Andrei Vinogradov (München): Sweet Streams. River Pollution by Ukrainian Sugar Smelters and Trajectories of Anti-Pollution Innovations in the Russian Empire

Wir laden Sie herzlich zur Kolloquiumsveranstaltung mit Andrei Vinogradov am 08.02.2024 ein. Er wird einen Vortrag zum Thema: "Sweet Streams. River Pollution by Ukrainian Sugar Smelters and Trajectories  of Anti-Pollution Innovations in the Russian Empire" halten. Die Veranstaltung findet von 18:00 ct - 20:00 Uhr in Raum 4429 (KG IV) statt.

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 Abstract zum Vortrag: "Sweet Streams. River Pollution by Ukrainian Sugar Smelters and Trajectories of Anti-pollution Innovations in the Russian Empire"

This story describes the unusual and unexpected path taken by one of Russia's first innovations in pollution control. Born in what was then considered the periphery of the empire, it was successful enough to be adopted by the Russian government. Not only did it survive the Revolution of 1917, but it came close to becoming the basis of environmental policy in the early Soviet Union. 

These were commissions for sugar factories' wastewater treatment, which worked at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Podilsk. As early as the 1880s, water pollution from sugar beet wastes became a serious problem, threatening agriculture and the traditional way of life of the peasants. At the same time, the Russian sugar industry - the only one that could compete with "colonial" cane sugar - had geopolitical importance and brought enormous profits to industrialists. Confronting such powerful corporations with weak sanitary regulations and a lack of relevant scientific knowledge had little chance of success. Nevertheless, the local communities were able to form commissions that first brought the conflicting parties together in a common desire to develop uniform, understandable, and feasible anti-pollution measures that did not yet exist at the national level. Their joint work has greatly improved national environmental policy. My presentation will focus on the history of these commissions, the reasons for their effectiveness, and the fate of nationwide initiatives inspired by their example.