Soviet and Post-Soviet Histories of Fishing: Environments and Knowledge between the Local and Global

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel examines three facets of Soviet and post-Soviet fishing across the Union and across the world. While historians have begun to explore the maritime past of the Russian empire, much less is known about the sea-going history of the Soviet period, including histories of fishing. Likewise, while recent works have interrogated Soviet whaling practices, the interlinked issue of fishing has received relatively little attention. The three papers in this panel draw on research and examples from the Aral and Mediterranean Seas, Soviet Georgia and post-Soviet Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and beyond, to emphasize the interplay between the local and global scales of fishing labor, knowledge and environments that emerge through a focus on fishing, as well as the memories and continued legacies of Soviet-era practices.

Sub Unit

• History: 1945-1990

Chair

• Michael Alexander Brinley, Princeton U

Papers

• All Aboard the Akademik Knipovich: Soviet Fisheries Research, International Organizations, and the Cold War of the Sea - Elizabeth Banks, U of Edinburgh (UK)

• Fishing Lives, from the Local to the Global: State and Citizens in Soviet Western Georgia - Jeff Sahadeo, Carleton U (Canada)

• How to Catch Fish When There Is No Water: Post-Soviet Efforts to Revive Fishing in the Aral Sea - Sarah Cameron, U of Maryland, College Park

Discussant

• Taylor Zajicek, Williams College