The near destruction of the world's whale populations during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries represents a stark entry on the long list of humanity's environmental and ethical sins. By the 1970s, massive overhunting had largely emptied the world's oceans of many whale species. The central part played by the US, Britain, Japan, and Norway are well known. But Red Leviathan reveals the outsized role also of the Soviet Union, whose hunters killed well over 500,000 whales—mostly between the end of the Second World War and the 1980s [xv], a period when other countries were reducing their catches amid rising protest and decreasing profitability. Like so much of life in the USSR, Soviet whaling was “entirely hidden” [xi] from the world, conducted in a culture of secrecy, denials, and cover-ups. Ryan Tucker Jones is not the first to reveal the above facts, but his is the first in-depth study.
Soviet whaling dates to the second Five-Year Plan (1933–37). Stalin's government saw the enterprise as critical to developing the Far Eastern provinces. Whaling promised jobs for migrants, income for the state, and a deeper Soviet presence on the Pacific coast (41). Ever-increasing whale quotas became a facet of state economic planning thereafter; but waste was endemic. As catches increased, the ability to transport, process, and preserve whale products could not keep pace. Huge numbers of whales rotted. Improperly processed blubber was discarded. “In 1940 production for human consumption was abandoned altogether” (47). But the hunt accelerated. Whales would now “die to feed dogs and foxes, or help produce paint” (47). Although American and British whalers had earlier greatly reduced Pacific populations of Gray, Bowhead and Right whales, other species—including Humpback, Fin, and Sperm—were still “abundant” (42). Soviet hunting would change this, prompting a shift to Antarctic whaling in the post-war era.
Tucker Jones asks why the USSR ramped up whaling when other states were reducing catches. Part of the answer he finds in the planned economy (xi). From the 1970s, at least, whaling declined globally because it was less profitable; but the planned economy was not sensitive to market forces. The Soviet Union's political culture was also important. Organized, popular protest discouraged western whalers; but the Soviet system largely excluded these voices. Interestingly, Tucker Jones also emphasizes repeated Russian efforts to develop Pacific whaling during the seventeenth–nineteenth centuries and their failure in the face of aggressive competition from British and American whalers. This implies another potential driver of Soviet-era whaling: pent-up national hurt or rivalry.
As with nearly everything else in the USSR, the whaling situation began to change during the Gorbachev era. Public protest and glasnost increased pressure against hunting. The subsequent economic collapse largely ended it. Combined with bans or limitations on whaling all around the world, this has facilitated a significant recovery of some populations. History is never simple. In one of several ironies Tucker Jones notes, destructive Soviet whaling helped create vital knowledge of cetacean behavior that has in turn benefitted modern whale conservation.
This is an outstanding book. Eminently readable and deeply-researched, it draws on long study in archives from Kaliningrad and Odessa to Kamchatka, Alaska, the UK, New Zealand, and Australia. A characteristic feature is the high degree to which the author has also immersed himself in the various situational contexts of his subject—and the deep sense of empathy he has derived from these experiences. Visits to whaling yards and Russian coasts evoke the perspective of the whales and of the ocean itself. Tucker Jones validates the perspective of the whalers, too. Having interviewed and socialized with many of them, he describes likeable men and women who felt a deep bond with the sea and who, through difficult economic and political times, enjoyed the bonds of camaraderie and a good income plying the waters in search of their prey. Some readers may feel this sense of empathy compromises Tucker Jones's ability to sufficiently apportion blame for the mass slaughter of sentient creatures. On the other hand, he clearly emphasizes the heroic role of many Russians (some of them whalers) who acted at personal risk to preserve and transmit records and to confront state whaling. In other words, there are definite heroes in this story, but the villains are harder to find.
This is an important read for anyone interested in Soviet or environmental history, marine conservation, or oceanography.
