Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature
The Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature was put forth by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union in the second half of the 1940s, with the corresponding propaganda motto and catch phrase, great transformation of nature (Russian: Великое преобразование природы).[1] Styled in the traditions of Stalin's personality cult, it referred to the Decree of the USSR Council of Ministers and All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Central Committee of October 20, 1948 «О плане полезащитных лесонасаждений, внедрения травопольных севооборотов, строительства прудов и водоемов для обеспечения высоких устойчивых урожаев в степных и лесостепных районах Европейской части СССР» (translation:"On the plan of shelterbelt plantation, introduction of grass crop rotation, construction of ponds and reservoirs to ensure high crop yields in the steppe and forest-steppe areas of the European USSR"). It was a follow-up of the 1946 drought and subsequent 1947 famine, which led to estimated deaths of 0.5-1 million people.[2]
[edit] Major projects
A network of irrigation canals was built in the steppe belt of southern Soviet Union, and in the deserts of Central Asia.
A project was put forth for planting of a gigantic network of shelterbelts (Russian: лесополоса, lesopolosa, 'forest strip') across the steppes of southern Soviet Union, similar to what had been done in the northern plains of the United States in 1930s.[3]
A number of huge projects were launched in land improvement, hydroengineering, and in supporting areas. Planned to be carried out until 1965, they were abandoned after the death of Stalin, and heavily criticized during destalinization, largely because they were under the control of now discredited Agronomist Trofim Lysenko. Despite their drawbacks in planning and implementation, they were based on ecological principles which have re-emerged in modern times.[2]
[edit] See also
- Environment of Russia
- Aral sea
- Great construction projects of communism
- Northern river reversal
- Great Plains Shelterbelt
[edit] References
- ^ "Introduction in Geoecology", A.A.Chibilyov, 1988, ISBN 5-7691-0783-9, Ekaterinburg, Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Steppe (Russian)
- ^ a b "National Shelterbelt": To 60th anniversary of Stalin's plan of the transformation of nature
- ^ "Russia and the Soviet Union", in Shepard Krech, John Robert McNeill, Carolyn Merchant, "Encyclopedia of World Environmental History". Routledge, 2004. ISBN 0415937337. p. 1077
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