The Russian Ecology of Leaving Earth

The space age has generated a profound uncertainty of experience between technology and utopianism. This essay makes a critical intervention in this uncertainty by examining a historically constructed tension between dwelling at and departing from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Attention to this tension t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inRepresentations (Berkeley, Calif.) Vol. 167; no. 1; pp. 1 - 32
Main Author Yessenova, Saulesh
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Berkeley University of California Press Books Division 01.08.2024
Subjects
Ecology
Ontology
Russian language
Space technology
Uncertainty
Utopias
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Summary:The space age has generated a profound uncertainty of experience between technology and utopianism. This essay makes a critical intervention in this uncertainty by examining a historically constructed tension between dwelling at and departing from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Attention to this tension that underwrote the Soviet colonial project of conquering the cosmos and the terrestrial environment exposes the utopian vision of space travel and the ontology of a deflating present as a dialectic that questions the space age as a state of soon-to-be-leaving Earth.
ISSN:0734-6018
1533-855X
DOI:10.1525/rep.2024.167.1.1