Trapped by Modernity: Animal Bodies, Cattle Husbandry, and Imperial Pathologies in Romanov-ruled Ukraine

• In Event: At the Vanguard of Modernization: The Intertwined Histories of Animals and Empire in Ukraine

Abstract

The agro-extractive tsarist economy led to an imbalanced development of various agricultural sectors in Ukraine, which had become a global cereal commodity trader. Starting in the final period of the Romanov Empire (1860s-1917), specialized ministerial departments, along with communities of experts, grew increasingly concerned about the overdominance of the grain production sector in the empire’s agricultural profile. Restoring and maintaining a balance between different agricultural sectors, as well as modernizing and rationalizing cattle farming, became a central quest of the empire. By focusing on the plethora of local actors, such as zemstvo authorities, agricultural societies, individual cattle breeders and peasants, I examine the reverberations of the empire’s quest in Ukraine. How did the anxieties of modernization and rationalization in cattle farming change human-cattle relations in Ukraine, and how were these changes reflected in the language and discourses of the time? The paper offers an examination of the complex relationships between animals, modernization, and imperial structures in Ukraine during a period of profound historical transformation.

Author

• Julia Malitska, Södertörn U (Sweden)