Russia and Its Neighbors - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 224

Local party officials sometimes sided with the environmentalists such as
at Lake Baikal, but more often they were subservient to their Communist
Party bosses. Governmental agencies responsible for forests and farmland
faced conflicting pressures of exploitation and preservation. A few eco-
logical organizations existed, but they were not fully independent of the
government. For instance, the influence of the Socio-Ecological Union
on policy was slight. During the 1980s ecological organizations attracted
members who actually were more interested in other sorts of reform,
such as nationalistic autonomy, rights of prisoners, and nuclear weapons
control, because environmental groups were tolerated when other organi-
zations were not. This meant that the groups had a number of members
who had only a secondary interest in the environment.
Gorbachev's openness and restructuring outran the original goals he
and his fellow reformers anticipated. In 1991 the entire Soviet Union col-
lapsed, to be replaced by 15 independent countries based on the old parts
of the USSR federation. In 1922 the Bolsheviks had organized the Union
as a successor to the defunct empire. The largest unit by far, in terms of
size and population, was Russia. The next largest was Ukraine. The third
largest in Europe, Belarus, occupied the land between Russia and Poland.
The three Baltic Sea republics of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania became
independent as well. They had only been incorporated into the Union after
the Red Army invasion at the beginning of World War II. These six repub-
lics were the most industrial ones. The nine others were underdeveloped
regions ranging from Armenia to Kyrgystan. The first six, heavily indus-
trialized and located in Europe, contrasted in their ecological problems
with the other nine, with less industry and extending as far east as the
border with China.
The Soviet Union's first international treaties affecting the environment
addressed nuclear weapons. In 1963 the USSR signed the Test Ban Treaty
with the United States and Great Britain. In their propaganda, the Soviets
emphasized the importance of ending radioactive fallout from American
bomb tests, although their tests actually generated more fallout. They next
signed treaties and agreements to restrict the number of weapons and
prevent weapons proliferation to other countries. The Soviet Union and
the United States were both early proponents of the Law of the Sea Treaty
because they wanted to ensure free transit of their navies, but they later took
a secondary role in negotiations when its original goals were subordinated
to the wishes of the underdeveloped countries. The USSR participated in
the International Geophysical Year with a base in Antarctica and signed