Russia & Post Soviet States
Russia & Post-Soviet States Themes
Soviet
environmental legacies, both global and local impacts
Move
to market economy, with new alignments of people and trade
The
slow emergence of democracy
Changing identities with new republics,
shrinking populations, and changing gender roles.
NOTE: The former Soviet Republics got
independence, but Russia has 30 internal republics (e.g. Chechnya, Tartarstan, Ossetia) which are 10% of territory, 15% of
population
Reflects
diversity of people conquered by Russia/Soviets
Physical Patterns
Landforms
North
European plain is most densely populated
Urals
are Europe/Asia line
The
Siberian Plain contains permafrost which keeps water on surface, make
marshes
Southern
border is group of mountain ranges, above which are steppes (grasslands)
Mountains
act as barrier to moist Indian Ocean air
Climate
Region
dominated by continental climate
Little moderating
water effects, land heats and cools to extremes
Siberia has many
resources (including its taiga forest), but its size and temperature makes them
hard to remove (although people are trying, especially at forestry)
Little
good agricultural land, short growing season
Caucuses, with a
California-like climate, grew fruits and vegetables
Ukraine is bread
basket
Central Asia some
irrigated ag for cotton and
a few other crops, mostly herding
Environmental Issues
Under
Soviets, nature was viewed as the servant of industrial and agricultural
progress.
Large
industrial projects were signs of progress
Like
with other parts of the world
Development
now taking precedence over environmental controls
Pollution
issues are difficult because they cross boundaries, and there are many weak
governments
Pollution
Urban and Industrial Pollution
Very few places have
sewer systems, sewage just dumped into subsoil
Birth
defects, infant mortality high
Many residential
areas built next to major industrial complexes
Air
pollution causes much bronchitis, asthma
In
industrial cities like Dzerzhinsk (chemicals) and Norlisk (metal smelting), life exptency
50 and under
In
rural areas, air pollution and fertilizer runoff also cause health problems
In
general, there are so many sources of pollution here that much of it is
non-point not identifiable to a single source
Infant mortality and
birth defects are quite high in some areas
Resource Extraction and Environmental
Degradation
Oil,
gas, iron, gold, timber, platinum are all in abundance, especially in Urals and
Siberia
Largest
inland oil spills occur here
Because
of large size, little regulation, clear cutting of forests occurs in Siberia
Likely
to get worse as economy picks up
Hydroelectric
power commonly used
Causes
flooding which destroys habit
Also
get thermal pollution where turbine heated water causes
temperature shift, kills small animals, plant
Big Time Pollution
Nuclear
pollution is the worst in the world.
Reactor
at Chernobyl in the Ukraine exploded in 1986, sent radioactive cloud into
Western Europe
Closed
city of Seversk has 20 times the pollution of
Chernobyl in its soil
Kazakhstan
nuclear tests effected nomads both with cancers and birth defects
Nuclear
waste, reactors, sunk in Artic Ocean
Hot Spot: Aral Sea
The
most prolonged, intentional ecological disaster
Soviet
Planning tried to develop cotton industry in very dry central Asia
Aral Sea (cont)
25%
of water which once flowed into Aral Sea now reaches it; sometimes none
Has
split into two parts, lost 90% of volume
Kazakhstan
building a massive dam to save northern part
Destroyed
caviar industry, led to increased TB, lung disease
Human Patterns Over
Time
Much
of region once dominated by Central Asian nomads who herded from Black Sea to
Lake Baikal
Settled
people lived in fortress towns
Mongols
last powerful nomadic group
Slavs emerged in Poland/Ukraine/Belarus around
600, Rus (maybe from Scandinavia)
between 800-1000
Established
trade between Scandinavia and Baghdad/Constantinople
Christianity
spread from Constantinople
Greek
missionaries spread art, Cyrillic alphabet
The Rise of the Russian Empire
Moscow,
once Mongol tax collectors, began to rise as military force around 1300
Began
colonial type relationship with conquered lands outside of European Russia
Cotton,
crops, timber taken, little reinvested
Movement
of ethnic Russians into Irkutsk region
Was
incredibly inequitable: czar and small aristocracy owned land and serfs who
were bound to them
Communist Revolution
Czar
Nicolas II overthrown during WWI by broad coalition of groups
Bolsheviks,
a small group of strict communists, gain control
Wanted
everyone, not just a few, to own and profit from means of production
Goal
to establish a purely egalitarian, eventually stateless society
Goal
did not happen
Transitional
Communist Party, dominated by Russians, put in to rule
Revolution (cont.)
Under
Stalin a command economy instituted
State owned
factories, farms
Rural
areas electrified, covered with radio
The
collectivization of agriculture was brutal
Led to rise of secret police and gulag
archipelago (Siberian prison system)
Bureaucrats in Moscow
decided levels, types, and locations of production for state companies and farms
New
industrial cities like Magnitogorsk, begin to emerge on landscape
Many
of the large farms are inefficient, transport to market poor
After
a big collapse with end of USSR, private farms are starting to be more
productive
Most investment in
military and heavy equipment, little for consumers
In
rest of the world, consumer goods dominate the economy
Cold War
Soviet
Union, like U.S. spent heavily during Cold War in order to prop up allies
Cuba
especially hard hit when Soviets fall
1979
War in Afghanistan becomes Soviet equivalent of Vietnam
Long,
un-winnable war
Drugs
become major problem
Gorbachev
institutes Glasnost (openness) and perestroika (economic
restructuring) in 1980s to try to reform system
Did
not work, USSR dissolved in 1991
Russia
dominates after dissolution, despite many new states
After
period of openness, Putin is centralized control, cracking down on media,
bullying neighbors again