Critical Climate Histories of Eurasia: An Introduction

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AbstractThis piece serves as an introduction to a cluster of articles on “Critical Climate Histories of Eurasia.” It frames the current interest in climate issues in light of the pronounced effects that anthropogenic warming is already having in countries that comprised the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. Historiographical developments in the environmental humanities have also encouraged deeper interrogation of past human engagement with climate. While contributions to the climate history of Eurasia have thus far been insightful, much work remains to be done. To encourage the expansion of this realm of scholarship, this article advocates for “critical climate histories” of the region that treat climate as a potent, but non‐deterministic, factor in history and combine an appreciation for the novelty of current climate disruption and an approach to it that recognizes longstanding social, environmental, economic, and political injustices. Critical climate histories can draw insights from Indigenous studies, critiques of capitalism and colonialism, and approaches to knowledge that engage with scientific and non‐scientific perspectives. This piece ends by explicitly positioning the articles in the cluster as examples of critical climate history.