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Beginning in 1948, the Soviet Union launched a series of wildly ambitious projects to implement Joseph Stalin’s vision of a total “transformation of nature.” Intended to increase agricultural yields dramatically, this utopian impulse quickly spread to the newly communist states of Eastern Europe, captivating political elites and war-fatigued publics alike. By the time of Stalin’s death, however, these attempts at “transformation”—which relied upon ideologically corrupted and pseudoscientific theories—had proven a spectacular failure. This richly detailed volume follows the history of such projects in three communist states—Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia—and explores their varied, but largely disastrous, consequences.
“The book makes a valuable contribution to the understudied environmental history of Central and Eastern Europe.” • H-Soz-Kult
“This is a necessary book… the first monograph dedicated entirely to how [Stalin’s parallel] plans played out in the ‘people’s democracies’ of Eastern Europe during Stalin’s lifetime and beyond… Olsakova’s work is thus a significant addition to extant literature on environmental history and the twentieth century history of Eastern Europe.” • Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe
“By focusing on the Eastern European experience, this book offers an original angle on the ‘Stalin Plan.’ Its case studies are substantial, covering a considerable amount of ground and presenting new empirical findings.” • Jonathan Oldfield, University of Birmingham
Acknowledgments
List of Tables
Abbreviations
Introduction: The Stalin Plan for the Transformation of Nature and the East European Experience
Paul Josephson
Chapter 1. Kafkaesque Paradigms: The Stalinist Plan for the Transformation of Nature in Czechoslovakia
Doubravka Olšáková and Arnošt Štanzel
Chapter 2. Untamed Seedlings: Hungary and Stalin Plan for the Transformation of Nature
Zsuzsanna Borvendég and Mária Palasik
Chapter 3. The Conspiracy of Silence: Stalinist Plan for the Transformation of Nature in Poland
Beata Wysokińska
Conclusion: Environmental History, East-European Societies and Totalitarian Regimes
Doubravka Olšáková
Name Index
Local Index
Subject Index