The Life of Permafrost: A History of Frozen Earth in Russian and Soviet Science
In the Anthropocene, the thawing of frozen earth due to global warming has drawn worldwide attention to permafrost. Contemporary scientists define permafrost as ground that maintains a negative temperature for at least two years. But where did this particular conception of permafrost originate, and what alternatives existed?
The Life of Permafrost provides an intellectual history of permafrost, placing the phenomenon squarely in the political, social, and material context of Russian and Soviet science. Pey-Yi Chu shows that understandings of frozen earth were shaped by two key experiences in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. On one hand, the colonization and industrialization of Siberia nourished an engineering perspective on frozen earth that viewed the phenomenon as an aggregate physical structure: ground. On the other, a Russian and Soviet tradition of systems thinking encouraged approaching frozen earth as a process, condition, and space tied to planetary exchanges of energy and matter. Aided by the US militarization of the Arctic during the Cold War, the engineering view of frozen earth as an obstacle to construction became dominant. The Life of Permafrost tells the fascinating story of how permafrost came to acquire life as Russian and Soviet scientists studied, named, and defined it.
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The Life of Permafrost: A History of Frozen Earth in Russian and Soviet Science
In the Anthropocene, the thawing of frozen earth due to global warming has drawn worldwide attention to permafrost. Contemporary scientists define permafrost as ground that maintains a negative temperature for at least two years. But where did this particular conception of permafrost originate, and what alternatives existed?
The Life of Permafrost provides an intellectual history of permafrost, placing the phenomenon squarely in the political, social, and material context of Russian and Soviet science. Pey-Yi Chu shows that understandings of frozen earth were shaped by two key experiences in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. On one hand, the colonization and industrialization of Siberia nourished an engineering perspective on frozen earth that viewed the phenomenon as an aggregate physical structure: ground. On the other, a Russian and Soviet tradition of systems thinking encouraged approaching frozen earth as a process, condition, and space tied to planetary exchanges of energy and matter. Aided by the US militarization of the Arctic during the Cold War, the engineering view of frozen earth as an obstacle to construction became dominant. The Life of Permafrost tells the fascinating story of how permafrost came to acquire life as Russian and Soviet scientists studied, named, and defined it.
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The Life of Permafrost: A History of Frozen Earth in Russian and Soviet Science
In the Anthropocene, the thawing of frozen earth due to global warming has drawn worldwide attention to permafrost. Contemporary scientists define permafrost as ground that maintains a negative temperature for at least two years. But where did this particular conception of permafrost originate, and what alternatives existed?
The Life of Permafrost provides an intellectual history of permafrost, placing the phenomenon squarely in the political, social, and material context of Russian and Soviet science. Pey-Yi Chu shows that understandings of frozen earth were shaped by two key experiences in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. On one hand, the colonization and industrialization of Siberia nourished an engineering perspective on frozen earth that viewed the phenomenon as an aggregate physical structure: ground. On the other, a Russian and Soviet tradition of systems thinking encouraged approaching frozen earth as a process, condition, and space tied to planetary exchanges of energy and matter. Aided by the US militarization of the Arctic during the Cold War, the engineering view of frozen earth as an obstacle to construction became dominant. The Life of Permafrost tells the fascinating story of how permafrost came to acquire life as Russian and Soviet scientists studied, named, and defined it.
Pey-Yi Chu is an associate professor of history at Pomona College.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Historicizing Permafrost
1. Mapping The Cold of Eastern Siberia Birth of a Scientific Object From Boden-Eis to Eisboden
2. Building Colonization and Construction Building on Frozen Earth The Soil Science of Roads The Ambiguity of Merzlota
3. Defining Merzlota as Aggregate Structure Merzlota as Process Personal and Institutional Politics Vechnaia Merzlota in Bolshevik Culture
4. Adapting From Commission to Institute Rhetoric of Transforming Nature Adapting to Frozen Earth Survival of the Systems Approach
5. Translating Birth of Permafrost Criticism and Self-criticism From Merzlotovedenie to Geocryology The Dialectic Persists
Epilogue: Resurrecting
Glossary Bibliography
What People are Saying About This
Denis Shaw
"Making extensive use of both archival and published sources, Chu has impressively written an extremely scholarly book on an original topic which, in the age of climate change, has attained new relevance. An important contribution to the literature, The Life of Permafrost will appeal to students specializing in the fields of environmental history, history of science, and Russian studies."
Jonathan Oldfield
"The Life of Permafrost is scholarship of the highest standard. Pey-Yi Chu engages with an interesting and hitherto little studied area in the English language, placing it effectively within relevant literatures. Well written and accessible for interested readers, this book is a pleasure to read andwill resonate with a range of scholarly audiences."
Nicholas B. Breyfogle
"Fascinating, engagingly written, and deeply researched. I cannot imagine a timelier book. As the frozen earth thaws around us, Pey-Yi Chu examines how politics, science, and the environment came together to create the highly contested concept of permafrost and just how impermanent it might be."
Erki Tammiksaar
"The Life of Permafrost is, above all, a study on the history of permafrost research via a focus on the development of relevant terminology. Well versed in the scholarly literature and archival sources, Pey-Yi Chu takes an original approach both to a phenomenon which is difficult to detect in nature and to the history of the development of knowledge about it."
