ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES/RUSSIAN AREA STUDIES 212
Lake Baikal: The Soul of Siberia
Wellesley College
Spring-Summer 2003
www.wellesley.edu/Russian/baikal.html
Spring semester: Tuesday evenings, 6:30-9:00, Founders 423
Summer fieldwork in Russia: 29 July to 21 August 2003
Instructors:
Marianne Moore, Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences (SciCtr 182)
Office hours: M 11:00-12:30, T 11:00-noon, & by appointment
Office telephone: 781-283-3098; home telephone (before 8:00 p.m.!): 508-651-2557
Thomas Hodge, Associate Professor, Russian Department (FND 416)
Office hours: TF12:30-3:00, & by appointment; after 7 May, by appointment only
Office telephone: 781-283-3563; home telephone (before 8:00 p.m.!): 781-239-1584
Required texts (on sale at College Bookstore and on 3-hour reserve at Clapp Library):
Archpriest Avvakum: The Life, Written by Himself (Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic
Publications, 1979).
Bronmark, C. and L. Hansson: The Biology of Lakes and Ponds. (Oxford University
Press Inc., New York, 1998).
Galya Diment and Yuri Slezkine, eds.: Between Heaven and Hell: The Myth of Siberia in
Russian Culture (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993)
Fyodor Dostoevsky: Notes from the House of the Dead (Harmondsworth: Penguin
Books, 1985).
Valentin Rasputin: Farewell to Matyora (Evanston: Northwestern University Press,
1991).
Valentin Rasputin: Siberia on Fire (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1989)
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (New York: Signet,
1993).Introduction by Yevgeny Yevtushenko.
A Lake Baikal Chrestomathy (available from Russian Department, FND 416)
Scientific Readings about Baikal (collection of photocopied readings for second half of
the course; to be distributed by 11 March)
Course requirements:
1) Conscientious reading of all assignments, participation in class discussions
2) Daily reading of e-mail and the Baikal 2003 conference
3) One 2000-word essay on issues covered before 14 March; due 14 March
4) One exam on material covering latter half of course
5) Field journal in Russia (due when we depart Bol´shie Koty in August)
6) Field problem write-ups in Russia (due during our stay at Bol´shie Koty in August)
Course grade:
15% class participation, 20% first essay, 20% final exam (end of spring semester), 25%
field journal in Russia, 20% group field problems in Russia
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SCHEDULE:
1.
28 January (Profs. Moore and Hodge): Introduction
Orientational slideshow; introduction to the class; Baikal geography, history,
architecture, biology
2.
4 February (Prof. Hodge): Rasputin on Baikal; Early Russian Inroads
Primary documents:
a) Valentin Rasputin: essays in Siberia on Fire: “Your Siberia and Mine” (1984),
pp. 169-179; “Baikal” (1981), pp. 187-193; “What We Have: A Baikal Prologue
Without an Epilogue” (1987), pp. 194-201.
b) Valentin Rasputin: “Lake Baikal” (1989), in Siberia, Siberia (photocopy in
Lake Baikal Chrestomathy), pp. 118-201
c) Russia’s Conquest of Siberia (photocopy in Lake Baikal Chrestomathy), pp.
xxxv-xci; 224-7; 357-68
Secondary documents:
a) Journey to the Sacred Sea (PBS, Nova, 1994; 55 min.)
b) Lake Baikal: The Earth’s Blue Diamond (M. Mikheev, ca. 2001; 57 min.)
b) Introduction, Between Heaven and Hell, pp. 1-14
3.
11 February (Prof. Hodge): Decembrists; Irkutsk; Dostoevsky in Siberia I
Primary documents:
a) Valentin Rasputin: essay in Siberia, Siberia (photocopy in Lake Baikal
Chrestomathy): “Irkutsk” (1987-91)
b) Valentin Rasputin: essay in Siberia on Fire: “How Did They End Up in
Irkutsk?” [1984]
c) Dostoevsky, House of the Dead, Part 1, pp. 19-204
Secondary documents:
a) Patrick O’Meara, “The Decembrist Challenge,” in K. F. Ryleev (photocopy in
Lake Baikal Chrestomathy), pp. 11-24
b) Harriet Murav, “Siberia and the Myth of Exile,” Between Heaven and Hell,
pp. 95-111
c) OPTIONAL: Andzrej Walicki, “Gentry Conservatives and Gentry
Revolutionaries,” in A History of Russian Thought (photocopy in Lake Baikal
Chrestomathy), pp. 53-70
d) OPTIONAL: Galya Diment, “Exiled from Siberia,” Between Heaven and
Hell, pp. 49-65
4.
18 February (Prof. Hodge): Dostoevsky in Siberia II; Solzhenitsyn in Siberia
WE MUST MEET THIS EVENING IN SPITE OF THE “MONDAY SCHEDULE”!
Primary documents:
a) Dostoevsky, House of the Dead, Part 2, pp. 207-357
b) Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, pp. 3-139
Secondary document: James R. Gibson, “Paradoxical Perceptions of Siberia,” in
Between Heaven and Hell, pp. 67-93
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5.
25 February (Prof. Hodge): Siberia in Film; Sportsmen’s Perspectives
Primary documents:
a) Vsevolod Pudovkin: The Heir to Jenghis Khan (aka Storm Over Asia) (1928),
128 min.
b) Akira Kurosawa: Dersu Uzala (1975), 140 min.
c) Sergei Aksakov, Notes on Fishing (photocopy in Lake Baikal Chrestomathy),
pp. xi-xxxvi, 5-9, 35-73
d) Sergei Aksakov, Notes of a Provincial Wildfowler (photocopy in Lake Baikal
Chrestomathy), pp. 3-13, 15-23, 87-95, 145-52, 213-21
e) Fen Montaigne, “Baikal,” in Reeling in Russia (photocopy in Lake Baikal
Chrestomathy), pp. 154-89
Secondary document: Johanna Nichols, “Stereotyping Interethnic
Communication,” in Between Heaven and Hell, pp. 185-198
6.
4 March (Prof. Hodge): Buriats; Old Believers
Primary document: Archpriest Avvakum: The Life, Written by Himself, pp. 37112
Secondary documents:
a) James Forsyth, A History of the Peoples of Siberia (photocopy in Lake Baikal
Chrestomathy), pp. 84-108, 168-175, 190-200, 271-276, 287-290, 330-335,
375-379, 393-417
b) OPTIONAL: Caroline Humphrey, Karl Marx collective: Economy, Society,
and Religion in a Siberian Collective Farm (section on Buriat history)
c) Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church (photocopy in Lake Baikal
Chrestomathy), pp. 112-25
d) Roy R. Robson, “Profile of the Old Belief,” in Old Believers in Modern
Russia (photocopy in Lake Baikal Chrestomathy), pp. 14-40
e) Bruce T. Holl, “Avvakum and the Genesis of Siberian Literature,” in Between
Heaven and Hell, pp. 33-45
7.
11 March (Prof. Hodge): Rasputin’s Farewell
Primary sources:
a) Valentin Rasputin: Farewell to Matyora, pp. vii-227
b) Valentin Rasputin: “The Fire” [1985], in Siberia on Fire, pp. 102-160
c) Elem Klimov: excerpts from Farewell to Matyora, 121 min.
d) Tatiana Homutova: The Bratsk Sea (ca. 2000; 50 min.)
Secondary source: Kathleen Parthé, “The Poetics of Village Prose,” in Russian
Village Prose (photocopy in Lake Baikal Chrestomathy), pp. 29-47
14 March: Essay due in Prof. Hodge’s box by 4:00 p.m. today

18 March: No meeting — SPRING BREAK
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8.
25 March: Guest Lecture: Dr. Loren R. Graham, Professor of the History of
Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Harvard University.
“Status of Russian Science Since the Collapse of the Soviet Union”
Talk and class discussion 7:30-8:30 p.m.
Reception following
Readings:
a) Sher, G.S. 2000. Why should we care about Russian science? Science
289:389.
b) Dezhina, I. and L. Graham. 1999. Science and higher education in
Russia. Science 286:1303-1304.
c) Dezhina, I. and L. Graham. 2000. Is Russian science recovering?
Nature 408:19-20.
d) Graham, L.R. 1993. Science in Russia and the Soviet Union.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 321 p.
Read: pp. 190-203.
e) Weiner, D.R. 1999. A Little Corner of Freedom: Russian Nature
Protection from Stalin to Gorbachev. University of California
Press, Berkeley. 556 p.
Read: Introduction
Chapter 16. Storm over Baikal
9.
1 April (Prof. Moore): Introduction to Limnology and Physico-Chemical
Processes in Lakes
Readings:
a) Bronmark, C. and L. Hansson. 1998. The Biology of Lakes and Ponds. Oxford
University Press Inc., New York. 216 pp. (Read Chapters 1 & 2).
b) Martin, P. 1994. Lake Baikal. Arch. Hydrobiol. Beih. Eergebn. Limnol. 44:311.
10.
8 April (Prof. Moore): Aquatic Communities and Food Webs in Lakes
Readings:
a) Bronmark, C. and L. Hansson. 1998. The Biology of Lakes and Ponds. Oxford
University Press Inc., New York. 216 pp. (Read Chapters 3, 4, and 5).
b) Crane, K., B. Hecker, V. Golubev. 1991. Hydrothermal vents in Lake Baikal.
Nature 350: 281.
c) Burgis, M.J and P. Morris. 1987. Chapter 6. The deepest lakes. pp. 104-109.
In: The Natural History of Lakes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
11.
15 April (Prof. Moore): Baikal’s Biodiversity and Its Origins
Readings:
a) Wilson, E.O. 1992. Chapter 7: Adaptive radiation. p. 95-131. In: The
Diversity of Life. W.W. Norton, New York.
b) Goldman, E. 2003. Puzzling over the origin of species in the depths of the
oldest lakes. Science 299:654-655.
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c) Sherbakov, D. Yu. 1999. Molecular phylogenetic studies on the origin of
biodiversity in Lake Baikal. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 14:92-95.
d) Lake Baikal Homepage — http://www.irkutsk.org/baikal/
View “World beneath Baikal” and “Animals”
12.
19 April (Prof. Moore): Morning Sampling Lab on Lake Waban
THIS IS A SATURDAY MORNING FIELD LAB
8:30 a.m.–noon. Meet at Wellesley College Boathouse.
Problem set:
Web site — Water on the Web (details to be announced)
http://wow.nrri.umn.edu/wow/index.html
13.
22 April: NO CLASS
14.
29 April (Prof. Moore): Stream Ecology
Readings:
a) Giller, P.S. and B.Malmqvist. 1998. The Biology of Streams and Rivers.
Oxford University Press, Inc., New York. 296 pp. (Read Chapters 2, 6, and 7).
To be distributed.
15.
6 May (Prof. Moore): Environmental Threats to Lake Baikal and its
Protection
Readings:
a) Bronmark, C. and L. Hansson. 1998. The Biology of Lakes and Ponds. Oxford
University Press Inc., New York. 216 pp. (Read Chapter 6).
b) Kozhova, O.M. and L. R. Izmest’eva. 1998. Chapter 7. Economic use and
anthropogenic pressure. p. 270-290. In: Lake Baikal: Evolution and Biodiversity.
Backhuys, Leiden. 447 pp.
c) Gibbs, W.W. 1994. No-polluting zone. Scientific American, Dec 1994. pp. 14, 16.
d) Rosencranz, A. 1993. Preserving the Environment of Siberia. In: M. Bothe, T.
Kurzidem, and C. Schmidt, (eds). Amazonia and Siberia: legal aspects of the
preservation of the environment and development in the last open spaces. Graham
and Trtoman/Martinus Nijhoff. London, U.K.
GENERAL READINGS ON LAKE BAIKAL:
Belt, D. 1992. The World’s Great Lake. National Geographic, June 1992. pp. 2-39.
Matthiessen, P. 1992. Baikal: Sacred Sea of Siberia. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books:
San Francisco.
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