Biography of a Road: Past and Present of the Siberian Doroga Lena

• Published in: Development and Change
• Main Authors: Argounova‐Low, Tatiana, Prisyazhnyi, Mikhail
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2015
• Subjects: Sakha; Republic of Sakha; Yakutia
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/dech.12220; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fdech.12220; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/dech.12220

ABSTRACT This article examines the Lena Road (Doroga Lena), which is situated in the eastern part of Russia and stretches through the southern and central parts of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). A former traditional path, it was developed into a corridor for accessing rich mineral resources in the area during the Soviet period. The road is associated with the socialist past and its meta‐narrative that highlights roads’ industrial profile. In this article the authors investigate the road's history through a biographical approach that incorporates biographies of people whose lives were linked to and shaped by the Lena Road. Such a biographical approach redirects the attention from a history written by a dominant totalitarian regime with its ideological prescriptions, towards the particular, individual and private, as well as highlighting the importance of people's contribution in creating the road and history.