Baikal Goes Global

Abstract

This chapter traces the relational position of civil society through the history of three key organizations: Baikal Environmental Wave, the Tahoe-Baikal Institute, and the Great Baikal Trail. The development of local environmental civil society around Lake Baikal in the post-Soviet years was conditioned by two important changes. First, the Soviet collapse opened the door to global interaction. Local civil society was inextricably linked to global networks and forces that shaped the course of its development. Second, civil society’s strength and independence shifted along with the status of other power holders in the larger field. In the 1990s, the economy and the state were in crisis and collapse. Civil society was then most free to define itself and take aggressive positions. As the two opposing powers recover in the 2000s, accommodation to economic and political power is preferred.