Lecture Julia Lajus: Ecological Crisis and Climate Change Rhetoric in the Soviet Union

On 4 December, the Network for Environmental Humanities organises a lecture by Julia Lajus (Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study). In ‘Ecological Crisis and Climate Change Rhetoric in the Soviet Union, 1970s-1980s’, Lajus will focus on official Soviet attitudes towards ‘ecological crisis’ and climate change, and the rhetoric geophysicist Yevgeny Fyodorov developed to address these phenomena.

Soviet rhetoric

In her lecture, Lajus analyses the discussions in the Soviet Union following the publication of the Club of Rome report Limits to Growth (1972). She aims to enhance the understanding of the debate around resource scarcity during the ‘ecological crisis’ of the late 1960s to mid-1970s.

Lajus specifically explores how Soviet rhetoric accepted and reconceptualised the idea of crisis for both domestic and international environmental politics. She discusses the advancement of technology as the most effective remedy against resource scarcity.

Lajus also compares the views from the other side of the Iron Curtain through a discussion of the thoughts of the leftwing American environmentalist Barry Commoner (1917-2012).

Geophysicist Yevgeny Fyodorov

The lecture focuses on the writings of Soviet geophysicist Yevgeny Fyodorov (1910-1981), who popularised Commoner’s views for the Soviet public. Fyodorov was one of the few Soviet members of the Club of Rome and thus had direct access to contemporary Western research. He was also an early proponent of climate change in the Soviet Union, and was a plenary speaker at the First World Climate Conference in 1979.

Fyodorov’s ideas were influenced by Soviet Marxism and Vladimir Vernadsky’s concept of humankind as a geological force and the idea of developing towards the noosphere, which preceded the current discussions on the Anthropocene. In addition, Fyodorov’s experience in nuclear projects and weather modification research – both more or less successful technocratic projects – assured him of the power of technology.