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This book offers the first environmental history of Russia’s steppes. From the early-eighteenth, settlers moved to the semi-arid but fertile grasslands from wetter, forested regions in central and northern Russia and Ukraine, and central Europe. By the late-nineteenth century, the steppes were the bread basket of the Russian Empire and parts of Europe. But, there was another side to this story. The steppes were hit by droughts, winds that whipped up dust storms, soil erosion, crop failures, and in the worst years - famine. From the late-eighteenth century, naturalists and scientists studied the steppe environment. Russian scientists came up with innovations, in particular, Vasilii Dokuchaev’s new soil science explained the fertile black earth as a product of the steppe environment in which it had formed. Scientists also studied environmental change, including climate change, and debated whether human activity or natural forces were to blame. They proposed remedies to the environmental barriers to farming on the steppes. For a long time, they focused on planting trees and irrigation, in attempts to make the steppes more like the homelands of the settlers. More sustainable were techniques of cultivation to retain moisture in the soil. Among the pioneers were Mennonite settlers. Such approaches aimed to work with the environment, rather than try to change it. The story is similar to the Dust Bowl on the Great Plains of the USA, which share a similar environment and environmental history. The story is also placed in the wider context of the environmental history of European colonialism around the globe.

Agriculture --- Steppes --- Grasslands --- Farming --- Husbandry --- Industrial arts --- Life sciences --- Food supply --- Land use, Rural --- Environmental aspects --- History. --- Steppes ecology Russia (Federation) History. --- History

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Cossacks --- Steppes --- Grasslands --- Asia, Central --- Central Asia --- Soviet Central Asia --- Tūrān --- Turkestan --- West Turkestan --- Asia --- History

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In a regional history of colonization and adaptation in southern Ukraine, Staples examines how diverse agrarian groups, faced with common environmental, economic, and administrative conditions, followed sharply divergent paths of development.

Land settlement --- Steppes --- Resettlement --- Settlement of land --- Colonies --- Land use, Rural --- Human settlements --- Grasslands --- Government policy --- History. --- Molochna River Region (Ukraine) --- Colonization

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This book is about Steppe Eurasia and China, Persia, Byzantium, as well as the 'Inside' and 'Outside' Other. This dual approach helps the reader to better understand the attitudes of the Steppe to both the southern sedentary empires (in this book, the 'Outside' Other) and to the women and shamans/magicians within the nomadic confederations (in this book, the 'Inside' Other), in the so-called 'Golden Age' of the Steppe Empire, e.g. between the sixth and ninth/tenth centuries.The result is a new and vivid picture of the Steppe's attitudes to 'otherness' and 'usness'. The book covers not only a long period of time, but also a vast territory, from Mongolia to the Black Sea and South-Eastern Europe. It studies many peoples and societies and their images of the 'Other', interpreted through different approaches and methodologies.

Steppes --- Bulgars (Turkic people) --- Other (Philosophy) --- Bolgars (Turkic people) --- Proto-Bulgarians --- Bulgarians --- Ethnology --- Finno-Ugrians --- Turkic peoples --- Grasslands --- Alterity (Philosophy) --- Otherness (Philosophy) --- Philosophy --- History --- Social aspects --- Social conditions. --- Bulgaria --- Civilization. --- Ethnic relations.

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archaeology --- history --- ancient history --- anthropology --- sarmatians --- eurasian steppes --- Excavations (Archaeology) --- Antiquities. --- Volga River Region (Russia) --- Russia (Federation) --- Antiquities --- Archaeological digs --- Archaeological excavations --- Digs (Archaeology) --- Excavation sites (Archaeology) --- Ruins --- Sites, Excavation (Archaeology) --- Archaeology --- Archaeological specimens --- Artefacts (Antiquities) --- Artifacts (Antiquities) --- Specimens, Archaeological --- Material culture --- Volga River Region (R.S.F.S.R.)