Antropologicheskij forum, 2022, no. 54

A Review of CHU PEY-YI, THE LIFE OF PERMAFROST: A HISTORY OF FROZEN EARTH IN RUSSIAN AND SOVIET SCIENCE. Toronto; Buffalo; London: University of Toronto Press, 2020, 288 pp.

Asya Karaseva

European University at St Petersburg
6/1А Gagarinskaya Str., St Petersburg, Russia
akarasyova()eu.spb.ru

Abstract: In this review, Pei-Yi Chu’s book The Life of Permafrost: The History of Frozen Land in Russian and Soviet Science is examined in detail from two perspectives, methodological and historical. The evolution of Chu’s methodological approach and analytical language on the way from a thesis to a book is analyzed, and the history of the late Soviet research on permafrost, which was not covered in the book, is briefly described.

Keywords: permafrost, STS, environmental history, history of science, Anthropocene, Russian Empire, USSR.

Acknowledgements: The review was prepared with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation grant no. 22-18-00238 <https://rscf.ru/project/22-18-00238/>.

To cite: Karaseva A., ‘A Review of Chu Pey-Yi, The Life of Permafrost: A History of Frozen Earth in Russian and Soviet Science. Toronto; Buffalo;London: University of Toronto Press, 2020, 288 pp.’, Antropologicheskij forum, 2022, no. 54, pp. 227–235.

doi: 10.31250/1815-8870-2022-18-54-227-235

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/054/karaseva.pdf