# The Soviet Everyday was Green! How urban farming restored the metabolic rift and fed the Soviet Union #### calendar\_today Date and Time **November 2, 2023** 05:00PM - 06:30PM EDT #### pin\_drop Location **Belfer Case Study Room (S-020), CGIS-South Concourse, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138** **Keynote Lecture** by **[Kate Brown](https://sts-program.mit.edu/people/sts-faculty/kate-brown/)**, Thomas M. Siebel Distinguished Professor in the History of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Moderated by **[Catherine Wanner](https://history.la.psu.edu/directory/catherine-wanner/)**, Professor of History, Anthropology and Religious Studies at Penn State University and Jacyk Distinguished Fellow at the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University **IN-PERSON ONLY** ## About the Lecture Simple kitchen gardens frame Soviet history. Gardens buoyed citizens in the founding turmoil of the Bolshevik Revolution and tolled the bell at the end of the Soviet Union. In 1933, in the midst of a man-made famine that killed seven million people, Soviet citizens won the right to garden. By the fifties, more people were enrolled in garden associations than in the communist party. Brown argues that the restoration of common land and the right to self-provision was a major factor in the economic success of the USSR. This Keynote Lecture is part of a two-day workshop that will take place on 1-2 November 2023. More information about other included events: *Domesticating, Rewilding, Sacralizing: Modes of Engaging Nature in Everyday Life* Workshop papers presented online and in-person Wednesday, November 1st at 10am - 5pm Pritsak Memorial Library at HURI (seating is very limited) Film Screening of *The Dogs That Survived* Wednesday, November 1st at 5:30pm Room K-354, CGIS-Knafel (North) (in-person only) ## About the Speaker Kate Brown is the author of several prize-winning histories, including *Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters* (Oxford 2013). Her latest book, *Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future* (Norton 2019), translated into six languages, won the Marshall Shulman and Reginald Zelnik Prizes for the best book in East European History, plus the Silver Medal for Laura Shannon Book Prize. *Manual for Survival* was also a finalist for the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award, the Pushkin House Award and the Ryszard Kapuściński Award for Literary Reportage. ────────────────── *This event is hosted by Harvard's [Ukrainian Research Institute](https://huri.harvard.edu/) (HURI) and organized by Catherine Wanner. It is co-sponsored by the Working Group on Lived Religion in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe at the University of St. Gallen and the [Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program](https://huri.harvard.edu/temerty-contemporary-ukraine-program) at HURI.* *Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Megan Duncan Smith, HURI Programs Coordinator, at at least two weeks in advance of the session.* *Watch videos of past HURI events on our [YouTube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/user/huriyt) and [subscribe](https://web.lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/lists/huri-events-list.lists.fas.harvard.edu/) to our email list to receive announcements about events and other activities.* See also:- [ Special Event ](/event-type/special-event) - [ Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program ](/program/temerty-contemporary-ukraine-program) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#) Save: [ Add to calendar calendar\_today ](https://www.huri.harvard.edu/node/1532671/event-feed.ics) Copy link link