Protesting Destruction in Chapaevsk: Green Politics in a Late Soviet City

Abstract

This provincial case study demonstrates the diversity of political movements mobilised by environmental anxieties, particularly outside of Moscow, in the final years of Soviet Russia. By focusing on the emergence of green politics that promoted ecosocialism, the analysis takes up the call proposed by scholars of the Anthropocene by exploring late Soviet Russia as a place of political possibilities, where environmentalism-as-politics became a force for change. The failure of the green movement after 1990, in light of their successes before the dissolution of the USSR, offers new insights into the effectiveness of green politics in the Russian provinces prior to the disintegration of the USSR.

Acknowledgement

The research for this article was conducted when the author was based at Brandeis University. I would like to thank Gregory Freeze and Andy Bruno for reading early drafts of this article. Part of this research was conducting using a Title VIII grant in the summer of 2018.

Disclosure statement:

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 ‘Green politics’ refers to a codified political platform promoting an ecologically sustainable society. I use ‘green activism’ and ‘green platform’ to signify the members and goals of a movement committed to ecological sustainability through systemic change. Such a movement usually espouses ecosocialist ideas but can also operate within parliamentarianism such as the Die Grünen. For ecosocialism, see Bookchin (1996); for a history of the West German Green Party, see Frankland (1989).

2 There are a few exceptions. Soviet scholars who published abroad under pseudonyms voiced concerns with environmental problems and couched those anxieties in thinly veiled political critique, although they did not envision a separate political party dedicated to environmental issues. See, for example, Gerasimov and Budyko (1974), Komarov (1980), Izrael (1980).

3 Author’s interview with Ol’ga Pitsunova, via email, 24 November 2017.

4 ‘E. A. Shevardnadze’s Press Conference’, Current Digest of the Soviet Press, 38, 39, 1987.

5 The Soviet Union employed nerve gas neutralisation processes tested by Canadian experts in the 1960s. The available technological methods included incineration (the United States’ preferred method at the time) and neutralisation (the preferred Soviet method). Neutralisation was a long process that involved diluting the chemical with boiling substances, usually water and sodium. Both incineration, which left massive amounts of residue, and neutralisation, which required safe disposal of the diluted substance, shared a propensity for contamination.

6 On 1 March (after the state inspection commission; discussed later when assessing government responses) and 8 April 1989 (before the first protest) the newspaper ran special issues featuring public debate about the facility.

7 See also, Peterson (1993).

8 Chapaevskii rabochii, 24 May 1989, p. 3.

9 ‘Veteran—vetrany’, Chapaevskii rabochii, 24 May 1989.

10 ‘NET! —zovodu po unichtozheniyu’, Chapaevskii rabochii, 29 June 1989.

11 Author’s interview with Sergei Fomichev, via email, 4 November 2023; author’s interview with Vadim Damier, via email, 25 October 2017; author’s interview with Svet Zabelin, via email, 1 November 2017.

12 Author’s interview with Valerii Erofeev, via email, 3 October 2017.

13 Author’s interview with Sergei Fomichev, via email, 4 November 2023.

14 ‘Ustav partii zelenykh /proekt/’, Tretii put’, 8 May 1989, available at: http://ewnc.org/files/archive/Tretiy_Put_9.pdf, accessed 16 May 2017. Damier is not listed as the author, but he assures me that he wrote it and that Fomichev edited it.

15 ‘Ustav partii zelenykh /proekt/’, Tretii put’, 8 May 1989, available at: http://ewnc.org/files/archive/Tretiy_Put_9.pdf, accessed 16 May 2017.

16 Author’s interview with Sergei Fomichev, via email, 4 November 2017.

17 Author’s interview with Ol’ga Pitsunova, via email, 25 November 2017.

18 ‘US–Soviet Relations’, C-SPAN, 9 May 1989, available at: https://www.c-span.org/video/?7396-1/ussoviet-relations, last accessed 14 May 2017.

19 ‘Reshenie’, Chapaevskii rabochii, 5 September 1989, p. 1.

20 Author’s interview with Vadim Damier, via email, 25 October 2017.

21 The Rainbow Keepers have a website (http://tw2000.chat.ru/0res0.htm), where later versions of Tretii put’ can be downloaded, last accessed 31 January 2023.

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Alexander Herbert

Alexander Herbert, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA. Email: [email protected]