'This book is an exciting, meticulously researched, and path-breaking contribution to the environmental history of Russia and the Soviet Union. It demonstrates a prodigious amount of research, both in archival and in secondary literatures. Bruno is able to contextualize his own work within evolving discussions of environmental history in Russia and other regions. With a well-structured and readable narrative, while reading it myself I imagined how I would use it in the classroom.' Jane Costlow, Bates College, Maine 'The Nature of Soviet Power is an ambitious and thought-provoking book on an important topic, especially in light of the growing importance of polar regions in the era of climate change. The research presented is remarkably erudite, drawing upon an astonishing breadth of primary and secondary sources. It explicitly strives to reach new conclusions and probe for new explanations to account for the many environmental failures of Soviet industrialization of the far north. The book should make a strong contribution to the scholarly understanding of Soviet environmental history, and I laud the author for the tremendous effort that is visible on every page.' Stephen Brain, Mississippi State University 'Telling the dramatic story of the far-reaching transformation of the Kola Peninsula in the Russian far north, Bruno speaks to larger truths of environmental change in the USSR and the world in the twentieth century. Well-written and deeply researched, this is a must-read book for anyone interested in the relationship between state power and environmental change and a vivid example of the best new scholarship on Russian environmental history.' Willard Sunderland, University of Cincinnati