Recounting Russia’s history through its forests

The fate of Russia's forests will affect the whole world, says Sophie Pinkham, a scholar and journalist who has spent years studying the forest and its significance in Russian history and culture.

"Like the Amazon, Russia's forests - about one-fifth of the world's forest cover - have global climatic significance," said Pinkham, professor of the practice in comparative literature in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S). "And these vast forests played a pivotal role in creating the Russia we know today."

In "The Oak and the Larch: A Forest History of Russia and its Empires," published Jan. 20, Pinkham surveys the forest's place at the heart of Russian culture and history. Highlighting episodes like the conquest of Siberia and the story of Russia's Indigenous peoples, the book examines the country through the lens of the forest. Pinkham considers mythological figures, literary giants and political leaders up to the present moment.

"My goal is to advance a new understanding of Russia, balancing nature with culture and east with west," Pinkham said.

Pinkham will be in conversationwith Valzhyna Mort, associate professor of literatures in English (A&S), about "The Oak and the Larch" at Buffalo Street Books on Thursday, Jan. 29 at 5:30 p.m., sponsored by the Department of Comparative Literature.

The College of Arts and Sciences talked with Pinkham about the book.

Question: Of the hundreds of billions of trees in Russian forests, why did you choose the oak and the larch for the title of your book?

Answer: The oak was a sacred tree in early Slavic cultures and remained a symbol of righteousness and strength into the modern period. It's an icon of European Russia, important in Peter the Great's efforts to make Russia a seafaring power through Dutch-style shipbuilding. The larch is a symbol of Siberia and the taiga, the boreal forest. With its resilience and long life, it was used in some Soviet literature - notably Varlam Shalamov's Gulag stories - to represent the possibility of surviving a cruel and repressive state. It is an emblem of the redemptive power of memory.

Q: Who are some of the writers who have helped to shape Russian ideas of the forest?

A: In the 19th century, the most important were Ivan Turgenev and Leo Tolstoy. Turgenev wrote gorgeous short stories about hunting - this was the beginning of nature writing in Russia - and he lamented the rapid deforestation of central Russia, which also caused serious hydrological problems. His stories about wandering the countryside included sympathetic portrayals of serfs; he was credited with helping to bring about the Emancipation of 1861. During this period the rights of serfs and the rights of the forest were closely linked.

As a young man, Tolstoy participated in Russia's deforestation of Chechnya, part of the military campaign that blended ecocide and genocide, the forest being essential to the Chechen and Avar guerillas who were resisting Russian conquest.

Tolstoy's experience in the army helped make him a writer, a pacifist and a lifelong planter of trees. He used the proceeds from "War and Peace" to reforest his estate in central Russia, recycling books back into saplings. That novel includes one of Tolstoy's most sublime passages, about an epiphany inspired by a gnarled oak tree.

Q: What outcomes do you think climate change will have on Russia and the region - not just on the physical landscape but on culture and politics?

A: Climate change will have a destabilizing effect politically, as it changes agriculture, animal husbandry and fishing, as infrastructure built on permafrost sinks and breaks, as rivers dry up and as disasters become more frequent.

Climate change is also reminding us of the crucial importance of geography and climate in history and politics. The forest helped make Russia what it is today; as Russia's climate changes, so will Russia. By looking to the past - even as far back as a major cooling event in prehistory - we can understand better how massive climatic shifts could change human culture. What will happen to society when huge areas of forest dry up or burn down, as forests migrate north, as tundra thaws? By understanding the past, we prepare for the future.

Kate Blackwood is a writer for the College of Arts and Sciences.