Red Power: Industry, Energy and Environment in the Soviet Union

5 credits · Undergraduate

This course explores histories of industry, energy, and the environment in the Soviet Union, examining how rapid industrialization transformed landscapes, societies, and ecosystems. Focusing on key sectors including coal, gas, nuclear energy, and heavy industry, the course investigates themes such as forced labor, modernization, planning, resource extraction, environmental change, and technological ambition. Through archival documents, propaganda posters, memoirs, maps, photographs, and film, students will examine how the Soviet pursuit of industrial supremacy reshaped both people and nature. The course also considers the enduring legacies of Soviet industrialization, from environmental degradation and nuclear catastrophe to contemporary debates about energy, climate, and post-socialist development.