Pipe Dreams: Water and Empire in Central Asia's Aral Sea Basin (Studies in Environment and History)

The drying up of the Aral Sea - a major environmental catastrophe of the late twentieth century - is deeply rooted in the dreams of the irrigation age of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a time when engineers, scientists, politicians, and entrepreneurs around the world united in the belief that universal scientific knowledge, together with modern technologies, could be used to transform large areas of the planet from 'wasteland' into productive agricultural land. Though ostensibly about bringing modernity, progress, and prosperity to the deserts, the transformation of Central Asia's landscapes through tsarist- and Soviet-era hydraulic projects bore the hallmarks of a colonial experiment. Examining how both regimes used irrigation-age fantasies of bringing the deserts to life as a means of claiming legitimacy in Central Asia, Maya K. Peterson brings a fresh perspective to the history of Russia's conquest and rule of Central Asia. Cover Half-title Series information Title page Copyright information Dedication Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments Note on People, Places, and Institutions Introduction Environment and Empire The Making of Central Asia The Irrigation Age: Back to the Future? Cotton and the Civilizing Mission Sources and Methodologies 1 The Land beyond the Rivers: Russians on the Amu Darya and Syr Darya Rivers to the Sea A Great Eurasian Waterway Customary Water Use Irrigating Russian Turkestan Muddied Waters Conclusion 2 Eastern Eden: Irrigation and Empire on the Hungry Steppe A New Irrigator Canal Labors The ''August Benefactor'' The August Patient A Russo-Asiatic Ruler The Legend of the Thirsty Steppe Conclusion 3 To Create a New Turkestan: Water Governance in the Irrigation Age Bringing Order to the Hungry Steppe Managing Water White Gold Fever Financing Irrigation Governing Water Restricting Rice Conclusion 4 The Land of Bread and Honey?: Settlement and Subversion in the Land of Seven Rivers The Valley of the River Chu White Coal for White Gold Settlers and Nomads Crossing Boundaries War and Revolt Patching Fault Lines Conclusion 5 Sundering the Chains of Nature: Bolshevik Visions for Central Asia Water Management, Soviet-Style Hunger in Turkestan Irrigation Reconstruction Nationalizing Water Management Reforming Land and Water Greening the Deserts Water Management on Trial Conclusion 6 From Shockwork to People's Construction: Socialist Labor on Stalin's Canals Taming the Wild River The Vakhsh Irrigation Construction Project Building a Modern Soviet Socialist Republic Constructing Stalin's Canals Forging New Soviet People Masters of the Valley The Legacy of Vakhshstroi Making History on the Great Canals Conclusion Epilogue: The Fate of the Aral Sea Conclusion Glossary Bibliography Archival Sources and Special Collections Historical Newspapers, Journals, and Other Periodicals Published Works Primary Sources and Document Collections Secondary Works Index Pipe Dreams analyzes the transformation of Central Asia's landscapes through tsarist- and Soviet-era hydraulic projects. Arguing that water was a central concern, Maya K. Peterson brings a critical region into view across a long period and engages environmental questions through a rich political and social framework. A Long Environmental History Of The Aral Sea Region, Focusing On Colonization And Development In Russian And Soviet Central Asia.