Evolution of ecological knowledge and social-natural interactions in the development of collective-farm gardens in Siberia

Abstract

Collective-farm gardens were a specific form of human-made nature and an element of subsistence which became a feature of the Soviet village in the 1920s-1980s. Their development was associated with the Soviet state social-economic policy of creating collective subsidiary farms and applying new, scientific approaches to transform the natural environment. The article considers the evolution of ecological knowledge and social-natural interactions in the development of collective-farm gardens in Siberia, based on archive documents, specialized and popular-science literature and results of the author’s field studies conducted in 2023-2024 in the Omsk Region. The development of kolkhoz gardens showed a tendency of a rapid transition from the traditional environmental knowledge (1920s - first half of the 1930s) to the scientific and administrative approaches (second half of the 1930s - 1980s). The author notes the regional features in the development of collective-farm gardens in the natural and climatic conditions of Siberia as determining labor activities and social relations at collective horticultural farms. The retrospective analysis shows how the development of kolkhoz gardens created new social-natural interactions in the Siberian countryside, which were mainly determined by the state policy of imposing collective forms of economic activity in rural areas within the general socialist economy. After the collapse of the USSR, the rapid curtailment of this policy contributed to the abandonment of kolkhoz gardens.