Abstract
Shaw, DJB, ‘The Science behind the Great Stalin Plan, 1948-1953: Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Precedents’, 24th International Conference for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester, July 21-28, 2013
The ‘Great Stalin Plan for the Transformation of Nature’ was a grandiose, Communist Party and Soviet government-sponsored scheme for the amelioration of climatic conditions across the forest-steppe and steppe vegetation zones of the European USSR. The region which was the object of the scheme was in essence the USSR’s breadbasket and it was believed that by planting a whole series of shelter belts and attendant environmental measures a significant and reliable increase in agricultural production might be secured. The entire plan was to be put into effect within fifteen years.
The decree which inaugurated the plan in October 1948 claimed that it was based on the long experience of a series of scientific research institutes and of ‘progressive’ collective and state farms in the study of the local environment and in the practical work of ameliorating and cultivating forest-steppe and steppe lands. Proponents of the plan, Party propagandists and academic commentators also claimed that the scientific basis of the plan lay in the research of nineteenth and early twentieth century scholars like V. V. Dokuchaev, P. A. Kostychev, G. N. Vysotskii and V. R. Vil’yams. Thus the impression was given that the plan, rather than being an emergency measure introduced in conditions of post-war crisis, had a solid scientific basis.
However, examination of the materials produced by the scientists during the period of the Stalin Plan suggests that there were serious inadequacies in the science which lay behind the plan. In other words, the plan’s cancellation after Stalin’s death in 1953 stemmed not merely from problems in the implementation of its ambitious goals but also from difficulties in understanding the region’s environmental complexities and in forecasting the environmental effects of specific measures. The paper will provide an overview of the scientific achievements of such nineteenth-century scholars as Dokuchaev and of the recommendations they made for environmental amelioration. The work of the field research stations established by Dokuchaev and his associates will also be considered. Finally, using evidence from the Stalin Plan period, the paper will note the extent to which the preceding science provided a solid basis for nature transformation.