An Environmental History of Russia (Studies in Environment and History)
Language: English
Pages: 347
ISBN: 0521689724
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The former Soviet empire spanned eleven time zones and contained half the world's forests; vast deposits of oil, gas, and coal; various ores; major rivers such as the Volga, Don, and Angara; and extensive biodiversity. These resources and animals, as well as the people who lived in the former Soviet Union - Slavs, Armenians, Georgians, Azeris, Kazakhs and Tajiks, indigenous Nenets and Chukchi - were threatened by environmental degradation and extensive pollution. This environmental history of the former Soviet Union explores the impact that state economic development programs had on the environment. The authors consider the impact of Bolshevik ideology on the establishment of an extensive system of nature preserves, the effect of Stalinist practices of industrialization and collectivization on nature, and the rise of public involvement under Khrushchev and Brezhnev, and changes to policies and practices with the rise of Gorbachev and the break-up of the USSR.
The Putin Corporation: The Story of Russia's Secret Takeover
Beyond Holy Russia: The Life and Times of Stephen Graham
Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia: The Regulation of Sexual and Gender Dissent
"I am a Phenomenon Quite Out of the Ordinary": The Notebooks, Diaries and Letters of Daniil Kharms
Transform Nature (1948). In this chapter, we also consider the environmental consequences of World War II, of the postwar plan to rebuild the nation’s economy, and of the burgeoning Cold War defense industry. An Evaluation of the Environmental Costs of Stalin’s Plan for Rapid Industrialization During the first Five-Year Plan, Soviet leaders determined to create a military and industrial superpower that, according to the slogans of the era, “reached and surpassed” the might of the capitalist West,
own purposes, killing off animal populations, eliminating native species of flora and fauna, and introducing new and foreign species. They created a local micro-climate with different temperature, wind patterns and precipitation from the surrounding countryside. City mothers, fathers, and industrialists advanced projects to shape rivers to support factories and power generation, and thereby destroyed habitat and interrupted patterns of life of flora and fauna. They have become energy and resource
enthusiasm. Without the impediments of public opposition or the legal requirements of environmental impact statements, they quickly moved to change forever the face of Siberia with serious long-term human, economic, and ecological costs. Soviet plans never lacked enthusiasm for the belief that engineers could improve on nature’s gifts or take advantage of the unanticipated payoffs of their hubris. The largest share of investment in the energy sector went to oil, gas, and coal, especially to new
newspaper of the Union of Soviet Writers, Literaturnaia Gazeta, carried an article by eight authors – most of them prominent biologists – who attacked the project for its devastation of sturgeon spawning grounds. In this case, the environmentalists won the battle. The Volga remains free flowing, but only from Volgograd to the Caspian Sea. Officials from the State Committee for Fisheries acknowledged that the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Council of Ministers had concurred in
(1964–1983), pursued policies toward the environment that led to the promulgation of new laws and statutes to ensure sustainable growth, but that were powerless to halt the increasing pollution and land-use problems that characterized Soviet development programs. He constantly referred to “hard work” and the need to perfect existing mechanisms, not pursue reform. 4 Developed Socialism, Environmental Degradation, and the Time of Economic “Stagnation,” 1964–1985 Soon after Leonid Brezhnev and