Culture and the environment in the Soviet Union

Abstract

The Soviet Union is one of the most physically and culturally diverse nations on earth. Its natural environment embraces a rich variety of resources and ecosystems, many of which, such as Lake Baikal, are of world significance. Culturally, it is comprised of over a hundred ethnic groups, belonging to eight major language groups and six major religions. However, two cultures are dominant: the Slavic group (which takes in 75% of the USSR population and 80% of its land area) and the Turkic-Islamic peoples who account for the large majority of the remainder. Owing to the highly centralized nature of the country's political-administrative system, however, the effect of culture or ethnic traditions in the resolution of national environmental issues is quite small. Major decisions regarding either specific conservation issues or basic environmental policies are made at the centralized level by ministerial, planning, and Communist Party officials, and are based on pragmatically refined ideological considerations, rather than on regional cultural attitudes. This pragmatic refining of ideological considerations will involve the weighing of specific economic and environmental imperatives, and deciding on appropriate trade-offs. To find cultural expression in environmental management, one would need to look closely at local projects and approaches in the various ethnic regions, particularly the non-Slavic ones.