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High Aswan Dam and Bratsk HHP: Realisation of Soviet Hydroengineering Ideas During the Cold War

Student: Galyuta Ekaterina

Supervisor: Julia Lajus

Faculty: Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences

Educational Programme: History (Bachelor)

Final Grade: 7

Year of Graduation: 2018

Built at the same time, the same design bureau "Hydroproject", using the technologies developed in the laboratories of Moscow and Leningrad, in difficult climatic conditions, the Bratsk HPP and High Aswan Dam can rightly be considered as sisters of the same era. However is it possible, on the example of a comparison of their technological style, to talk about the existence of a unique Soviet style of hydraulic engineering construction? To answer this question-hypothesis the following tasks were set and performed: to reconstruct the decision making process of the construction of stations, to identify the main actors, to consider the construction of stations using the concept of technological style, with reference to the works of Thomas Hughes. Various sources were used to work on the study: technical documentation and records, public works, published archival documents, directories. Since this work is carried out within the framework of technological history, technical projects and documentation have become the basis for the technological description of stations, which then allowed considering the technological style of construction of stations. The publicistic sources in this study are the published works of engineers and journalists, which are necessary for constructing a chronology of events and their description. In the course of the work, the definition of the technological style as a practice of adaptation of any technology to specific environmental conditions, where the environment is understood not only as geography and nature, but also economics, politics, legislation, bureaucracy and society, was used with the reference to the works of Thomas Hughes. Relying on this definition and the conducted research, it could be said that the Soviet style of hydraulic engineering existed, but it was determined not only and not so much by the ideology and politics of the Soviet government as by the more complex interaction of various factors.

Full text (added May 28, 2018)

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