Totalitarianism and geography: L.S. Berg and the defence of an academic discipline in the age of Stalin

Shaw, D.J.B. and Oldfield, J.D. (2008) Totalitarianism and geography: L.S. Berg and the defence of an academic discipline in the age of Stalin. Political Geography, 27(1), pp. 96-112. (doi: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2007.07.001)

Abstract

In considering the complex relationship between science and politics, the article focuses upon the career of the eminent Russian scholar, Lev Semenovich Berg (1876–1950), one of the leading geographers of the Stalin period. Already before the Russian Revolution, Berg had developed a naturalistic notion of landscape geography which later appeared to contradict some aspects of Marxist–Leninist ideology. Based partly upon Berg's personal archive, the article discusses the effects of the 1917 revolution, the radical changes which Stalin's cultural revolution (from the late 1920s) brought upon Soviet science, and the attacks made upon Berg and his concept of landscape geography thereafter. The ways in which Berg managed to defend his notion of geography (sometimes in surprisingly bold ways) are considered. It is argued that geography's position under Stalin was different from that of certain other disciplines in that its ideological disputes may have been regarded as of little significance by the party leaders, certainly by comparison with its practical importance, thus providing a degree of ‘freedom’ for some geographers at least analogous to that which has been described by Weiner (1999. A little corner of freedom: Russian nature protection from Stalin to Gorbachev. Berkeley: University of California Press) for conservationists. It is concluded that Berg and others successfully upheld a concept of scientific integrity and limited autonomy even under Stalinism, and that, in an era of ‘Big Science’, no modernizing state could or can afford to emasculate these things entirely.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: History of geographical thought, Russia, Stalinism and science, political ideology and science, totalitarianism, landscape, L.S. Berg
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Oldfield, Dr Jonathan
• Authors: Shaw, D.J.B., and Oldfield, J.D.
• Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General); D History General and Old World > DK Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics; J Political Science > JA Political science (General); D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D839 Post-war History, 1945 on
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Central and East European Studies
• Journal Name: Political Geography
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0962-6298
• ISSN (Online): 1873-5096
• Published Online: 04 September 2007
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2008 Elsevier
• First Published: First published in Political Geography 27(1):96-112
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.