ABSTRACT
Ivan Vasilev described the destruction of the natural environment, saying that forests of pine and birch had been turned into vast rubbish tips, into storage dumps for manure, and into swamps by the unnecessary diversion of streams. The introduction of a system of self-financing in the agricultural sector might, Vasilev said, assist the recovery of what had been lost–"community, collectivism, and conscience". Removed from the traditional small villages dotted across the Russian countryside into big rural settlements, the peasantry had lost its traditional sense of community and self-help. Vasilev blamed the bad habits of the past for contemporary problems, specifically indicting the system established under Brezhnev, whereby the peasants became entitled, for the first time, to a guaranteed minimum wage. That change meant, according to Vasilev, that peasants were thenceforth assured of a living wage regardless of how little or how badly they worked.
