Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
1. Nuclear Bolshevism
2. Nuclear Defense
3. Nuclear Peace
4. Nuclear Hubris
5. Nuclear Disintegration
6. Nuclear Renaissance
Index

Promotional Information

A cultural and political history of the Russian nuclear age from the rise of nuclear physics in the USSR to the self-proclaimed ‘renaissance’ of nuclear power in 21st-century Russia.

About the Author

Paul R. Josephson is Professor of History at Colby College, USA. He is the author of twelve books, including Traffic (Bloomsbury, 2017), Fish Sticks, Sports Bras, and Aluminum Cans (2015), The Conquest of the Russian Arctic (2014), Lenin’s Laureate: A Life in Communist Science (2010), Would Trotsky Wear a Bluetooth? Technological Utopianism Under Socialism (2009), and Motorized Obsession: Life, Liberty and the Small Bore Engine (2007).

Reviews

The nuclear complex of Russia has not come to an end, to the contrary: its military and civilian arms continue to expand threating both the global political order and the environment. Nuclear Russia unfolds the entangled history of this socio-technical complex from the February Revolution of 1917 to the present, its knowledge and engineering orders, nuclear warheads and military facilities, actors and reactors, and above all its political, economic, environmental and cultural ramifications. This most timely book is a great pleasure to read.
*Helmuth Trischler, Prof. Dr., Rachel Carson Center and Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany*

One can hardly imagine a better guide to Russian nuclear power than Paul R. Josephson. Attention to Ukraine is particularly welcome in the wake of Russia’s devastating invasion and attendant risk of nuclear disaster.
*Matthew Evangelista, President White Professor of History and Political Science, Cornell University, USA*

Nuclear Russia: The Atom in Russian Politics and Culture more than succeeds in its goal of stimulating readers to think deeply about the cultural and political roles of nuclear physics, weapons, and energy in the Russian empire of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (p. ii)… Provides an excellent overview of a complex subject that remains all too timely and relevant.
*H-Net Reviews*