Stones at War: The Chelyabinsk War Exhibition of 1946 and Soviet Environmental Thought

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Frey ◽  
Anne Hasselmann
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Southern Urals ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
The Southern Urals ◽  
War Memory ◽  
Environmental Thought ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
War Effort

Abstract One year after the German surrender in World War II, an exhibition about the “Great Patriotic War” opened its doors in the regional museum of Chelyabinsk. The curators presented the visitors with a geological take on the war events: the exhibition employed a geological time frame, which started with the genesis of planet Earth, and displayed a large introductory section on natural resources of the Southern Urals, the museum’s home region. The exhibition makers reasoned that the Soviet war effort was inextricably linked to the region’s inanimate environment with its rich deposits of minerals and metals. Based on archival documents and published sources, this article explores how a narrative focusing on minerals and metals could find a place in an exhibition about the Soviet war effort. It argues that the museum director’s personal background as an earth scientist, the short-lived regional diversity of war memory in the postwar Soviet Union, and a particular vein of environmental thought that was widespread in Soviet and international geology influenced this remarkable exhibition.

PROBLEM OF SECURITY IN NORTHERN POLAND FOLLOWING WORLD WAR II

2011 ◽  
Vol 161 (3) ◽  
pp. 258-274
Author(s):  
Wiesław ŁACH
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
World War ◽  
Northern Area ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Northern Border ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Baltic

This article focuses predominantly on analysing the role of the northern area of Poland in the security system of Poland following World War II. The separation of the area from the national defence system of the country resulted from the specific nature of incorporating a part of the former Eastern Prussia into Poland and its neighbourhood with the Soviet Union.In view of the Polish national administration, the area included the Olsztyn Voivodeship and part of the Gdansk Voivodeship east of the Vistula and the Bialystok Voivodeship bordering the Kaliningrad District. According to the military division of the country, the area was part of the Warsaw Military District and the Pomeranian Military District.The time frame was determined by the establishment and ultimate designation of the northern border in 1957, when Poland and the Soviet Union signed a treaty regarding the marking of the existing national border between Poland and the Soviet Union adhering to the Baltic Sea (5 March 1957).The article examines the political and military circumstances in which Poland’s northern border was determined, it assesses it operationally and determines the status of the northern area of Poland in the country’s security system.The subject has not been widely examined and literary sources are scarce. Most of the materials can be found in the Central Military Archives and the Border Guard Archives in Kętrzyn.Northern Poland has always been a key operational area, yet its defensive weakness, in the former political arrangement, was greatly affected by the proximity of the Soviet Union. The problem of defending Poland’s northern border was a dilemma that was increasingly growing in difficulty over the years. There were a large number of factors causing it, and it was in the sphere of defence that they manifested themselves most visibly.

Passions about Arkaim: Russian Nationalism, the Aryans, and the Politics of Archaeology

Inner Asia ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. A. Shnirelman
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Southern Urals ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
The Southern Urals ◽  
Sacred Place ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Politics Of Archaeology ◽  
The City

AbstractArkaim is the name given to the site of an ancient town in the Southern Urals, dated to the 17th–16th centuries BC. Discovered in 1987, Arkaim rapidly became more than an archaeological site. It became the focus for an extraordinary congolmeration of ideas linked to ecological and political movements, in particular those of Russian nationalists. Threatened with flooding because of a dam project, Arkaim was made a ‘Museum Reserve’. Soon it became the focus for theories that this was a sacred place and furthermore the home of proto-Slavs. The break-up of the Soviet Union was followed by attempts by Russian nationalists to demonstrate the legitimacy of their domination of the former empire. The article shows how quasi historical claims expanded into myth and fantasy, linked to the emergence of new cults. Arkaim became the city not only of proto Slavs but of Zarathustra and the Aryans too. Such inventions are related to local politics and ethnic tensions as well as to wider Russian nationalism.

A Nuclear Generator of Clouds: Accidents and Radioactive Contamination Identified on Declassified Satellite Photographs in the Mayak Chemical Combine, Southern Urals

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Kiarszys
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Southern Urals ◽  
Central Intelligence Agency ◽  
Radioactive Isotopes ◽  
The Southern Urals ◽  
Intelligence Agency ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The 1960S

The Mayak Chemical Combine was one of the most secretive places in the Soviet Union. It was built in the southern Urals, close to Kyshtym. The facility produced weapons-grade plutonium and other radioactive isotopes for the Soviet nuclear military programme. Fugitives from behind the Iron Curtain mentioned the site, usually due to accidents and peculiar, unexplained observations. Such reports were often treated in the West as exaggerated or fictional, as they spoke of large-scale disasters, deportations and vast landscape transformations. This paper aims to present the research potential of declassified Cold War intelligence records for archaeological landscape studies of off-limits military sites. To outline a somewhat broader perspective, I will combine those sources with contemporary historical knowledge and modern remote sensing data. The analysis will be focused on the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] satellite imagery (CORONA and GAMBIT) from the 1960s to the beginning of the 1970s. The discussed sources recorded outcomes of nuclear disasters, hundreds of square kilometres of uninhabited wasteland, abandoned villages, disappearing lakes, dying forests, diverted rivers, and other features related to this clandestine plutonium facility.

New Coal Basin of the U.S.S.R.

1944 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 132-132
Author(s):  
I. Andronov
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Southern Urals ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Coal Basin ◽  
The Southern Urals ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Coking Coal ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Power Base ◽  
Set Up

Until quite recently only a few specialists, even in the Soviet Union, knew about the Poltava and Bredin anthracite deposits in the Southern Urals. Under the stern conditions of war, however, this coal basin in the east of the Soviet Union has sprung to economic life. A new power base has been set up, new shafts sunk, all of them working and with reserves of coal before them sufficient for many years. Many of the Bredin pits contain coking coal, and the Poltava-Bredin coal district will soon be able to supply many of the large Urals works with high-quality fuel.

scholarly journals Battle after Victory: Causes of the Post-War Crime Rate Increase (1945–1950)

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-70
Author(s):  
A. D. Popova
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Crime Rate ◽  
Rate Increase ◽  
World War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Gang Prevention ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Post War ◽  
Causes Of Crime

The article features the causes of the crime rate increase that occurred in the Soviet Union after World War II. The author studied archival documents of the Chief Department of Gang Prevention, as well as memoirs written by militia officers and common citizens. The increase in gangsterism and crime in general presented a serious challenge for the country that had just won the most terrible war in human history. The author managed to define two major causes of crime rate increase in the post-war years. The first was poverty, homeless children, substandard living conditions, and poor organization of public leisure time. The second included nationalist movements in some ethnic regions, uncontrolled weapon possession, and numerous largescale Bills of Oblivion. The post-war crime rate increase had complex causes and was a serious challenge for militia officers.

scholarly journals Hungarian Troops in World War II: The Bitter Truth of Archival Documents and an Attempt at Revision

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamás Krausz
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
World War ◽  
Second Republic ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Political Groups ◽  
First World

This article is not primarily focused on presenting arguments and views held by Polish political groups with reference to the territorial shape of the Polish state after the First World War. Instead, its aim is to draw attention to actions taken by these groups towards the defence of Polish western lands. One of the key problems of Poland’s foreign policy after 1918 was the question of relations with its neighbours, chiefly Germany and Russia (and the Soviet Union). For many years, the most serious problem faced by post-Versailles Europe was that of the Germans striving to revise the legal order, to break their political isolation, and return to the prestigious circle of world powers. Those endeavours threatened the security of Poland in a direct way. Defence of the Polish state and its territories on the western outskirts of the Second Republic lay at the heart of establishing socalled “Western thought” in the country. Related to Western Europe, this ideology played a significant role in shaping society’s views on, and attitudes towards, the most vital problems of the Polish nation and state.

scholarly journals Competing national memories of World War II

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (34) ◽  
pp. 16678-16686 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry L. Roediger ◽  
Magdalena Abel ◽  
Sharda Umanath ◽  
Ruth A. Shaffer ◽  
Beth Fairfield ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
World War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
National Memory ◽  
Great Responsibility ◽  
War Effort

We assessed the knowledge of 1,338 people from 11 countries (8 former Allied and 3 former Axis) about World War II. When asked what percentage their country contributed to the war effort, across Allied countries, estimates totaled 309%, and Axis nations’ estimates came to 140%. People in 4 nations claimed more than 50% responsibility for their country (Germany, Russia, United Kingdom, and United States). The overclaiming of responsibility reflected in these percentages was moderated when subjects were asked to consider the contributions of other countries; however, Russians continued to claim great responsibility, the only country that remained well over 50% in its claim of responsibility for the Allied victory. If deaths in the war are considered a proxy of a nation’s contributions, the Soviet Union did carry much of the burden. This study points to sharp differences in national memory even across nations who fought on the same side in the war. Differing national perspectives shape diverse memories of the same complex event.

scholarly journals Finland’s Continuation War (1941–1944): War of Aggression or Defence? War of Alliance or Separate War?

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-121
Author(s):  
Lauri Hannikainen
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
International Law ◽  
Peace Treaty ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
World War ◽  
Spheres Of Influence ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
War Effort ◽  
Winter War

In September 1939, after having included a secret protocol on spheres of influence in the so-called Molotov- Ribbentrop Pact, Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland and divided it between themselves. It was not long before the Soviet Union approached Finland by proposing exchanges of certain territories: ‘in our national interest we want to have from you certain territories and offer in exchange territories twice as large but in less crucial areas’. Finland, suspicious of Soviet motives, refused – the outcome was the Soviet war of aggression against Finland by the name of the Winter War in 1939–1940. The Soviet Union won this war and compelled Finland to cede several territories – about 10 per cent of Finland’s area. After the Winter War, Finland sought protection from Germany against the Soviet Union and decided to rely on Germany. After Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, Finland joined the German war effort in the so-called Continuation War and reoccupied the territories lost in the Winter War. Finnish forces did not stop at the old border but occupied Eastern (Soviet) Karelia with a desire eventually to annex it. By that measure, Finland joined as Germany’s ally in its war of aggression against the Soviet Union in violation of international law. In their strong reliance on Germany, the Finnish leaders made some very questionable decisions without listening to warnings from Western States about possible negative consequences. Germany lost its war and so did Finland, which barely avoided entire occupation by the Soviet Army and succeeded in September 1944 in concluding an armistice with the Soviet Union. Finland lost some more territories and was subjected to many obligations and restrictions in the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty, dictated by the Allies. This article analyses, according to the criteria of international law, Finland’s policy shortly prior to and during the Continuation War, especially Finland’s secret dealings with Germany in the months prior to the German attack against the Soviet Union and Finland’s occupation of Eastern Karelia in the autumn of 1941. After Adolf Hitler declared that Germany was fighting against the Soviet Union together with Finland and Romania, was the Soviet Union entitled – prior to the Finnish attack – to resort to armed force in self-defence against Finland? And was Finland treated too harshly in the aftermath of World War ii? After all, its role as an ally of Germany had been rather limited.

scholarly journals Bashkortostan in the Life of Tatyana Troitskaya: New Additions to Her Biography and Scientific Activity

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 32-42
Author(s):  
Albert T. Akhatov
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Southern Urals ◽  
Scientific Activity ◽  
The Southern Urals ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
The Republic

Purpose. The publication is dedicated to the famous teacher and scientist-archeologist Tatyana Nikolaevna Troitskaya (1925–2018). The purpose of this work is to supplement her biography with information relating to lesser-known periods of her life and work in the Bashkortostan Republic following on from unpublished archival documents and memoirs of T. N. Troitskaya. Results. Analysis of the available sources and literature made it possible to study the time and circumstances of Tatyana Nikolaevna’s stay in the Republic of Bashkortostan. In 1941, it was the first time she was in Birsk, where she was evacuated to with her family after the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. There T. N. Troitskaya finished school and was accepted into the Birsk Pedagogical Institute, where she studied for a year and a half before re-evacuation in 1943. The second time she came to Ufa was in 1955 when she was sent to the Institute of History, Language and Literature, where she worked until 1956. T. N. Troitskaya’s research activities coincided with the beginning of systematic archaeological research in the region, making her involved in the formation of academic archaeological science in the Bashkortostan Republic. In 1955, Tatyana Nikolaevna took part in the excavations carried out by the Bashkir archaeological expedition on the territory of the Gafuri region of the Bashkortostan Republic. In the course of fieldwork, several monuments of the Kara-Abyz culture were studied there, one of which, the Mikhailovskoye settlement, was studied under the guidance of T. N. Troitskaya. The materials and results of excavations of this monument are still used by scientists studying cultural genesis and ethnic processes in the Southern Urals and in the Urals in the early Iron Age. Conclusion. Despite the fact that T. N. Troitskaya lived in Bashkortostan for a short period of her life, this time as a whole was of great importance for her life experience. Tatyana Nikolaevna herself later recalled that it was in Birsk that she realized herself as a future teacher, and in Ufa she came to understand the priority for her teaching activity over research.

scholarly journals The role of scientific and engineering-technical intelligentsia of the South Urals in strengthening the country’s defense potential in the years of the Great Patriotic War

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-184
Author(s):  
Yulia Vladimirovna Kuznetsova
Keyword(s):  
Southern Urals ◽  
South Urals ◽  
The Southern Urals ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Industrial Facilities ◽  
Industrial Enterprises ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Red Army

Significant territorial, material and human losses in the first months of the war determined the priority role of the Urals and other eastern regions in strengthening defense. Therefore, the scientific and engineering and technical intelligentsia of the Southern Urals played a big role in strengthening the countryэs defense potential during the Great Patriotic War. The author examines the activities of specialists of the leading industrial enterprises of the region during the war years; reveals the place of engineering and technical intelligentsia of the region in solving the problem of Soviet military equipment and other defense products quality. The author notes the contribution of concrete people to the solution of complex military-technical problems; shows creative search for technological and design teams. On the basis of archival documents, the historian analyzed the contribution of the scientific intelligentsia of the region to victory. The most difficult tasks in the conditions of wartime were also performed by the engineers of the construction organizations of the Southern Urals, who carried out the orders of the State Defense Committee to build new defense and industrial facilities of the country. The paper discusses leadership and participation of technical officers of the Southern Urals in the distribution, installation and commissioning of the equipment evacuated war factories. The researcher mentions schools and train skilled personnel for industry and transport, as well as participation of intellectuals in the patriotic movement to raise funds for the defense fund, warm clothes, gifts and food packages for the Red Army.

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