Environmental Cultures in Soviet East Europe : Literature History and Memory Introduction Part I Unknownland: Retelling the Environmental History of Soviet Eastern Europe through Literature and Cultural Memory Chapter 1 Narrating History across Borders Chapter 2 History and Literature Chapter 3 Environmental History Chapter 4 Cultural and Environmental Memory Part II The Tired Village Chapter 1 Historical Background Chapter 2 Fatigue: Platonovs Pit and the Stalinocene Chapter 3 The Rural World is Gone: Peasants Voices Chapter 4 Satantango : Interconnecting the Human and Ecological Worlds Part III The Earths Memory Chapter 1 Mining Narratives and Their Historical Background Chapter 2 Unearthing the Story of Coal: Drach Chapter 3 The Uranium Narrative: History of a Disappearance Part IV The Persistence of Chernobyl in Cultural Memory Chapter 1 Eastern European Risk Narrative: Chernobyl Memorial Chapter 2 Contaminated Language: Wolfs Accident 00 Chapter 3 The Bees Knew: Alexievichs Chronicle Part V Disturbed Landscapes Chapter 1 Non sites of Memory and the Violation of Nature Chapter 2 Greening Sites of Memory Chapter 3 Bialowieza Forest across Eastern Europes Borders Bibliography Index For more than 40 years Eastern European culture came under the sway of Soviet rule. What is the legacy of this period for cultural attitudes to the environment and the contemporary battle to confront climate change This is the first in depth study of the legacy of the Soviet era on attitudes to the environment in countries such as Poland Hungary and Ukraine. Exploring responses in literature culture and film to political projects such as the collectivisation of agricultural land the expansion of the mining industry and disasters such as the Chernobyl explosion Anna Barcz opens up new understandings of local political traditions and examines how they might be harnessed in the cause of contemporary environmental activism. The book covers works by writers such as Christa Wolf the Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich and film makers such as Béla Tarr Andrzej Wajda and Wladyslaw Pasikowski