to it. Hydraulic infrastructure may project centralized authority, but I show that readings of the relationship between the two depend on contextual factors.

Infrastructure, feral waters and power relations in rural Romania

“…Infrastructure is not just a network that facilitates the movement of other things but a mediator of time, a powerful tool that brings the past to the present. Yet, adding to the literature on the anthropology of infrastructure, this article shows that the coexistence of multiple temporalities combined with multiple materialities of (ground)water (Richardson, 2016b; Wheeler, 2019) to contribute to the emergence of a new ecological order. The new ecology is a hybrid, composed of pre-socialist feral groundwater, the socialist ‘hydraulic society’ that reclaimed agricultural land, and the post-socialist political economy.…”

“…In this way the socialist state became a ‘hydraulic society’ (Wittfogel, 1957), one in which the state exerts its power through water infrastructure. Yet, as also recognized by William Wheeler (2019) and Richardson (2016b), different materialities of groundwater and soil resist control: water constantly seeped through pipe joints and the soil resisted changes to its chemical composition, demanding continually increasing inputs to bear good crops. These three elements – drainage system, soil and groundwater – must work in perfect unison.…”

The Changing Dynamics of Kazakhstan’s Fisheries Sector: From the Early Soviet Era to the Twenty-First Century

“…The incoherence, competition, and political tension that settled over the Kazakh fisheries sector is a prime example of what went wrong. Old Soviet structures, chief among them the powerful Ministry of Fish Industry and its subordinate agencies, were abolished, and responsibilities for stocking and regulation of fisheries, fisheries research, and processing separated from one another [11,19,21,101]. Staffing was inadequate and financing insufficient.…”

“…Concurrent steps were also taken to effectively manage the Republic's water resources [22,105]. Neglect and marginalization of the sector by the state [19,20] The public views fisheries as unattractive Lack of research and data collection [21,22] Policies become disconnected from science Policy flux and lack of transparency [11,67,101] Policies not respected…”

Environment and Post-Soviet Transformation in Kazakhstan’s Aral Sea Region

“…In agriculture, there was a tendency towards centralisation and monoculture, regardless of economic efficiency or ecological sustainability (Weiner 1999, 15-16). As Wittfogel (1957) saw, because water flows, and can be manipulated, the urge to accumulate material assets could be satisfied by constantly expanding irrigation infrastructure (Wheeler 2019). Irrigation offered the opportunity to reshape landscapes so that fixed assets, agricultural output and the labour of millions of people were under the control of the apparatus.…”