Abstract

The article develops a problem-oriented approach to the motif history of the
greenhouse in Russian literature between the mid-nineteenth century and the October
Revolution. It shows how, during this period, the greenhouse became an ecological and
political figure of reflection, with the help of which social change and its accompanying
problems such as exploitation, atmospheric changes, the destruction of biospheres, or
the possibility and necessity of revolutionary change were discussed. At the center of the
five case analyses are stories and novels by Ivan Turgenev, Vsevolod Garšin, Aleksandr
Kuprin, Fedor Sologub, and Mikhail Bulgakov, each of which is situated in cultural and
literary history and analyzed with regard to its inherent political ecologies.