The Oak and the Larch: A Forest History of Russia and its Empires by Sophie Pinkham

From the Baltic to the Pacific, from the Arctic to the Steppes of Central Asia, Russia's forests account for nearly one-fifth of the world's wooded lands. The Oak and the Larch is the first-ever English-language exploration of this vast expanse - a dazzling environmental history of Russia that offers an urgent new understanding of the nature of Russian power, and of Russia's ideas of itself.

Inspired by the majestic oak, which towers over the country's western heartland, and the hardy Siberian larch, an emblem of survival in the east, award winning scholar Sophie Pinkham's magisterial account spans centuries, revealing how forests have nourished ancient Siberian Indigenous societies, defended medieval Slavic settlements from Mongol invasion and served as both an essential natural resource and a potent cultural symbol for Russia in all its incarnations, from the days of the tsars to the Soviets to Putin's Federation.

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