Student Nature Protection Druzhina of Moscow University: A History of Early Civic Environmentalism in the Soviet Union (1960-1985)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 고려대학교 역사연구소
· 수록지 정보 : 史叢(사총) / 112호 / 201 ~ 243페이지
· 저자명 : 이병엽

초록

The Soviet Union in the 1950s-1960s, with the partial political thaw brought by Nikita Khrushchev, experienced an increase in small independent social actions by its citizens. Influenced by the contemporary sociopolitical atmosphere, and hoping to save their native environment in crisis, the students of Moscow University organized the first Nature Protection Druzhina (DOP) in 1960. In its early days, the student group worked mainly in the vicinity of Moscow city, aiming to decrease everyday environmental damage inflicted by the local population. This was an act symbolizing the DOP’s basic principle of filling the niche left by the Soviet nature protection structure. Meanwhile, in the late 1960s, the Druzhina began to turn into a more organized, professional movement. Although the Druzhina remained officially non-registered until 1987, it did not necessarily oppose the Soviet government. Instead, it built a pragmatic relationship of formal allegiance and recognition with state organs, which gave the students political security and various social connections. Based on this social capital, the students began to expand the scope of their activism. In the 1970s-1980s, the DOP connected with like-minded groups throughout the USSR and established a cooperative union, which by 1985 had 4,000 members nationwide and acted on joint programs. It also reached out to ordinary citizens through the press and educative courses. Moreover, the students took part in the planning and protection of nature reserves alongside state organs and academic institutes on the national level, initiated the creation of numerous local preserves (zakazniki) in Moscow oblast’ based on their scientific knowledge and independent research. Such voluntariness based on its members’ expertise, the aspiration to promote its cause to the public and the government, and the continuity of the action put together make the Nature Protection Druzhina an early form of civic environmental movement.

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