Table Of ContentIN THE NAME OF THE GREAT WORK
The Environment in History: International Perspectives
Series Editors: Dolly Jørgensen, Umea University; David Moon, University of
York; Christof Mauch, LMU Munich; Helmuth Trischler, Deutsches Museum,
Munich
Volume 1 Volume 6
Civilizing Nature: National Parks in Fault Lines: Earthquakes and
Global Historical Perspective Urbanism in Modern Italy
Edited by Bernhard Gissibl, Sabine Giacomo Parrinello
Höhler and Patrick Kupper
Volume 7
Volume 2 Cycling and Recycling: Histories of
Powerless Science?: Science and Sustainable Practices
Politics in a Toxic World Edited by Ruth Oldenziel and
Edited by Soraya Boudia and Natalie Helmuth Trischler
Jas
Volume 8
Volume 3 Disrupted Landscapes: State,
Managing the Unknown: Essays on Peasants and the Politics of Land in
Environmental Ignorance Postsocialist Romania
Edited by Frank Uekötter and Uwe Stefan Dorondel
Lübken
Volume 9
Volume 4 The Nature of German Imperialism:
Creating Wilderness: A Transnational Conservation and the Politics of
History of the Swiss National Park Wildlife in Colonial East Africa
Patrick Kupper Bernhard Gissibl
Translated by Giselle Weiss
Volume 10
Volume 5 In the Name of the Great Work:
Rivers, Memory, and Nation- Stalin’s Plan for the Transformation
Building: A History of the Volga and of Nature and its Impact in Eastern
Mississippi Rivers Europe
Dorothy Zeisler-Vralsted Doubravka Olšáková
In the Name of the
Great Work
Stalin’s Plan for the Transformation of
Nature and its Impact in Eastern Europe
/
Edited by
Doubravka Olšáková
berghahn
N E W Y O R K (cid:127) O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
Published in 2016 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
© 2016 Doubravka Olšáková
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Olsakova, Doubravka, editor of compilation.
Title: In the name of the great work : Stalin’s Plan for the Transformation of
Nature and its impact in Eastern Europe / edited by Doubravka >Olsakova.
Description: New York : Berghahn Books, 2016. | Series: The environment
in history : international perspectives ; volume 10 | Includes bibliographical
references and indexes.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016024960| ISBN 9781785332524 (hardback : alkaline
paper)
| ISBN 9781785332531 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Environmental policy--Europe, Eastern--History--20th century.
| Environmental policy--Soviet Union--History. | Stalin, Joseph,
1878-1953--Political and social views. | Socialism—Environmental aspects-
-Europe, Eastern--History--20th century. | Nature--Effect of human beings
on--Europe, Eastern--History--20th century. | Environmental impact analysis--
Europe, Eastern--History--20th century. | Environmental degradation--Europe,
Eastern--History--20th century. | Social change--Europe, Eastern--History-
-20th century. | Europe, Eastern--Environmental conditions--History--20th
century. | Europe, Eastern--Social conditions--20th century.
Classification: LCC GE190.E852 I5 2016 | DDC 333.70947/09041--dc23 LC
record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016024960
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78533-252-4 hardback
ISBN 978-1-78533-253-1 ebook
/
Table of Contents
List of Tables vi
Acknowledgements vii
Abbreviations viii
Introduction: The Stalin Plan for the Transformation of
Nature, and the East European Experience 1
Paul Josephson
1. Kafkaesque Paradigms: The Stalinist Plan for the
Transformation of Nature in Czechoslovakia 43
Doubravka Olšáková and Arnošt Štanzel
2. Untamed Seedlings: Hungary and Stalin’s Plan for the
Transformation of Nature 126
Zsuzsanna Borvendég and Mária Palasik
3. The Conspiracy of Silence: The Stalinist Plan for the
Transformation of Nature in Poland 226
Beata Wysokińska
Conclusion: Environmental History, East European Societies,
and Totalitarian Regimes 290
Doubravka Olšáková
Index 303
/
List of Tables
Table 1.1 Growth in collective farms in Czechoslovakia 50
Table 1.2 The prognosis of cultivating rice in Czechoslovakia 71
Table 1.3 A n overview of the largest water management
projects in Czechoslovakia 101
/
Acknowledgements
The research was supported by the Czech Science Foundation (Research
Grant reg. no. 15-04902S), the National Cultural Fund of Hungary
(3802/04556), the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security,
the Institute for Contemporary History of the Academy of Sciences of
the Czech Republic, the Institute for the History of Science of the Polish
Academy of Sciences, and the Visegrad Fund. Our sincere thanks to all
of these.
/
Abbreviations
AARI Association of Agricultural Research Institutes (Svaz
výzkumných ústavů zemědělských)
CAA Czech Agricultural Academy (Česká akademie
zemědělská)
CzAA Czechoslovak Academy of Agriculture (Československá
akademie zemědělská) [this comprised the CAA and the
SAA]
CAAS Czechoslovak Academy of Agricultural Sciences
(Československá akademie zemědělských věd)
CAS Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (Československá
akademie věd)
CIR Central Agriculture Institute (Centralny Instytut
Rolniczy)
COMECON Council for Mutual Economic Assistance
(Совет Экономической Взаимопомощи, Sovet
Ekonomicheskoy Vzaimopomoshchi)
CUP Central Planning Office (Centralny Urząd Planowania)
DISZ Association of Working Youth (Dolgozó Ifjúsági
Szövetség)
FKGP Small Holders’ Party (Független Kisgazdapárt)
FM Ministry of Agriculture (Földművelésügyi Minisztérium)
GMO Genetically Modified Organism
GOP Upper Silesian Industrial Region (Górnośląski Okręg
Przemysłowy)
GUS Central Statistical Office (Główny Urząd Statystyczny)
HUF Hungarian Forint
IBL Forest Research Institute (Instytut Badawczy Leśnictwa)
ICSU International Council of Scientific Unions
IHAR Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute (Instytut
Hodowli i Aklimatyzacji Roślin)
IMUZ Institute for Land Reclamation and Grassland Farming
(Instytut Melioracji i Użytków Zielonych)
Abbreviations ix
Kčs Czechoslovak Crown (Koruna československá)
KRN National People’s Council (Krajowa Rada Narodowa)
KSČ Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Komunistická
strana Československa)
KSS Communist Party of Slovakia (Komunistická strana
Slovenska)
MDP Hungarian Workers’ Party (Magyar Dolgozók Pártja)
MKK Agricultural Experiment Center (Mezőgazdasági
Kísérletügyi Központ)
MKP Hungarian Communist Party (Magyar Kommunista
Párt)
MNL OL National Archives of Hungary (Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár
Országos Levéltára)
MTA Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Magyar Tudományos
Akadémia)
MTH Labor Force Reserve Office (Munkaerőtartalékok
Hivatala)
MTI Hungarian News Agency (Magyar Távirati Iroda)
MTK Agricultural Science Center (Mezőgazdasági
Tudományos Központ)
MTT Hungarian Science Council (Magyar Tudományos
Tanács)
MW Megawatt
NÉKOSZ National Association of People’s Colleges
NHKG New Steelworks of Klement Gottwald (Nová huť
Klementa Gottwalda)
NKVD People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (Народный
комиссариат внутренних дел, Narodnyy Komissariat
Vnutrennikh Del)
OT National Planning Office (Országos Tervhivatal)
PAN Polish Academy of Sciences (Polska Akademia Nauk)
PAU Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (Polska Akademia
Umiejętności)
PFZ State Land Fund (Państwowy Fundusz Ziemi)
PGR State Agricultural Farms (Państwowe Gospodarstwa
Rolne)
PKPG State Commission for Economic Planning (Państwowa
Komisja Planowania Gospodarczego)
PKWN Polish Committee of National Liberation (Polski
Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego)
x Abbreviations
PRL People’s Republic of Poland (Polska Rzeczpospolita
Ludowa)
PROP State Council for Nature Conservation (Państwowa Rada
Ochrony Przyrody)
PTB Polish Botanical Society (Polskie Towarzystwo
Botaniczne)
PTL Polish Forest Society (Polskie Towarzystwo Leśne)
PWRiL State Publishing House for Agriculture and Forestry
(Państwowe Wydawnictwo Rolnicze i Leśne)
PZPR Polish United Workers’ Party (Polska Zjednoczona
Partia Robotnicza)
SAA Slovak Agricultural Academy (Slovenská
poľnohospodárska akadémia)
SWMP State Water Management Plan (Státní vodohospodářský
plán)
SZDP Social Democratic Party (Szociáldemokrata Párt)
TRJN Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland
(Tymczasowy Rząd Jedności Narodowej)
VASKhNIL Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences
(Всесоюзная академия сельскохозяйственных наук
имени В. И. Ленина)
VŽKG Klement Gottwald Vítkovice Ironworks (Vítkovické
železárny Klementa Gottwalda)
WSR University of Wrocław (Uniwersytet Wrocławski)
