Unnatural union: Soviet environmental policies, 1950-1991

This study examines the environmental history of the USSR in the Cold War, theorizing that there were various distinct but interrelated causes of the Soviet environmental degradation that occurred in that period.; An examination of the plan to divert part of the flow of Siberian rivers southwards into Soviet Central Asia finds that there was considerable divergence of opinion among the Soviet scientific community concerning economic viability and environmental impact of the project. The study demonstrates that the Soviet scientific community attempted to halt the project, but were only sufficiently powerful to slow its implementation. The project was ultimately cancelled because of economics and the politics of glasnost'.; An analysis of Soviet nuclear submarine policy demonstrates that bureaucratic incoherence, and the disadvantages of operating within a shortage economy, led to a situation within which nuclear submarines, high value and complex items, were constructed imperfectly. Inadequacies in support and maintenance facilities for the burgeoning nuclear submarine fleet were institutionalized within the Soviet naval force structure. These problems produced the current Russian situation: the submarines now pose a severe environmental threat as they decay at anchor.; An analysis of Soviet environmental legislation of the 1960s and 1970s concludes that laws ostensibly intended to protect the environment were weakened, during their formulation, by administrative interference. The application of environmental law in this period was uneven but was nevertheless a response to increasingly critical public opinion.; It is concluded that Soviet scientists demonstrated a remarkable degree of ideological flexibility and theoretical sophistication in their ecological analyses, and were in the process of developing a methodology to combat Soviet environmental dislocation that may have proven successful.; The thesis concludes that the postwar environmental problems of the USSR cannot be attributed to a single cause: they are a consequence of bureaucratic and administrative incoherence; the constraints imposed by a shortage economy; the inability of non-empowered groups (the scientific community and the general public) to compel the Soviet political and administrative elite to accept policy alternatives; and the faith in technological progress so characteristic of Marxist-Leninist doctrine all contributed to the environmental dislocation of the USSR.