Smith, Alison K., "Public Works in an Autocratic State: Water Supplies in an Imperial Russian Town"

Smith, Alison K. “Public Works in an Autocratic State: Water Supplies in an Imperial Russian Town.” Environment and History 11, no. 3 (Aug., 2005): 319–42. doi:10.3197/096734005774434548. In the 1830s and 1840s, Russians became particularly interested in water as a public health issue. Despite the attention of the state and the tsar, localities like the town of Kazan were largely unable to affect changes in public health due to bureaucratic obstacles and financial constraints. After the modernising Great Reforms, private interests helped bring older plans into reality. However, their success caused Russia to lag further behind the West, where private interests were ceding ground to public ones in the face of new understandings of contamination and hygiene. All rights reserved. © 2005 The White Horse Press