Segnaliamo il seminario online “Northern Riches? Natural Resources and Colonization in the European North of Russia, 1890-1930”, patrocinato dalla European Society for Environmental History, in programma il 12 marzo 2025 alle ore 16.00 (UTC+1).
How can an underdeveloped and overlooked outskirt of a vast empire be effectively ruled? First, it should be imagined; second, it should be marketed to the empire and the wider world. This paper examines the discursive construction of the European North of Russia as a region abundant in natural resources—such as timber, fish, and subsoil minerals—but scarce in labor, capital, and infrastructure. The study explores how the educated public and state officials, in both late imperial and early Soviet contexts, collectively invented the European North of Russia, its “natural riches,” and the various groups inhabiting it.
