Rory Finnin wins Alec Nove Prize for Blood of Others: Stalin's Crimean Atrocity and the Poetics of Solidarity'

BASEES is delighted to announce that Rory Finnin (University of Cambridge) has won the Alexander Nove Prize 2022 for his work Blood of Others: Stalin's Crimean Atrocity and the Poetics of Solidarity (University of Toronto Press, 2022). The Jury also awarded Honourable Mentions to Jennifer Keating, On Arid Ground: Political Ecologies of Empire in Russian Central Asia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022) and Alessandro Iandolo, Arrested Development: The Soviet Union in Ghana, Guinea, and Mali, 1955–1968 (Cornell University Press, 2022) The Prize will be awarded at the BASEES 2024 Annual Conference in Cambridge in April.

2022 Nove Prize

Winner:

Rory Finnin, Blood of Others: Stalin's Crimean Atrocity and the Poetics of Solidarity (Toronto: Toronto University Press, 2022).

Rory Finnin’s Blood of Others represents a truly monumental feat of research across a remarkable array of Ukrainian, Turkish, Crimean Tatar and Russian sources. It offers the definitive account of how the Crimean Tatars’ deportation has been remembered, revealed and recounted from late Stalinism to the present, when the fate of Crimea is once again at the centre of global attention. Through evocative, empathetic and elegant close reading, Finnin teases out traces of Crimean Tatar memory buried in nineteenth-, twentieth- and twenty-first-century texts, while showing how others more actively raised national and international awareness of trauma and atrocity.

 This rich and lucid account of transnational transformation and contestation of memory and identity is a landmark achievement in and of itself. Of even greater importance, though, are its insights into how personal and collective empathy with others’ suffering can develop and be developed, even across vast historical or geographical distances. Blood of Others makes a powerful and path-breaking argument for the power of literature to bear witness, foster solidarity and ignite activism across national and ethnic boundaries. This profound and profoundly moving book resonates sharply with the present, but it will be read and appreciated within and outside our field for years to come.

Honourable Mention:

Jennifer Keating, On Arid Ground: Political Ecologies of Empire in Russian Central Asia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022).

 On Arid Ground is a path-breaking history of unstable and shifting environments: arid landscapes crossed by railways, rivers channelled for irrigation projects, steppe land once managed by pastoralists settled by migrating European peasants. It examines the close relationship between environment, ecology, and empire in Russian Central Asia, revealing the environmental dimensions of empire-building and empire-breaking in Russian Turkestan in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It explores the environmental impact of Russian colonization, and the social, economic, and political implications of environmental change. Through her meticulous research, Jennifer Keating reveals the intricate connections between the human and non-human, and between society and nature. On Arid Ground breaks opens new perspective by taking the environmental history of Central Asia beyond studies of water and cotton, to include trees, shifting sands, fish and livestock, crops, minerals, and other commodities. Keating eloquently documents how Russian Turkestan was connected to the Russian Empire by modern communications, but also deeply integrated into global commodity markets. Silkworm eggs, wool, alfalfa, and the flowers of wormwood plants were important commodities that enmeshed Turkestan within international trade. Keating writes with precision and panache to highlight the connections between Russian colonisation and environmental, social, and political change, and to bring to life the people, animals, and plants that shaped this ecosystem. While the imperial mindset conceived of Turkestan as an empty landscape, Keating weaves a vivid picture of the dynamic interactions between nature and society in a rapidly changing environment that was anything but empty.

Honourable Mention:

 Alessandro Iandolo, Arrested Development: The Soviet Union in Ghana, Guinea, and Mali, 1955–1968 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2022).

Alessandro Iandolo's Arrested Development presents a ground-breaking and compelling study of Soviet development assistance in West Africa, shedding new light on the rise and fall of Soviet ideas on the African continent. Through meticulous multi-lingual archival research in six countries and nuanced storytelling, Iandolo navigates the intricate dynamics of Soviet engagement with newly-independent Ghana, Guinea, and Mali, unravelling the motivations behind Moscow's economic programmes in the region. The book elucidates how under Nikita Khrushchev’s policy of ‘peaceful competition' with the West, the Soviet Union adopted pragmatic approaches to economic development, tailoring its assistance to suit the realities of West African economies. Iandolo skilfully examines the ambitious aspirations of West African leaders, emphasizing the agency of African elites in adopting centre-centred Soviet approaches in their quest for economic sovereignty against the backdrop of decolonization and Cold War rivalries. The book underscores the significance of the Soviet modernisation projects in shaping the region's development landscape, while also addressing the challenges and eventual unravelling of these endeavours. With many thought-provoking insights, Arrested Development underscores the complexities of Cold War dynamics in Africa and profoundly enhances our understanding of the nature of economic competition and cooperation during the global Cold War.