ABSTRACT

For much of Russia’s fractious history, the earth’s stability at least could be taken for granted. The imperial heartland was situated deep on the Eurasian tectonic plate, rarely experiencing fatal seismic activity. As the empire expanded, however, it acquired several of Eurasia’s most earthquake-prone regions. This interplay between colonization and seismic landscapes produced a novel entity: the ‘seismic colony’. With its occasional earthquakes and perpetual risks, the seismic colony posed a significant challenge to Russian rule, particularly in Turkestan. Earthquakes devastated infrastructure, gave lie to the civilizing mission and fostered social disorder, thereby undercutting the technologies of rule that the empire relied on to exploit the region. Engaging analytical tools from the history of environment and technology, this article details this threat and the developments it prompted from Russian experts and settlers, including first-response efforts, reconfigured construction practices, and the concretization of seismology as a science and infrastructure.

摘要

在俄罗斯动荡的大部分历史中，地球的稳定至少可以被认为是理所当然的。帝国中心地带位于欧亚构造板块的深处，很少发生致命的地震活动。然而，随着帝国的扩张，它收购了欧亚大陆几个最容易发生地震的地区。殖民化和地震景观之间的这种相互作用产生了一个新的实体：“地震殖民地”。由于其偶尔的地震和永久的风险，地震殖民地对俄罗斯的统治构成了重大挑战，特别是在土耳其斯坦。地震摧毁了基础设施，使文​​明使命蒙上了一层阴影，助长了社会混乱，从而削弱了帝国赖以开发该地区的统治技术。使用来自环境和技术历史的分析工具，