Anatoly Mikhaylovich Ablazhey,
Candidate of Philosophy, Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, е-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Natalia Nikolaevna Ablazhey,
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, Novosibirsk, Russia, е-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Evenki Hydroelectric Power Station: “For” and “Against” (to the History of the Debates on This Mega-Project)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2022-1-17
This documentary publication is a transcript of public hearings on the discussion of the preliminary version of the EIA (“Environmental Impact Assessment”) of the project for the construction of a hydroelectric power station on the river Lower Tunguska in the Evenk municipal district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory (September 19, 2009). Such a procedure is an obligatory stage in the design and further construction of large economic facilities that involve serious interference into the environment, a change in the trajectory of economic development, large-scale migration processes, etc. In the case of the Evenk hydroelectric power station, which became the reincarnation of the Soviet project for the construction of the Turukhansk station, all these would have been of the extremely large-scale character, taking into consideration specific natural conditions, established economic practices and the ethnic structure of the population. No less significant is the fact that there is an opportunity to compare the organization and main trends in the public debates regarding the project, as it happened in the late Soviet and post-Soviet stages of the history of our country. A feature of the discussion that took place was the fact that the expert community was also divided into sharply opposed groups. Some experts strongly opposed the construction of the station, referring primarily to environmental and humanitarian risks as arguments (mostly from the point of view of the interests of the indigenous population of the territory). Others, based also on environmental considerations, expressed the exact opposite view. The public hearings resulted in the clearly expressed opinion of the population, including the leadership of the district, containing the categorical rejection of an idea of building the Evenk hydroelectric power station. It should be noted that, in addition to purely economic and environmental considerations, in the formation of such a position, the importance of a “sense of belonging” to the territory of residence was clearly indicated. The phenomenon of local identity was clearly manifested, which at some points of the debates turned out to be even a more significant factor than economic or environmental considerations.
Publishing: 28/02/2022
The article has been received by the editor on 01.12.2021
How to cite: Ablazhey A.M., Ablazhey N.N. Evenki Hydroelectric Power Station: “For” and “Against” (to the History of the Debates on This Mega-Project) // Historical Courier, 2022, No. 1 (21), pp. 184–216. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2022/ISTKURIER-2022-1-17.pdf]
Links: Issue 1 2022
Keywords: mega-project, hydroelectric power station, Evenkia, indigenous population, traditional economy, ecology, public hearings