The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, the founding document of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), was signed by 16 whaling or interested nations, among them the Soviet Union. In 1949, the Soviet Union began submitting falsified catch reports to the IWC, a practice that continued until the last whale was taken by Soviet fleets in 1987. It was not until after the USSR's dissolution, in 1994, that official admittance of falsified reports was brought to world attention. Current counts point to above 500,000 whales of all species, ages, and sex taken between 1946-1982 (Ivaschenko & Clapham, 2014) by Soviet fleets alone. It is likely the greatest revelation in the history of whaling. Since then, scientists and historians have been gradually acquiring and publishing corrected catches and accounts of the industry to correct the demographic record, while also looking to give context and explanation as to why the Soviet Union conducted such a vast industrial deceit.

Red Leviathan, The Secret History of Soviet Whaling by Ryan Tucker Jones is, it could be said, a synthesis of decades of research and exhaustive legwork by the author to bring a whole picture to a still relatively unknown subject.

The book begins with a relatively brief overview of pre-Soviet Russian attempts to enter whaling as an economic practice. It is a period that is dominated by Dutch and British whalers in the Arctic north, and American whalers in the Pacific. Here Jones proposes an important "cultural memory" that permeated later Soviet attitude to international whaling interaction, where the slowly industrializing Western hunts were excessive and selfish, often leaving little room for Russian startup unless foreign crew and expertise was brought in to dominate what should have been a domestic industry. Indeed, the beginnings of Soviet whaling efforts were dependent upon the established expertise of Norwegian gunners and sailors.

Truly industrial scale whaling by the USSR came after the Second World War, where the Soviets looked to continue their positioning as a global political and economic superpower. The main economic reason for the excessive catches is found in how the Soviets planned quotas and rewarded productivity. A quota would be established, and crews were often rewarded with a meeting or exceeding of that quota. What happened to the whales caught was not factored, simply the successful bringing of whales to factory was enough. The following season, a new quota would be put into place that was often at the maximum of the last season's results, putting into gear an arms race between quota and productivity that was unsustainable in the long term. Their factory fleets (a term in whaling history that denotes a factory ship and the numerous catcher and scouting boats accompanying it on voyage) expanded from two to seven, the largest in modern history, by the early 1960s. Whaling was a rather profitable profession for the long time spent at sea in regions like Antarctica, it also provided whalers with a unique opportunity to visit foreign ports (a venture that the USSR often utilized as a form of soft propaganda, a demonstration of the virtues of Soviet work and crew equality).

As the book develops its narrative, Jones begins to expand the focus on this subject from linear history and economics to a far more all-encompassing overview of the interactions between the Soviet state, people, and whales. This represents the cutting edge of whaling history, where we can more wholly observe the cultural relationship between people and whales in the context of our exploitation of them. Such an interaction is depicted by the social placement of whalers, relatively wealthy as workers in the USSR, from their catch, the depiction of whales and whaling in Soviet media and public consciousness, and the increasing scientific understanding of whales that came as a byproduct of on-board scientists accompanying fleets. Jones shows that Soviet scientists were not only ringing the bell of unsustainable quotas and practices, but also domestically developing new ideas and understanding of behavior and ecology in a field of cetology that was still poorly understood.

Where Red Leviathan really shines is the exhaustive legwork that its author has engaged in to bring this to light. 33 pages of citations range from the established whaling histories and scientific papers to direct sources of Russian archives and direct interview. Many of the images included throughout the book are from personal collections, allowing a more visceral view into the world of Soviet whaling. Direct interaction and correspondence with surviving whalermen offer insight into attitudes towards the practice, and towards officials who set the production numbers. It allows a more complete picture of this industrial slaughter.

Overall, Red Leviathan is excellent. It does not require its reader to have a deep knowledge of Soviet or whaling history, and the evident hard work involved in bringing such a remote (for lack of a better word) subject to a wider English-language audience is remarkable.

I've been putting a good sized dent in some of my backlog, and what better way to celebrate that then by posting here.

Let me start off with the blatant shilling for AskHistorians flairs, because I'm nothing if not consistent in what I do on this sub. I'm almost finished "The Medieval Crossbow: A weapon fit to kill a king" by our very own /u/Valkine. Obviously enjoying it, but I find it a really neat layout of a book how the first part is more technical, focused by the more traditional history in the second part. I come from enough of an engineering background that I really got into the technical study of the crossbow itself, how it works, the different types, etc. Was especially interested when it continued onto the art sources for crossbows and offered a good look at what kind of representations we have. The history throughout is excellent, and written in a way that a non expert like me finds very enjoyable. Especially as we journey through a number of different "case studies" spanning the centuries and locations. Big recommend.

I also finished "Fallen Idols: Twleve Statues That Made History" by Alex von Tunzelmann I picked up from the library after this great AMA here. Very topical book these days that goes through 12 different statues to look at the broader context, and also discuss all the different possibilities when it comes to putting up, taking down, moving or doing anything else when it comes to the statues. Found it to be a very good read through on the subject.

And now for something completely different, I also quite enjoyed "Fuzz: When Animals Break The Law". I've read a couple of books by Mary Roach before and like the style. More pop science with some occasional history thrown in. The book itself is a very interesting look at (mostly modern) human-animal conflicts, and how its escalating and increasing as populations expand.

I'm not usually big on biographies, but I've just got a copy of Chandler's Campaigns of Napoleon and just finished Mikaberidze's The Napoleonic Wars and I've been on a little Napoleonic kick recently.

Does anyone have any recommendations for good biographies on Napoleon himself?

I've been trying to read "Caste" by Isabel Wilkerson, and, I just, am having trouble giving it a fair hearing because she completely skips the history of caste in Latin America. She keeps making comparisons to caste in India, but never delving into the actually European, British, or American predecessors. So when I try to read it my mental editor keeps yelling out criticism from the mental closet I keep trying to lock him into and I can't appreciate the actual book.

Continuing on into German history with Belfort Bax's 'German Society at the Close of the Middle Ages', William L Urban's survey of Dithmarschen, and Zimmern's 'The Hansa Towns'. I'm looking into acquiring something on the free imperial cities (esp. in Southern Germany) as well as the great commercial enterprises such as the Fuggers and Welsers. Any recommendations?

Also hoping to start Slap and Towers's work on Confederate Cities during the Civil War era. To be honest it was the book's cover that drew me in, it's quite pretty

Quick edit: does anybody have any experience with Ricarda Huch? I have yet to find any English translations of her work. I've been shocked lately at how difficult it is to find medieval German history in English. Maybe I'll just have to learn German lol