The Moskva River as an artery of both life and death: a case study of Moscow’s natural environment, man-made intervention and the flood of Moscow, Easter 1908

Abstract This article—connecting urban, social, and environmental history—analyses the close interplay between the Moskva River and Moscow. It deals with the Muscovites’ interaction with their “spatial habitat”, their interventions in nature and the lasting impact of contingent natural hazards or even worse natural calamities. When the snow melted, the Moskva regularly flooded the city. Against this background, the article pursues the measures taken by various actors such as flood victims, the city board and city council, the Tsarist government and civil society institutions. In addition to the reasons for the unprecedented extent of the flood, which was based on a coincidence of climatic, anthropogenic and ecological factors, the article discusses how experts debated future flood prevention measures and, finally, what practical conclusions were drawn in Moscow to prevent future natural disasters. The article argues that concerted action by many different institutions and political actors would have been necessary to successfully combat flooding in Moscow. However, this cooperation did not materialise due to structural obstacles within the Tsarist Empire: The Tsarist state considered flood defence not as a function of the central state administration, but rather as a responsibility of underfinanced local self-governments, and moreover refused to subsidise such measures.