Epilogue

• Main Author: Josephson, Paul R.
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York 2024
• Subjects: taiga; Tundra
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197698396.003.0008; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/58152284/oso-9780197698396-chapter-8.pdf

Abstract From the Tsars to the commissars, from the Bolsheviks to the oligarchs, and from Lenin to Putin, the Russia development model has been centered on hero projects to bring the vast landscapes of tundra, taiga, steppe, and desert within the orbit and control of the Moscow. The Kremlin used hero projects essentially to build an economically powerful and militarily secure empire. In Russia, Soviet ministries reincarnated as state corporations in the pursuit of megaprojects. In the absence of sufficient public scrutiny, and with NGOs handicapped, hero projects move forward without pause. The extensive costs of hero projects, and their environmental and social consequences, have rarely been questioned by leaders or citizens alike, but have been essential to the political narrative of the need for an all-powerful, imperial state to withstand internal enemies and external dangers.