Expertise And The Quest For Rural Modernization In The Russian Empire And The Soviet Union

The project of modernity is generally associated with industrial and urban contexts. Yet the belief that the world can be transformed through knowledge, technology and reason has left clear marks beyond the classic laboratories of modernity. In rural regions, it manifested itself in the implementation of ambitious agricultural programs and gigantic infrastructure projects. Such endeavors brought about both adventure and risk, promising unseen triumphs and foreshadowing ecological disasters an..

La technoscience nucléaire soviétique

En 1904, Frederick Soddy, lauréat du prix Nobel en 1921 pour ses recherches en radiochimie, spéculait sur le fait que le décodage, puis le déchaînement des forces prodigieuses de l’atome permettraient aux « nouveaux alchimistes » de « verdir les déserts, de fondre la calotte polaire et de transformer la terre entière en un plaisant jardin d’Éden ». Il prédisait aussi que l’État qui posséderait les premières armes atomiques opérationnelles conquerrait l’hégémonie mondiale. La prise de conscien..

Soviet Nuclear Technoscience

In 1904, Frederick Soddy, who would later receive the Nobel Prize for his seminal studies in radiochemistry, speculated that the “new alchemists” who had unlocked the awe‑inspiring power of the atom would “turn wastelands green, melt the polar ice caps, and transform the planet into a friendly Garden of Eden.” But he also predicted that the state to possess the first viable atomic weapon would achieve world domination. The significance of nuclear technology, at once promising and terrible, sh..