The Oak and the Larch: A Book Review by Bob Morris

February 9, 2026

The Oak and the Larch: A Forest History of Russia and Its Empires
Sophie Pinkham
W.W. Norton & Company (January 2026)

In the relationship between nature and politics, “the forest can be loved and celebrated without recourse to nationalism.”

“In The Oak and the Larch, Sophie Pinkham examines a vast history and culture through the branches of its ancient trees.

“Leo Tolstoy is one of the Russian literary luminaries who populates The Oak and the Larch. After he took part in the military clearing of forests in the Caucasus, Tolstoy became a lifelong defender of woodlands, reflected in his stories and in his later decision to channel the proceeds of War and Peace into reforesting his estate.

“In 1978, a team of Russian geologists surveying the Ural Mountains spotted something remarkable: a small, cultivated clearing carved out of a vast wilderness. When they reached the site, they discovered the Lykovs, members of the Old Believers — a conservative sect whose adherents had dispersed to remote regions after the Romanovs brutally consolidated their control over the Orthodox Church in the 17th century.”

Thus begins Joshua Hammer’s thoughtful and thought-provoking review of The Oak and the Larch for The New York Times. He directs our attention to a unique combination of components by which to understand and, over time, appreciate the natural world’s value to the quality of life for all of its inhabitants.

Consider these comments by Sophie Pinkham: “Throughout Russian history, the forest has been at the heart of national identity, a symbol of what is good and what must be preserved, the last bulwark against annihilation.
” But Russians have long had a deeply contradictory attitude to the forest, blending respect and affection with neglect and even hostility. This ambivalence is characteristic of a place that has long been torn between east and west, city and country, proletariat and peasantry, past and future. It is a tension that spans Russia’s vast territory, whose tree population is as diverse as its peoples and its sense of self.”
The two trees referred to in this book’s title are “sylvan symbols of the poles of Russian geography, climate and culture. Russian fairytales often feature oaks: sacred, towering, and mighty, attributed with righteous authority and healing powers…The larch, which can live for a thousand years, stands for the forest, the taiga. This biome comprises much of Siberia, the vast territory of northern Asia that Russia began colonizing in the sixteenth century. The taiga was wild and unmapped, a realm of mortal danger but also the source of luxurious furs that traveled the globe and made Russia rich.”
Moreover, “Most accounts of Russian history start in Kyivan Rus, the first East Slavic state, and move north to central Russia before expanding into Siberia. This book breaks with that tradition by beginning with the story of Siberia’s forests and the people who inhabited them thousands of years before Russians set foot in northern Asia.”
Pinkham then adds these observations: “In Russia, novelists and poets have a long history as forest defenders — and as agents of empire, shaping ideas of national identity. For centuries, the distinctly Russian combination of censorship and veneration of literature pushed political and scientific debates into belle lettres. With its power to leap across boundaries of time, space, and identity, meanwhile, literature is an ideal dwelling place for new visions of society and nature. This is why writers have pride of place in this book.”

These are among the passages of greatest interest and value to me, also listed to suggest the scope of Pinkham’s coverage:

o Forests of Russia (Pages 1-4, 45-48, 56-57, and 141-143)
o Prehistoric Russia (4-6, 13-18, and 24-25)
o Siberia (6-7, 14-25, 26-27, 36-42, 97-100, 174-177, and 186-196)
o Bolsheviks (7-8, 122-123, and 132-133)
o Medieval Russia (18-22, 20-24, 34-43, 205-206, and 216-217)

o Peter the Great (48-57 and 191-193)
o German expertise in land reclamation (52-56, 75-76, 80-81, 122-123, and 141-142)
o Catherine the Great (54-57 and 58-63)
o The Russian Empire (58-71)
o Caucasian Wars (59-62)

o Chechen people (63-67)
o Lev Tolstoy (66-71 and 73-85)
o Imperial Russia (72-88, 81-84, 119-123
o Emancipation of serfs (80-84)
o James Fenimore Cooper (105-109 and 113-114)

o Anton Chekhov (116-122)
o The Soviet Union (122-128, 130-135, 158-159, and 171-178)
o The Russian Forest (Leonid Leonov) 160-170 and 211-212
o In the Forests (Pavel Melnikov-Pechersky) 188-189
o Karelia (226-238

The Oak and the Larch is indeed a story of vast forests that Sophie Pinkham views as “a testament to human cruelty, shortsightedness, and vain ambition. But it is also a tale of resilience and of the powers of art.”

This book is an epic achievement.

* * *

Here are two suggestions while you are reading The Oak and the Larch: First, highlight key passages. Also, perhaps in a lined notebook kept near-at-hand,  record your comments, questions, page references, and other reactions. Pay special attention to Pinkham’s comments in the comments atvthecend of each of the fifteen chapters, and, to the Epilogue with which she concludes her brilliant history of Russia and its various empires, a nation that — for centuries — has had “more trees than there are stars in our galaxy.”

These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will expedite frequent reviews of key material later.

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