The environmental destruction of the Soviet Union

For years, the extent of environmental degradation in the Soviet Union has been hidden from the public. Glasnost, however, has revealed the growing ecological crisis facing the Soviet Union. The radioactive contamination caused by Chernobyl is but one example of the degradation caused by the pursuit of industrial expansion. Whole regions have been laid waste by pollution and land degradation; river systems fatally disrupted by dams and irrigation schemes; and the health of the public is declining. An account of the current contamination due to the Chernobyl accident and the measures being taken by the Soviet authorities is given. A previous nuclear disaster and its effects, when a nuclear waste storage site exploded, in 1957 in the eastern Urals, is described. The non-nuclear disasters are listed and the effects described briefly. (author)