Water Infrastructure in Moscow in Troubled Times

Abstract

Abstract This essay conceives of Moscow’s water supply, sewage disposal, and a sewerage system as a field of tension between urbanization, industrialization, water pollution, hygiene, and health from the Late Imperial Russia, through the First World War, the Russian Revolution of 1917 and into the Civil War period. The article understands the allocation of water, especially in times of scarcity, as a question of political power and raises the following central questions: How did the people of Moscow quench their thirst? Where, when, how, to what extent and at what price was water made available? How and where was the used water disposed of and by what methods, if any, was it treated in order to avoid further water pollution?