Experts faced with a drying wetland: history of fisheries in the Volga River delta, 1930-1962

By articulating the roles played by various actors, such as fisheries scientists, fish harvesting and processing enterprises and Soviet consumers, this paper uses fisheries as a case study to better understand the effect different social groups had on the relationship between political authorities and the environment. This paper argues that the imperative of productivity guiding Soviet resource management reshaped the Volga River delta, while conservationist efforts were belated and insufficient due to lack of reduction in the negative impact of other industrial branches. The areas that were previously flooded in spring and served as spawning grounds were gradually reimagined as dry lands proper for irrigated agriculture. This conversion, which was enabled by the expertise of fishery scientists, constructed knowledge of fish breeding. This paper demonstrates the particularity of fisheries lending legitimacy to direct resource users voicing their alarm about the depletion of the fish stock on which their lives depend, thereby ensuring that the central authorities heed their appeal.