Power and the Politics of Oil in the Soviet South Caucasus: Periphery Unbound, 1920-29

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Sara G. Brinegars book is the first to show how the politics of oil intersected with the establishment of Soviet power in the Caucasus; it reveals how the Soviets cooperated and negotiated with the local elite, rather than merely subsuming them. More broadly, Power and the Politics of Oil in the Soviet South Caucasus demonstrates not only how the Bolsheviks understood and exploited oil, but how the needs of the industry shaped Bolshevik policy. Brinegar reflects on the huge geopolitical importance of oil at the end of World War I and the Russian Civil War. She discusses how the reserves sitting idle in the oil fields of Baku, the capital of the newly independent Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, and the center of the fallen empires oil reserves were no exception to this. With the Soviet leadership in Moscow intent on capturing the fields in the first few months of 1920, this book examines the Soviet project to rebuild Bakus oil industry in the aftermath of these wars and the political significance of oil in the formation of the Soviet Union.

Reviews

Brinegar has mined the Soviet archives to reconstruct the complex politics around the consolidation of Soviet power in the oil-rich province of Baku. In the decade following the 1917 revolution, a colorful cast of characters struggled to reconcile the contradictions of building a socialist island in a global capitalist sea. She shows that nothing was inevitable about that history. * Peter Rutland, Professor of Russian studies, Wesleyan University, USA *
Brinegar brings to us the heretofore untold but epic story of the battle for energy in the Soviet Caucasus, a battle ultimately won by Stalin, who adroitly enlisted locals to outflank, undercut, and eliminate potential opponents one after another. Carefully researched and essential reading. * Michael A. Reynolds, Associate Professor, Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University, USA *

Author Bio

Sara G. Brinegar is an independent scholar based in the USA. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was the recipient of SSRC and Fulbright fellowships. She was previously Digital Pedagogy Fellow and Freelance Researcher at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and held a two-year faculty fellowship at Yale Universitys European Studies Council.