No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Undrowned Story: The Landscape on the Volgo–Baltic Waterway as the Volga Hydropower Cascade Submersions Memorial
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 May 2022
Abstract
Vast territories along the Volga River basin were intentionally submerged in the 1930s to 1980s for the sake of creating the Volga hydropower cascade. Many people suffered displacement, and hundreds of cultural and historical sites were destroyed or left under water. However, these events were never recognized as a national tragedy in the official public narrative. This article is dedicated to a grassroots project aimed at creating a ‘lieu de mémoire’ for this difficult heritage by preserving the ruins of a submerged church. The ruins marking the transformed landscape bear memories of the events that accompanied that transformation as well as the role of an individual and local community in commemorating the traumatic events. Intentionally preserved ruins are extremely rare for Russia, yet they powerfully link tangible and intangible heritage and give voice to repressed narratives.
- Type
- Article
- Information
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Academia Europaea
Footnotes
*
The author has reported that she ‘has been forced to leave Russia due to her opposition to the Russian war against Ukraine’.
References
References
Author’s notes April/May 2021 – notes taken in the Easter volunteer field trip to Krokhino, April–May 2021.Google Scholar
BSSP – Big stories of small people. The library of heritage conference, Kolomna 2020. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_hJ41fOIu8&t=898s (accessed 28 May 2021)Google Scholar
HSE – Anor Tukaeva. Revitalization of the Ruins by the Example of the Preservation Project of the Submerged Lighthouse Temple in Krokhino. Conference ‘The Legacy of Regions: Paths of History, Crossroads of Modernity’, HSE, 12 March 2020. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4YqutE4uwA (accessed 28 May 2021)Google Scholar
LDCH – A lecture on the history of the Krohino project and a master class on drawing the Temple. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfGIZ0LZeLY&t=2305s (accessed 28 May 2021)Google Scholar
ZONE – Flood Zone. Live Memory. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgAnN4J3egI (accessed 28 May 2021)Google Scholar
ASI – Elena Dolzhenko (2019) The keeper of Memory. Interview with Anor Tukaeva. Available at: https://www.asi.org.ru/2019/10/11/krohino/ (accessed 28 May 2021)Google Scholar
KROKHINO – Krokhino, Cultural Heritage Revitalization Project (official website). Available at: https://krokhino.ru/about/ (accessed 28 May 2021).Google Scholar
MONITOR – Fred Weir (2020) Russia’s peasant history, once submerged, is brought back into the light. The Christian Science Monitor. Available at: https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/2020/0821/Russia-s-peasant-history-once-submerged-is-brought-back-into-the-light?fbclid=IwAR0_2DwmSX5RBl1jC5LmNzPe6QtYkDCrji_eDtISC87dqAlxW2RxzOpDBww (accessed 28 May 2021)Google Scholar
MUSEUM – Museum of undrowned stories of Lake Beloe (Virtual Museum of Krokhino project) Available at: http://museum.pronasledie.ru (accessed 28 May 2021).Google Scholar
RG – Artem Lokalov (2018) Shine, Lighthouse Temple! The flooded temple and its rescuers, who asked for help, were finally seen and heard. Available at: https://rg.ru/2018/08/10/kak-spasatelej-zatoplennogo-hrama-prosivshih-o-pomoshchi-nakonec-uslyshali.html (accessed 28 May 2021)Google Scholar
Arnold-de Simine, S (2013) Mediating Memory in the Museum: Trauma, Empathy, Nostalgia. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Assmann, J and Czaplicka, J (1995) Collective memory and cultural identity. New German Critique 65, 125–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bogumił, Z, Moran, D and Harrowell, E (2015) Sacred or secular? ‘Memorial’, the Russian Orthodox Church, and the contested commemoration of Soviet repressions. Europe-Asia Studies 67, 1416–1444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burdin, E (2005a) Volzhskaya Atlantida: tragediya velikoj reki [Volga Atlantis: The Tragedy of the Great River]. Uljanovsk: IP Tukhtarov V.N.Google Scholar
Burdin, E (2010b) Istoriografija problemy gidrostroitel’stva v Povolzh’e. [Historiography of the problem of hydraulic engineering in the Volga region]. Izvestija Samarskogo nauchnogo centra Rossijskoj akademii nauk, 12(6-1), 217–223.Google Scholar
Claval, P (2007) Changing conceptions of heritage and landscape. In Moore, N and Whelan, Y (eds), Heritage, Memory and the Politics of Identity. Hampshire: Ashgate, pp. 85–93.Google Scholar
Felman, S and Laub, D (1992) Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis and History. New York: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Gessat-Anstett, E (2002) Le territoire englouti de Mologa. Revue de synthèse 123, 149–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gessat-Anstett, E (2007) Une Atlantide russe: anthropologie de la mémoire en Russie post-soviétique. Paris: La Découverte.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halbwachs, M (1992) On Collective Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ivanov, L (2007) Priroda kraya do i posle sozdaniya vodohranilishcha [The nature of the region after the creation of the reservoir]. In Mologa. Zeml’a I more [Mologa. The Land and the Sea]. Rybinsk: Rybinsky Dom pechati, pp. 9–55.Google Scholar
Karut, K (2009) Travma, vremja i istorija [Trauma, time and history] Translated by Trubina E. In Oushakin, S and Trubina, E (eds), Travma: punkty. Moscow: NLO, pp. 561–581.Google Scholar
Kharitonova, V (2004) Shamany i shamanisty: nekotorye teoreticheskie aspekty izuchenija shamanizma i inyh tradicionnyh verovanij i praktik. [Shamans and shamanists: some theoretical aspects of the study of shamanism and other traditional beliefs and practices]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 2, 99–118.Google Scholar
Lukyanenko, V (2003) Krupnomasshtabnye izmeneniya ekologii Verhnej Volgi pod vliyaniem gidrostroitel’stva i gidroenergetiki [Large-scale changes in the ecology of the Upper Volga under the influence of hydraulic construction and hydroenergetics]. In Alekseev, N (ed.), Mologa. Rybinskoe vodohranilishche. Istoriya i sovremennost’: k 60-letiyu zatopleniya Mologo-Sheksninskogo mezhdurech’ya i obrazovaniya Rybinskogo vodohranilishcha. Mat-ly nauch. konf. Rybinsk: Rybinskoe podvorje, pp. 20–23.Google Scholar
Marchant A (ed.) (2018) Historicising Heritage and Emotions: The Affective Histories of Blood, Stone and Land. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Miskova, E (2019) Travma stalinskih repressij v kontekste kollektivnyh travm genocidov. [The trauma of Stalin’s repressions in the context of the collective trauma of genocides]. Psihologija i psihoterapija sem'i 4, 31–49.Google Scholar
Nora, P (1989) Between memory and history: Les Lieux de Mémoire. Representations 26, 7–25
CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivyer, I (2003) Sovremennoe ekologicheskoe sostoyanie Rybinskogo vodohranilishcha i pribrezhnoj zony Mologskogo kraya [Current ecological condition of the Rybinsk Reservoir and the coastal zone of the Mologsky region]. In Luk’yanenko, V (ed.), Mologskij kraj: problemy i puti ih resheniya: materialy Kruglogo stola, Yaroslavl’, 5-6 iyunya 2003 g. Yaroslavl’: Izdanie VVO REA, pp. 131–137.Google Scholar
Smith, L (2012) All Heritage is Intangible: Critical Heritage Studies and Museums. Amsterdam: Reinwardt Academy, Amsterdam School of the Arts.Google Scholar
Smith, L (2015) Theorizing museum and heritage visiting. In Witcomb, A, Message, K (eds), The International Handbook of Museum Studies. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 459–484.
CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarasova, А (2018) Ulica iz Russkoj Atlantidy: istorija zatoplenija goroda Mologi i drugih zemel’ na Jaroslavskoj zemle v konce 1930-1941 [A street from Russian Atlantis: the history of the flooding of the city of Mologa and other lands in Yaroslavl land in the late 1930s–1941]. Chastnoe i obshhestvennoe v povsednevnoj zhizni naselenija Rossii: istorija i sovremennost’ (regional’nyj aspekt). St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg Mining University, pp. 225–232.Google Scholar
Tretyakova, T (2001) Gidrostroj kak razrushayushchij faktor sociobiocenoza Uglichsko-Myshkinsko-go Verhnevolzh’ya [Hydroelectric construction as a destructive factor in the sociobiocenosis of the Uglichi-Myshkin Upper Volga Region]. In Grechuhin, V (ed.), Verhnevolzh’e: sud’ba reki i sud’by lyudej. Trudy I Myshkinskoj region. ekologich. konf. (1). Myshkin: Rybinskoe podvorje, pp. 30–35.Google Scholar
Zill, R (2011) ‘A true witness of transience’: Berlin’s Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche and the symbolic use of architectural fragments in modernity. European Review of History: Revue europeenne d’histoire 18, 811–827.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Author’s notes April/May 2021 – notes taken in the Easter volunteer field trip to Krokhino, April–May 2021.Google Scholar
BSSP – Big stories of small people. The library of heritage conference, Kolomna 2020. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_hJ41fOIu8&t=898s (accessed 28 May 2021)Google Scholar
HSE – Anor Tukaeva. Revitalization of the Ruins by the Example of the Preservation Project of the Submerged Lighthouse Temple in Krokhino. Conference ‘The Legacy of Regions: Paths of History, Crossroads of Modernity’, HSE, 12 March 2020. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4YqutE4uwA (accessed 28 May 2021)Google Scholar
LDCH – A lecture on the history of the Krohino project and a master class on drawing the Temple. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfGIZ0LZeLY&t=2305s (accessed 28 May 2021)Google Scholar
ZONE – Flood Zone. Live Memory. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgAnN4J3egI (accessed 28 May 2021)Google Scholar
ASI – Elena Dolzhenko (2019) The keeper of Memory. Interview with Anor Tukaeva. Available at: https://www.asi.org.ru/2019/10/11/krohino/ (accessed 28 May 2021)Google Scholar
KROKHINO – Krokhino, Cultural Heritage Revitalization Project (official website). Available at: https://krokhino.ru/about/ (accessed 28 May 2021).Google Scholar
MONITOR – Fred Weir (2020) Russia’s peasant history, once submerged, is brought back into the light. The Christian Science Monitor. Available at: https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/2020/0821/Russia-s-peasant-history-once-submerged-is-brought-back-into-the-light?fbclid=IwAR0_2DwmSX5RBl1jC5LmNzPe6QtYkDCrji_eDtISC87dqAlxW2RxzOpDBww (accessed 28 May 2021)Google Scholar
MUSEUM – Museum of undrowned stories of Lake Beloe (Virtual Museum of Krokhino project) Available at: http://museum.pronasledie.ru (accessed 28 May 2021).Google Scholar
RG – Artem Lokalov (2018) Shine, Lighthouse Temple! The flooded temple and its rescuers, who asked for help, were finally seen and heard. Available at: https://rg.ru/2018/08/10/kak-spasatelej-zatoplennogo-hrama-prosivshih-o-pomoshchi-nakonec-uslyshali.html (accessed 28 May 2021)Google Scholar
Arnold-de Simine, S (2013) Mediating Memory in the Museum: Trauma, Empathy, Nostalgia. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Assmann, J and Czaplicka, J (1995) Collective memory and cultural identity. New German Critique 65, 125–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bogumił, Z, Moran, D and Harrowell, E (2015) Sacred or secular? ‘Memorial’, the Russian Orthodox Church, and the contested commemoration of Soviet repressions. Europe-Asia Studies 67, 1416–1444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burdin, E (2005a) Volzhskaya Atlantida: tragediya velikoj reki [Volga Atlantis: The Tragedy of the Great River]. Uljanovsk: IP Tukhtarov V.N.Google Scholar
Burdin, E (2010b) Istoriografija problemy gidrostroitel’stva v Povolzh’e. [Historiography of the problem of hydraulic engineering in the Volga region]. Izvestija Samarskogo nauchnogo centra Rossijskoj akademii nauk, 12(6-1), 217–223.Google Scholar
Claval, P (2007) Changing conceptions of heritage and landscape. In Moore, N and Whelan, Y (eds), Heritage, Memory and the Politics of Identity. Hampshire: Ashgate, pp. 85–93.Google Scholar
Felman, S and Laub, D (1992) Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis and History. New York: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Gessat-Anstett, E (2002) Le territoire englouti de Mologa. Revue de synthèse 123, 149–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gessat-Anstett, E (2007) Une Atlantide russe: anthropologie de la mémoire en Russie post-soviétique. Paris: La Découverte.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halbwachs, M (1992) On Collective Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ivanov, L (2007) Priroda kraya do i posle sozdaniya vodohranilishcha [The nature of the region after the creation of the reservoir]. In Mologa. Zeml’a I more [Mologa. The Land and the Sea]. Rybinsk: Rybinsky Dom pechati, pp. 9–55.Google Scholar
Karut, K (2009) Travma, vremja i istorija [Trauma, time and history] Translated by Trubina E. In Oushakin, S and Trubina, E (eds), Travma: punkty. Moscow: NLO, pp. 561–581.Google Scholar
Kharitonova, V (2004) Shamany i shamanisty: nekotorye teoreticheskie aspekty izuchenija shamanizma i inyh tradicionnyh verovanij i praktik. [Shamans and shamanists: some theoretical aspects of the study of shamanism and other traditional beliefs and practices]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 2, 99–118.Google Scholar
Lukyanenko, V (2003) Krupnomasshtabnye izmeneniya ekologii Verhnej Volgi pod vliyaniem gidrostroitel’stva i gidroenergetiki [Large-scale changes in the ecology of the Upper Volga under the influence of hydraulic construction and hydroenergetics]. In Alekseev, N (ed.), Mologa. Rybinskoe vodohranilishche. Istoriya i sovremennost’: k 60-letiyu zatopleniya Mologo-Sheksninskogo mezhdurech’ya i obrazovaniya Rybinskogo vodohranilishcha. Mat-ly nauch. konf. Rybinsk: Rybinskoe podvorje, pp. 20–23.Google Scholar
Marchant A (ed.) (2018) Historicising Heritage and Emotions: The Affective Histories of Blood, Stone and Land. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Miskova, E (2019) Travma stalinskih repressij v kontekste kollektivnyh travm genocidov. [The trauma of Stalin’s repressions in the context of the collective trauma of genocides]. Psihologija i psihoterapija sem'i 4, 31–49.Google Scholar
Nora, P (1989) Between memory and history: Les Lieux de Mémoire. Representations 26, 7–25
CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivyer, I (2003) Sovremennoe ekologicheskoe sostoyanie Rybinskogo vodohranilishcha i pribrezhnoj zony Mologskogo kraya [Current ecological condition of the Rybinsk Reservoir and the coastal zone of the Mologsky region]. In Luk’yanenko, V (ed.), Mologskij kraj: problemy i puti ih resheniya: materialy Kruglogo stola, Yaroslavl’, 5-6 iyunya 2003 g. Yaroslavl’: Izdanie VVO REA, pp. 131–137.Google Scholar
Smith, L (2012) All Heritage is Intangible: Critical Heritage Studies and Museums. Amsterdam: Reinwardt Academy, Amsterdam School of the Arts.Google Scholar
Smith, L (2015) Theorizing museum and heritage visiting. In Witcomb, A, Message, K (eds), The International Handbook of Museum Studies. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 459–484.
CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarasova, А (2018) Ulica iz Russkoj Atlantidy: istorija zatoplenija goroda Mologi i drugih zemel’ na Jaroslavskoj zemle v konce 1930-1941 [A street from Russian Atlantis: the history of the flooding of the city of Mologa and other lands in Yaroslavl land in the late 1930s–1941]. Chastnoe i obshhestvennoe v povsednevnoj zhizni naselenija Rossii: istorija i sovremennost’ (regional’nyj aspekt). St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg Mining University, pp. 225–232.Google Scholar
Tretyakova, T (2001) Gidrostroj kak razrushayushchij faktor sociobiocenoza Uglichsko-Myshkinsko-go Verhnevolzh’ya [Hydroelectric construction as a destructive factor in the sociobiocenosis of the Uglichi-Myshkin Upper Volga Region]. In Grechuhin, V (ed.), Verhnevolzh’e: sud’ba reki i sud’by lyudej. Trudy I Myshkinskoj region. ekologich. konf. (1). Myshkin: Rybinskoe podvorje, pp. 30–35.Google Scholar
Zill, R (2011) ‘A true witness of transience’: Berlin’s Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche and the symbolic use of architectural fragments in modernity. European Review of History: Revue europeenne d’histoire 18, 811–827.CrossRefGoogle Scholar