The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Default user image.

Aleh Cherp

Professor, Coordinator of the MESPOM Consortium

Default user image.

An Environmental History of Russia

Author

  • Paul Josephson
  • Nicolai Dronin
  • Ruben Mnatsakanian
  • Aleh Cherp
  • Dmitry Efremenko
  • Vladislav Larin

Summary, in English

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.

Department/s

  • The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics

Publishing year

2013

Language

English

Document type

Book

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Topic

  • Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

Keywords

  • Russia
  • USSR
  • environmental history

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISBN: 9780521689724