ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the environmental situation at the end of the Soviet period based on an analysis of both official documentation and relevant Western publications. It explores the underlying factors behind the emergence of Russia’s strained environmental situation in more detail with the environmental shortcomings of the Soviet development model forming a main focal point. The chapter examines the responsiveness of the Soviet political bureaucracy to emerging environmental problems via an assessment of policy and administrative initiatives. It explains civic expressions of environmental concern during the mid-late Soviet period. The environmental problems of the Soviet period are routinely attributed to a number of prevailing characteristics of the Soviet development model together with its underlying ideological basis. The value of open discussion and public protest in addressing environmental problems also received limited acknowledgement from central state organs of power during the Soviet period.
