ABSTRACT
This book is about nuclear legacies in Russia and Central Asia, focusing on selected sites of the Soviet atomic program, many of which have remained understudied. Nuclear operations, for energy or military purposes, demanded a vast infrastructure of production and supply chains that have transformed entire regions. In following the material traces of the atomic programs, contributors pay particular attention to memory practices and memorialization concerning nuclear legacies.
Tracing the Atom foregrounds historical and contemporary engagements with nuclear politics: how have institutions and governments responded to the legacies of the atomic era? How do communities and artists articulate concerns over radioactive matters? What was the role of radiation expertise in a broader Soviet and international context of the Cold War? Examining nuclear legacies together with past atomic futures and post-Soviet memorialization and nuclear heritage shines light on how modes of knowing intersect with livelihoods, compensation policies, and historiography.
Bringing together a range of disciplines – history, science and technology studies, social anthropology, literary studies, and art history – this volume offers insights that broaden our understanding of twentieth-century atomic programs and their long aftermaths.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|65 pages
Past Futures
chapter 202|28 pages
The Nuclear Landscape as a Garden
chapter 3|18 pages
Radiation Expertise in the Nuclear Landscapes of the Southern Urals in the 1950s and 1960s
chapter 4|17 pages
Between Profession and Politics
part II|87 pages
Living with Nuclear Legacies
chapter 865|21 pages
Environmental Relationalities
chapter 7|33 pages
The Legal Heritage of the Atom
part III|44 pages
Traces of Exposure and the Politics of Memory