198 Susanne Bauer
The Russian-focused Soviet standard curricula in history and philosophy
were replaced by new textbooks; university graduates had to pass exams on
Kazakh history and philosophy. 5 The Republic of Kazakhstan held on to the
key categories of Soviet historiography, but exchanged most of its protagonists. 6 For instance the annual commemoration of the many Central Asian
veterans on May 8–9 is an important unifying continuity of the Soviet past,
while the history curricula in institutions and programs in science and education were completely reorganized. Major reorientations in research policies
affected not only the humanities but also the environmental health sciences –
especially in relation to the Soviet nuclear program and its Central Asian sites.
Long-term health effects of nuclear test fallout and residual radionuclides
became subject to major research programs under the auspices of different
ministries of the Republic of Kazakhstan, including the Ministry of Health,
the Ministry of Education and their regional branches. 7 For the neighboring Altai region, bordering the exposed areas to the northeast, the Russian
Ministry of Emergency Situations set up a Federal Program “Semipalatinsk
Test Site/Altai,” which included the compilation of health data, dose reconstruction, and an exposure registry for the rural population of Altai region
settlements, exposed to fallout from nuclear testing. 8
In her account of Soviet census-taking in the early USSR, historian
Francine Hirsch shows how scientific programs, the statistics and routines
they generate, play a key role in shaping states, political technologies, and
historical narratives. State-funded scientific programs also perform and
constitute broader collective cultural memory and technologies of memorialization. 9 This chapter builds on studies of memorialization and Science
and Technology Studies (STS) in order to broaden the concept of memorialization beyond its symbolic dimensions. In examining a specific set of
scientific memory practices 10 in radiation risk studies, I trace the specific
memorialization work done through biomedical risk assessments during the
early post-Soviet years (1991–2010). While this approach builds on and joins
recent scholarship in atomic heritage studies, 11 it foregrounds technoscience
studies of biomedical practices. Theorizing residual radionuclides in the
environment and human bodies, it takes inspiration in Hannah Landecker’s
notion of the “biology of history,” in terms of “understanding both the
materiality of history and the historicity of matter in theories and concepts
of life today.” 12
I examine how, after the end of nuclear testing, risk assessment practices
documented the nuclear past and its embodiments, especially with respect to
transgenerational effects of fallout exposure. As techniques for tracing and
scientific memory work, cytogenetics and population genetics had moved
center stage in the atomic era, later on followed by standardized genomicsbased techniques that came to constitute credible methods to document
radiation effects in blood cells. By highlighting scientific practices as a particular mode of memory work, this chapter focuses on the production of
radiation knowledge. I investigate how the post-Soviet reassembling 13 of
The Russian-focused Soviet standard curricula in history and philosophy
were replaced by new textbooks; university graduates had to pass exams on
Kazakh history and philosophy. 5 The Republic of Kazakhstan held on to the
key categories of Soviet historiography, but exchanged most of its protagonists. 6 For instance the annual commemoration of the many Central Asian
veterans on May 8–9 is an important unifying continuity of the Soviet past,
while the history curricula in institutions and programs in science and education were completely reorganized. Major reorientations in research policies
affected not only the humanities but also the environmental health sciences –
especially in relation to the Soviet nuclear program and its Central Asian sites.
Long-term health effects of nuclear test fallout and residual radionuclides
became subject to major research programs under the auspices of different
ministries of the Republic of Kazakhstan, including the Ministry of Health,
the Ministry of Education and their regional branches. 7 For the neighboring Altai region, bordering the exposed areas to the northeast, the Russian
Ministry of Emergency Situations set up a Federal Program “Semipalatinsk
Test Site/Altai,” which included the compilation of health data, dose reconstruction, and an exposure registry for the rural population of Altai region
settlements, exposed to fallout from nuclear testing. 8
In her account of Soviet census-taking in the early USSR, historian
Francine Hirsch shows how scientific programs, the statistics and routines
they generate, play a key role in shaping states, political technologies, and
historical narratives. State-funded scientific programs also perform and
constitute broader collective cultural memory and technologies of memorialization. 9 This chapter builds on studies of memorialization and Science
and Technology Studies (STS) in order to broaden the concept of memorialization beyond its symbolic dimensions. In examining a specific set of
scientific memory practices 10 in radiation risk studies, I trace the specific
memorialization work done through biomedical risk assessments during the
early post-Soviet years (1991–2010). While this approach builds on and joins
recent scholarship in atomic heritage studies, 11 it foregrounds technoscience
studies of biomedical practices. Theorizing residual radionuclides in the
environment and human bodies, it takes inspiration in Hannah Landecker’s
notion of the “biology of history,” in terms of “understanding both the
materiality of history and the historicity of matter in theories and concepts
of life today.” 12
I examine how, after the end of nuclear testing, risk assessment practices
documented the nuclear past and its embodiments, especially with respect to
transgenerational effects of fallout exposure. As techniques for tracing and
scientific memory work, cytogenetics and population genetics had moved
center stage in the atomic era, later on followed by standardized genomicsbased techniques that came to constitute credible methods to document
radiation effects in blood cells. By highlighting scientific practices as a particular mode of memory work, this chapter focuses on the production of
radiation knowledge. I investigate how the post-Soviet reassembling 13 of