Networks of Extraction: The Reciprocal Landscapes of Soviet Reconstruction

• In Event: Elements for the Future: Materials and Practices of Post-WWII Reconstructions

Abstract

This paper explores the “reciprocal landscapes” that made postwar rebuilding possible in the USSR. It traces the development of material networks linking Soviet cities to distant forests, quarries, and factories that supplied wood, marble, bricks, and steel. Focusing on regions tapped for resource mining in the western Soviet Union, such as the Baltic, the paper examines the relationship between material resource extraction and wartime “liberation” and annexation into the Soviet state.

Author

• Katherine Zubovich, SUNY Buffalo