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Part of
Translation in Knowledge, Knowledge in Translation
Edited by Rocío G. Sumillera, Jan Surman and Katharina Kühn
[Benjamins Translation Library 154] 2020
► pp. 187–208

Chapter 9
The Leviathan and the woods

Translating forestry policies under Peter I of Russia

| Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

The formidable pace of reforms conducted by Peter I of Russia (1672–1725) caused a genuine struggle to construct an administrative language that would facilitate the sovereign power and collective actions. Peter’s politics of neologisms shaped national and cultural identity, and induced pedagogical and institutional discussions. My chapter examines how the state-supported procedures of translation helped build the legal frameworks of early Russian environmentalism. Translation is considered here as the process of translating legislation about forestry matters from German into Russian, but also as a transformation of practical knowledge about forestry according to foreign patterns. I argue that both processes could be analysed as a complex multifarious translation of texts and practices, and examine their role in administering the environmental policies of the early Russian Empire.

Keywords: legislative translation, forestry regulations, environmentalism, sustainability, Russian, practical knowledge, administration
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Peter’s Verwaltungssprache
  • 3.The forestry negotiations of Peter I
  • 4.The Waldmeisterschaft
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.154.09avx
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