To transform Central Asia into a vast breadbasket, a massive project was launched to plant trees in a gigantic network of forest strips across the southern steppes. Modeled after efforts in the United States during the Dust Bowl years, this project aimed to combat erosion and winds. The plan was overseen by the Main Directorate of Field-Protective Forestry and influenced by the pseudoscientific ideas of Trofim Lysenko. He advocated planting trees in "nests," claiming plants would cooperate and even sacrifice themselves for the greater good. This theory tragically failed, as evidenced by ecologist Vladimir N. Sukachev's observation that 100% of trees planted in the Ural territories using Lysenko's method had died by September 1951.

The Aral Sea Disaster: A Legacy of Ambition and Ecological Destruction

In the 1960s, the USSR began building irrigation canals thousands of kilometers long to reduce dependence on the international food market. The canals, often built by prisoners from Gulags, began diverting water from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers – the Aral Sea's primary sources. The aim was to boost the production of water-intensive crops like cotton and melons in the dry and arid plains of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Propaganda fueled the project with images of blooming deserts and a sense of conquest over a harsh landscape, despite the scientists warnings of ecological catastrophe. Beneath the veneer of progress, one of the 20th century's worst ecological disasters was unfolding.

The consequences were swift and devastating. The Aral Sea, once the world's fourth-largest lake, began to shrink, and by 2007 was a mere 10% of its original size. Islands once used for biological weapons testing were left exposed, surrounded by a landscape poisoned by pesticides, fertilizers, and growing desertification. The public health crisis was severe, with rising rates of infertility, miscarriages, and birth complications. The once-thriving fishing industry collapsed, impacting 60,000 livelihoods.

The Aral Sea's decline was only part of the wider environmental devastation. Excessive irrigation led to soil salinization, rendering 3-5 million hectares of land unusable. Widespread erosion, exacerbated by poor agricultural practices, led to soil loss equivalent to 8-10% of annual agricultural production. Hydropower projects flooded fertile croplands in the Dnieper, Don, and Volga River valleys. Water pollution reached alarming levels – in 1986 alone, 15 km³ of toxic industrial effluents and 6.5 km³ of raw sewage were discharged into European Soviet streams. This had dire consequences for rivers, estuaries, fisheries and public health.

From Neglect to Action: The Shifting Tide of Environmentalism in the USSR

Despite early pollution control measures like the 1949 "Measures in the Struggle Against Pollution of the Atmosphere and on Improving the Sanitary Conditions of Populated Areas," environmental protection remained a marginal concern in the Soviet Union until it was too late. Dominant policies aimed to exploit natural resources to fuel industrial growth, with laws focused on maximizing resource use rather than conservation or preservation.

A turning point came in 1972 when the USSR made a significant move: signing the Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Environmental Protection with the United States. Occurring during a summit focused on limiting nuclear arms – signaling the beginning of the end of the Cold War – this agreement highlighted a growing awareness of environmental issues within the USSR. However, the scars of past apathy ran deep. The 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl and the reassessment of earlier, less-publicized accidents like the 1957 Cheliabinsk radioactive waste explosion further underscored the dangers of past environmental practices to human health and ecological well-being.

Under Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms, environmental concerns became a rallying cry for a new generation of activists. A landmark 1989 Supreme Soviet decree, "About the Urgent Measures for the Country's Ecological Recovery," openly acknowledged the Soviet Union's grave ecological situation and also mandated public disclosure of environmental information. This transparency, coupled with powerful imagery like posters depicting dying forests and documentaries showcasing the shrinking Aral Sea, fueled public outrage. This shift in messaging played a part in driving public outcry and pressuring the government towards more environmentally-conscious policies. Though the Soviet government belatedly invested over 60 billion dollars (double the previous decade's spending) on environmental preservation and restoration from 1975 to 1986, decades of mismanagement had created deep-rooted ecological challenges. 

The Soviet Union's ambition to reshape nature left an enduring scar on nature. From the shrinking Aral Sea to contaminated rivers and degraded lands, the pursuit of relentless progress has its cost. Ultimately, the Soviet Union's environmental legacy is one of destruction.