Saving the Sacred Sea

Abstract

Lake Baikal is like no place on Earth. More than a mile deep, Baikal contains a fifth of the world’s freshwater. Thousands of endemic species reside in its watershed. It is an ecological treasure trove and a natural reservoir of global proportions. The region is also home to a strong environmentalist community that works tirelessly to protect Baikal from human harm. Environmentalists around Baikal began their campaign in the late 1950s, sparking the first national protest against the Soviet government’s planned industrial development. They have remained active in some form ever since, across the years of chaos, instability, and crisis: from Russia’s opening to the forces of globalization through the authoritarianism of Putin in the present. This book examines the struggle of Baikal environmentalists across these periods in order to develop a new understanding of civil society under conditions of globalization and authoritarianism. Through extended, historically informed ethnographic analysis, the book reveals that civil society is engaged with political and economic elites in a dynamic struggle within a field of power. Understanding the broader field of power helps to explain a number of apparent contradictions surrounding civil society and environmentalism. For example, why does civil society seem to both bolster democracy and threaten it? Why do capitalist corporations and environmental organizations form partnerships despite their general hostility toward each other? And why has democracy proven to be so elusive in Russia? The field of power posits new answers to these questions, as Baikal environmental activists struggle to protect and save their Sacred Sea.