Black Earth, White Bread: A Technopolitical History of Russian Agriculture and Food

UW Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia (CREECA) lecture.

press release: Like all facets of daily life, the food that Russian farms produced and citizens ate—or, in some years, didn’t eat—underwent radical shifts in the century between the Bolshevik Revolution and Vladimir Putin’s presidency. An interdisciplinary history of Russia’s agriculture and food systems documents a complex story of the interactions between political policies, daily cultural practices, and technological improvements. Examining governance, production, consumption, nature, and the ensuing vulnerabilities of the agrifood system, University of Notre Dame associate professor Susanne Wengle reveals the intended and unintended consequences of Russian agricultural policies since 1917.