ABSTRACT
Using Siberia’s seasonal cycle as historical actor and metaphor, this chapter describes 40,000 years of the region’s environmental history. From Pleistocene cooling to the onset of the Anthropocene, Siberia has experienced both extreme climatic fluctuations and disruptive human events, which are ultimately interlinked phenomena. This chapter locates both Indigenous Siberian and imperial Russian colonization as particularly important developments in the region’s environmental history, which are both shaped by—and shape—the natural world. While Siberians introduced new species of animals, Russians introduced infectious diseases and decimated fur-bearing animal populations. The establishment of Soviet power after 1917 inaugurated another change in season, bringing with it for the first-time energy-intensive technologies such as urban housing and central heating that reconfigured humans’ experience of Siberia’s cold. The Soviets also attempted to change Indigenous Siberians’ relationships with the land and their animals, resulting in varying degrees of dislocation and adaptation. As Siberia entered the 21st century as a center of particularly rapid warming, some visionaries looked to its past for inspiration and technologies to maintain the balance of annual cycling.
