Elena Kochetkova Presented Her Paper at a Regular Collogium of the Department of Sciences, University of Aarhus

December, 7 Elena Kochetkova, a senior lecturer at the department of history and researcher of the Laboratory for environmental and technological history, presented her paper at a regular collogium of the department of sciences, University of Aarhus. In October  2016, Prof. Matthias Heymann and the University of Aarhus supported the workshop "Technologies, natural resources and crises in past and present of Europe and beyond" which was held at the depatment of history, HSE - St. Petersburg

Elena`s paper "Rivers as Sacrifice? Pulp Production and Water Pollution in the Soviet Union, 1940s-1960s" examined discursive practices of water pollution and protection in the two post-war decades in the Soviet Union. Based on water management, it showed how environmental policy developed in the USSR in the 1940s-60s, and what first attempts to overcome the industrial pollution were. The paper explored the case of pulp industry, a larger polluting factor due the increase of production after WWII. It examined two paper and pulp plants, one located on the shore of Lake Baikal and another production unit in Svetogorsk in the North-West of the country on River Vuoksi. Elena illustrated how discussions around Baikal were influencing the conditions in other, far located regions on the practical level. Her argument says that Baikal problems (whether construct the plant there or not) provoked a discussion on pollution of rivers in other industrial zones and stimulated the development of environmental initiatives. They included proposals for water protection primarily made by scientists of the Academy of Sciences, as well as projects on water treatment proposed by some engineers.