An Environmental History of Russia

Contents......Page 9
Introduction......Page 11
 What Is Environmental History in This Book?......Page 16
 Large-Scale Projects and Large-Scale Bureaucracies......Page 18
 Physical Geography and Ecosystems of the Soviet Union......Page 24
 Tundra11......Page 25
 Taiga14......Page 27
 Steppe......Page 28
 Arid Regions......Page 29
 The Aral Sea......Page 30
1 From Imperial to Socialist Nature Preservation......Page 33
 Nature and Society in Pre-Petrine Russia, 900-1700......Page 37
 Conservation from Peter the Great to the Russian Revolution......Page 39
 Natural Resources: Early Management Practices of Forests......Page 43
 Agriculture and Environment in Tsarist Russia......Page 48
 Inland Fisheries During the Tsarist Era......Page 59
 “Environmental” Concerns in Imperial Russia and the Rise of Nature Preserves......Page 63
 The Weak Institutional Foundation of Ecology......Page 68
 Environmental Concerns After the Russian Revolution......Page 70
 From Tsarism to Bolshevism to Stalinism - and the Environment......Page 76
2 Stalinism......Page 81
 An Evaluation of the Environmental Costs of Stalins Plan for Rapid Industrialization......Page 84
 Stalin, the Great Break and Nature......Page 87
 Urbanization in the Stalin Era......Page 97
 War on the Agriculture: Soviet Agriculture......Page 103
 The Gulag on the Frontier of the Soviet Empire50......Page 109
 Environmentalists and the Nature Protection Movement under Stalin......Page 116
 Costs of World War II......Page 122
 High Stalinism and the Transformation of Nature......Page 129
 Soviet Forests and the Stalinist Plan to Transform Nature......Page 131
 Conquest of Siberia and the Far North and the Rise of the Modern Defense Industry......Page 138
 Transformationist Economic and Political Desiderata and the Soviet Environment......Page 142
3 The Khrushchev Reforms, Environmental Politics, and the Awakening of Environmentalism, 1953-1964......Page 146
 Khrushchev Era Economic Reforms: Impact on Environmental Policies......Page 149
 Technocratic Euphoria and Indifference to the Environment......Page 153
 Khrushchevs Agricultural Programs......Page 156
 The Corn Campaign: Grasslands and Maize Malaise......Page 163
 The Assault on Forests......Page 165
 The Environmental Cost of Energy Production: The Case of Hydroelectricity......Page 172
 The Struggle to Protect Nature Reserves Renewed......Page 182
 Big Projects, the Environment and Nature Under Khrushchev......Page 186
4 Developed Socialism, Environmental Degradation, and the Time of Economic “Stagnation,” 1964-1985......Page 194
 The Legacy of Heavy Industry......Page 196
 Soviet Environmental Policy from the 1960s to 1980s......Page 199
 Domestic Determinants of Environmental Policy......Page 207
 Economic Disincentives to Rational Environmental Policy......Page 217
 The Urban Environment......Page 223
 Acid Rain, Air Pollution, and the Soviet Union......Page 229
 Water, Water Everywhere......Page 231
 “Hero Projects” of the Brezhnev Era: From Central Asia to Lake Baikal and Siberia......Page 234
 Forest Resources and Soviet Management Practices......Page 246
 The Development of Environmental Thinking in the Brezhnev Era......Page 249
 The Rise of Environmental Interest and Public Action Groups......Page 254
 Literature, the Press, and Environmentalism131......Page 258
 Environment and Society on the Eve of the Gorbachev Reforms......Page 260
5 Gorbachevs Reforms, Glasnost, and Econationalism......Page 264
 Gorbachev, Reforms, and Environmental Issues......Page 266
 The Chernobyl Disaster2......Page 268
 Radiation Contamination......Page 273
 Perestroika and the Formation of New Environmental Institutions......Page 278
 Civil Society and Environmentalism in the Gorbachev Era22......Page 284
 The Rise of Econationalism in the Republics......Page 289
 On the Eve of the Breakup of the Soviet Union......Page 294
Conclusion After the Breakup of the Soviet Union......Page 297
 Post-Soviet Reforms in the Newly Independent States......Page 302
 Post-Soviet Environmental Institutions......Page 304
 The Public and the Environment in the Post-Soviet Union......Page 312
 Environmental Change in the Former Soviet Union......Page 317
 Decoupling Economic Growth from Environmental Security......Page 322
 Environmental Concerns in the Twenty-First Century......Page 328
Index......Page 331