About the book: 2024 / In the 20th century, the Soviet Union turned the Kola Peninsula - once a remote outpost of the Russian Empire - into one of the most populated, industrialized, militarized and contaminated areas of the Arctic. This transformation had a significant impact on the Soviet experience of regional development. Interaction with the natural world, on the one hand, brought industrial benefits, and on the other, limited the possibilities of radical socialist transformations, since nature itself acted as a participant in the communist project. Andy Bruno's book puts Soviet environmental history into comparative perspective as part of modern states' global drive toward endless economic growth. While exploring the history of railroad construction, the development of the mining and processing industries, nickel and copper smelting technology, reindeer husbandry and energy production in the region, the author simultaneously studies Soviet cultural ideas about nature, development plans, life experiences and ways of socio-economic adaptation to the reality of the physical world. and its changes. The reader of the book is presented with a story of two interconnected processes: while the Soviet government was remaking nature, nature was remaking the Soviet government. Andy Bruno – Professor, Department of History, Northern Illinois University, USA.