Nature's Evil. Alexander Etkind
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Series Title
New Russian Thought
The publication of this series was made possible with the support of the Zimin Foundation
Vladimir Bibikhin, The Woods
Alexander Etkind, Nature’s Evil
Boris Kolonitskii, Comrade Kerensky
Sergei Medvedev, The Return of the Russian Leviathan
Maxim Trudolyubov, The Tragedy of Property
NATURE’S EVIL
A Cultural History of Natural Resources
Alexander Etkind
Translated by Sara Jolly
polity
Copyright Page
First published in Russian as Природа зла: Сырье и государство by New Literary Review.
Copyright Alexander Etkind © 2021
This English translation © Polity Press, 2021
This book was published with the support of the Zimin Foundation.
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ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4758-6 – hardback
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ėtkind, Aleksandr, 1955- author. | Jolly, Sara, translator.
Title: Nature’s evil : a cultural history of natural resources / Alexander Etkind ; translated by Sara Jolly.
Other titles: Природа зла. English
Description: Medford : Polity Press, 2021. | Series: New Russian thought | First published in Russian as Природа зла: Сырье и государство by New Literary Review. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Retelling the story of humankind through our relationship to the natural resources”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020057164 (print) | LCCN 2020057165 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509547586 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509547609 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Natural resources--History. | Natural resources--Government policy--History. | Economic history.
Classification: LCC HC85 .E85 2021 (print) | LCC HC85 (ebook) | DDC 333.709--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057164
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057165
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Acknowledgements
This is the translation from the Russian original, which was published by New Literary Review – the sixth book I have created in tandem with this unique publishing house. For this and much else I give my deepest thanks to Irina Prokhorova. I could not imagine my intellectual itinerary without her trust and support. And it is the third of my books to be published by Polity Press. I am deeply grateful to John Thompson for the pleasure of a collaboration over many years. The editor of the Russian version was Ilya Kalinin. He has done an excellent job, as he always does; I hope we will continue our conversations. The Zimin Foundation supported the translation project – another step in their tremendous contribution to international scholarship. Courageously and painstakingly, the translation was done by Sara Jolly. It was much more than translation – a true co-authorship. I am thankful for this unexpected opportunity to learn, to teach, and to advance together. Masha Bratischeva generously helped me with the manuscript in both languages.
While I was writing this book I had a lot of other things on my plate, and I feel grateful to all of them for kindly allowing me to get it finished. I was helped very much by the generosity of the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. The book grew out of several post-graduate seminars, and many PhD students contributed to it with their probing questions. For support and criticism of my ideas I am indebted to my colleagues Federico Romero, Regina Grafe, Pavel Kolar, Dirk Moses, Laura Downs, Ann Thompson, Giorgio Riello, Giancarlo Casale, Stephane van Damme and Glenda Sluga.
This text starts with a story that I learnt from my friend Dmitry Panchenko; he helped me with some other stories as well. Less obvious, but also important, has been my long-standing dialogue with Oleg Kharkhordin. From various corners of Europe, Leif Wenar, Mikhail Minakov, Kacper Szuletski and Sergey Medvedev have given me their feedback and advice. I am grateful to Evgeny Anisimov for his help with one incident from the times of Peter the Great and to Alexander Philippov for discussing the times of Ivan the Terrible. Anastasia Pilavsky and Dina Guseinova helped with advice on everything, including the title. Anatoly Belogorsky and Martin