The Life of Permafrost: A History of Frozen Earth in Russian and Soviet Science

In the Anthropocene, the thawing of frozen earth due to global warming has drawn worldwide attention to permafrost. Contemporary scientists define permafrost as ground that maintains a negative temperature for at least two years. But where did this particular conception of permafrost originate, and what alternatives existed? The Life of Permafrost provides an intellectual history of permafrost, placing the phenomenon squarely in the political, social, and material context of Russian and Soviet science. Pey-Yi Chu shows that understandings of frozen earth were shaped by two key experiences in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. On one hand, the colonization and industrialization of Siberia nourished an engineering perspective on frozen earth that viewed the phenomenon as an aggregate physical structure: ground. On the other, a Russian and Soviet tradition of systems thinking encouraged approaching frozen earth as a process, condition, and space tied to planetary exchanges of energy and matter. Aided by the US militarization of the Arctic during the Cold War, the engineering view of frozen earth as an obstacle to construction became dominant. The Life of Permafrost tells the fascinating story of how permafrost came to acquire life as Russian and Soviet scientists studied, named, and defined it.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments  Introduction: Historicizing Permafrost 1. Mapping  The Cold of Eastern Siberia Birth of a Scientific Object From Boden-Eis to Eisboden 2. Building Colonization and Construction Building on Frozen Earth The Soil Science of Roads The Ambiguity of Merzlota 3. Defining Merzlota as Aggregate Structure Merzlota as Process Personal and Institutional Politics Vechnaia Merzlota in Bolshevik Culture 4. Adapting From Commission to Institute Rhetoric of Transforming Nature Adapting to Frozen Earth Survival of the Systems Approach 5. Translating Birth of Permafrost Criticism and Self-criticism From Merzlotovedenie to Geocryology The Dialectic Persists Epilogue: Resurrecting Glossary Bibliography

About the Author :
Pey-Yi Chu is an associate professor of history at Pomona College.

Review :
"This excellent book makes permafrost a lot more exciting than one might imagine it possibly could be, literally bringing the topic to life. Pey-Yi Chu gives the inanimate permafrost agency in these pages." - Robert Orttung (Eurasian Geography and Economics, Vol. 62) "The life of ‘permafrost’ has generated the material for a fine, well-researched, clearly-argued, and deeply-thoughtful book." - David Moon, University of York (Slavonic and East European Review) "I found this book very informative. The quality is greatly enhanced by the author’s style, which makes the book easy to read. It is illustrated by maps and diagrams from former researchers which well support the arguments of the author. The research behind the study was built on a forceful combination of scholarly literature, archival sources and powerful storytelling that brought permafrost to life, while also employing most recent scientific findings on global climate change. - Fruzsina Gresina, Eötvös Loránd University (Hungarian Geographical Bulletin) "Throughout the book, Chu does a wonderful job of describing the politics and other cultural factors informing scientists’ study of permafrost." - Ryan Tucker Jones, University of Oregon (Canadian-American Slavic Studies) "The science of permafrost is here embedded within a historical, social, and cultural context, providing a new outlook that would not otherwise be available given the literature written by geoscientists alone. This book is a thorough compendium on the ‘life’ of permafrost, providing insights that build from the history of earth sciences." - R. A. Delgado Jr., National Science Foundation (CHOICE) "Pey-Yi Chu’s brilliantly written book on the hitherto unexplored history of permafrost in Soviet and Russian science is very timely. By investigating the scientific debates and developments around the phenomenon from a history of science perspective, she helps us go beyond the dominant image of permafrost as hostile. As she embeds the story of permafrost into a historical context, she points to the complex entanglements of science, culture, politics and history in Russia and the Soviet Union." - Katja Doose, University of Fribourg (Cahiers du monde russe) "By situating frozen earth research in the cultures that created and shaped it, Chu demonstrates that the way frozen earth science was used and promoted significantly affected the way frozen earth was conceived, studied, and named. She offers an engaging look at an understudied topic and makes an important contribution to the wider history of science in the USSR and on a global scale." - Samantha Lomb, Dotsent, Vyatka State University (Europe-Asia Studies) "In an elegant manner, Chu thoroughly examines how and under what conditions interest in the study of the frozen earth was born in the Russian Empire, what values and imperatives shaped Soviet merzlotovedenie, and what influenced the global adaptation of the Soviet concept as permafrost, which continues to be used in both public and scientific discourses." - Aleksandr Korobeinikov (Ab Imperio) "This book presents a model for how historians can connect high quality history to relevant contemporary issues. Chu’s compelling, eloquently written and deeply thoughtful book should prompt reflection in scholars and undergraduates alike." - Erika Monahan, University of Cologne (English Historical Review) "Chu’s book is an excellent meditation on the ways in which science and society have been mutually shaped, especially in the Soviet context. In lucid and elegant writing, she shows that when we speak about permafrost, especially in relation to climate change, we are in fact seeing one small point in a long historical dialogue." - Asif Siddiqi, Fordham University (Journal of Modern History) "Is permafrost a thing (a terrestrial substance defined by temperature) or a state of nature (a set of geochemical relations)? Thoroughly grounded in both archival sources and scientific knowledge, Pey-Yi Chu’s admirable book provides a history dealing with this confusion." - Peder Roberts, University of Stavanger (Polar Research)