Man, City, Water: Health and Environment in the Moskva-Volga River System (1860s to 1941)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Lutz Häfner
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History ; History of Science
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 498195065

This project addresses the causal nexus of public health, water supply and water pollution in Moscow between the Crimean War and WWII. At the end of the 19th century the Moscow water supply was insufficient to quench the thirst of the growing population and the needs of the expanding industry. Already at that time, projects to change river courses or to supply Moscow with their water were being discussed. However, the treatment of Moscow’s sewage remained inadequate. The Moskva washed away the problems, shifting them to the Oka, which flows into the Volga at Nizhnii Novgorod.The perspective adopted here focuses on discursive references on the one hand and scientific and personal interconnections, interactions and failed transfers on the other. They are dealt with in four fields. The first field examines the infrastructural history of Moscow's water supply and sewage disposal. The second area explores the role of experts, their scientific contacts and public activities in networks, associations, (inter)national congresses and hygiene legislation. In addition, the legislative process must be analysed regarding the differing interests of various stakeholders, of local self-government bodies, the various ministries to industry and its lobbying institutions. Thirdly, it is important to discuss how courts dealt with environmental offences against the background of a disparate legal situation. What strategies did the conflict parties pursue? How did scientific experts influence the lawsuits? How did conflicts impact on the society and the public sphere? Fourthly, the project pays attention to Moscow's water supply and the construction of hydropower plants in the upper reaches of the Volga. Therefore, it analyses ecological aspects and asks to what extent the studies addressed not only the technical feasibility but also the costs of the environmental consequences of anthropogenic modes of action.The study considers questions of environmental, medical, political, social and economic history, the history of technology, knowledge and science. The analytical framework is shaped by the concepts of “risk society” and “cultures of catastrophe”. It prevents any teleological or backwards narratives taking its starting point from environmental catastrophes such as the reactor accident at Chernobyl' in 1986 which are considered characteristic of the late Soviet Union. Rather, the project investigates the extent to which the actions of key actors have already been characterised by aspects of “ecocide” or “catastroika” prior to WWII. This perspective aims to highlight potential (dis)continuities of actions and structural conditions in the long run, as recent research relates terms like “catastroika” only to the environmental conditions of the late Soviet Union. Thus, we could ask if the increasing ecological problems proved to be “accidental”, contingent, as ”unseen” or “latent” side-effects”. Or were they consciously “produced by societies and rulers themselves”?

• DFG Programme: Research Grants