US to USSR: American Experts, Irrigation, and Cotton in Soviet Central Asia, 1929–32

Peterson, Maya K.

doi:10.1093/envhis/emw006

Cited by 21 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Forming a part of the Soviet Union's southern border, the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic saw little industrialization and was principally organized around cotton cultivation [39]. To serve this objective, the USSR embarked on its own hydraulic mission in the 1920s, investing heavily in the construction of canals and pump stations across Central Asia, with existing irrigation systems seen as "tortuous" and the people unable to "properly care for their land" [40] (p. 460). After construction, irrigation system maintenance and operation were centralized.…”

Section: Irrigated Agriculture In the Advent And Aftermath Of Indepenmentioning

confidence: 99%

The User and the Association: Neglecting Household Irrigation as Neglecting Household Well-Being in the Creation of Water Users’ Associations in the Republic of Tajikistan

MacDonald¹

2019

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Development initiatives often cite Water Users’ Associations (WUAs) as fundamental to water governance reform or the broad process of decentralizing responsibilities for management, supply and delivery. But the label of “WUA” indicates little about those who take on these duties as association members, suggesting all who use water in pursuit of life or livelihood are eligible to participate and benefit through collective action. Grounded in the belief that participatory projects can equitably empower and distribute resources, the enthusiastic introduction of WUAs continues despite critique that anticipated outcomes are overstated. Since borders opened to neoliberal development institutions in the 1990s, WUAs have been created throughout post-Soviet Central Asia. Yet, there has been limited reflection on how associations’ design and operation interact with physical or social structures to effect resource access across diverse groups. Drawing on fieldwork in Tajikistan, I demonstrate how WUAs reproduce exclusionary outcomes by requiring members to possess farmland in turn threatening rural food security. Held by a minority, farmland dedicated to commercial production stands in contrast to ubiquitous kitchen gardens, where crops sown for self-consumption form a buffer against hunger in the wake of labor migration and income inconsistency. Households’ inability to become members undermines their claim to water and voice in decision-making, ultimately constraining access to irrigation and a robust harvest.

show abstract

Section: Irrigated Agriculture In the Advent And Aftermath Of Indepenmentioning

confidence: 99%

The User and the Association: Neglecting Household Irrigation as Neglecting Household Well-Being in the Creation of Water Users’ Associations in the Republic of Tajikistan

MacDonald¹

2019

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Some scholars have been unearthing the rich and distinctive history of how Russian scientists have conceptualized natural systems (Oldfield & Shaw, ). Historians have also examined connections between empire and environment in both the evolution of the tsarist regime and the Soviet attempts to establish socialist rule over a diverse ethnic space (Evtuhov, ; Jones, ; Peterson, ; Reid, ). Place‐based studies (Gololobov, ; Vinogradov, ), investigations of water pollution and urban sanitation (Filtzer, ; Mazanik, , pp.…”

Section: Environmental History and Climate Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate history of Russia and the Soviet Union

Bruno

2018

WIREs Climate Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Russia and the Soviet Union bear great significance for global climate history, but scholarship on this region is still only beginning to develop as a field. While the historiographies of other geographical locations have matured over the past decade, works concerning Russia thus far have appeared in a piecemeal and somewhat disconnected fashion, not yet cohering in a systematic way. Instead, there exist several insightful threads in the environmental history literature on climate. Scholars have examined the history of climate science in Russia, extending from the research of the Academy of Sciences in the eighteenth century to the global thinking about climate change in the late twentieth century. Social scientists have explored the historical roots of Russia's contemporary climate policy. Disasters related to climate have long attracted the attention of historians, though newer works are more in tune with contemporary scholarship on vulnerability and risk. There has also been movement to analyze the varied experiences of the cold in Russia over the long haul. Making an asset out of its apparent lower stage of development, the field of Russian climate history has an opportunity to directly enter advanced scholarly conversations by focusing on the ubiquitous human experiences with climate. Doing so could allow Russian climate history to acquire a position as an innovator among global climate histories. This article is categorized under: Climate, History, Society, Culture > World Historical Perspectives

show abstract

“…54 However, as recently observed by Maya Peterson in her study of US agricultural experts in Soviet Central Asia, 'development work is inherently political.' 55 Consular officials in Riga apparently shared this view, but it gained in certainty whenever they had to deal with black American experts. As a result, African-American spetsialisty in the Soviet Union, and particularly their real or imagined involvement in Soviet propaganda efforts targeting the US and global capitalism, drew the attention of and commentary by the legation.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Blackness the Color of Red: Negotiating Race at the US Legation in Riga, Latvia, 1922–33

Matusevich

2017

Journal of Contemporary History

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article draws on the archival records of the United States Consulate in Riga, Latvia, during the interwar period and other primary sources to reconstruct the rites of passage by African American citizens of the USA traveling to and from the Soviet Union. In the absence of established diplomatic relations between the USA and the USSR (until 1933), the US legation in Riga served as a popular entry point for American tourists and contract workers attracted by the mystique and job opportunities of the first socialist state. The consular records of the US legation in Riga contain a wealth of materials related to some of these travels. In the course of formal interviews with consular officials, US citizens, including the minority of black visitors, revealed remarkable details of their Soviet odysseys. The archival records bring to life a unique story of ‘race tourism’ by African Americans to the first socialist state and thus provide a rare insight into the early Soviet society and its accepted attitudes toward racial difference; and such accounts are usually juxtaposed with an eviscerating critique of North American and Western racism during the interwar period.

show abstract

US to USSR: American Experts, Irrigation, and Cotton in Soviet Central Asia, 1929–32

Cited by 21 publications

References 11 publications

The User and the Association: Neglecting Household Irrigation as Neglecting Household Well-Being in the Creation of Water Users’ Associations in the Republic of Tajikistan

The User and the Association: Neglecting Household Irrigation as Neglecting Household Well-Being in the Creation of Water Users’ Associations in the Republic of Tajikistan

Climate history of Russia and the Soviet Union

Blackness the Color of Red: Negotiating Race at the US Legation in Riga, Latvia, 1922–33

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About