This paper explores the features of the early Soviet waste regime in the Ukrainian SSR during the 1920s and early 1930s, examining waste recycling as a survival strategy for enterprises, institutions, private entrepreneurs, charitable organizations, and ordinary citizens amid chronic raw material shortages, forced industrialization and collectivization, social transformations, the project of forming the “new Soviet person,” and the Holodomor of 1932–1933. How did they compete for this limited yet valuable resource during the “waste fever” that swept across Ukraine at the time? What practices did they employ in this intense competition? Which factors determined success and failure for businesses and individuals? The sheds light on how everyday survival strategies, competition, ingenuity, ambition, and practical knowledge shaped the functioning of the waste collection and recycling system in early Soviet Ukraine and it is built on a wide range of primary sources.

Comment : Etienne Dufour (Université Reims Champagne Ardenne)

Partner : Berlin-Brandenbugisches Kolloqium für Umweltgeschichte

Contact : Benjamin Beuerle : benjamin.beuerle@cmb.hu-berlin.de