A More Liberal Regime?

Iosif Stalin

An intriguing aspect of this week’s readings from An Environmental History of Russia is that, in terms of environmentalist thought and action, the Khrushchev regime actually seems to have been more oppressive than the Stalin era. Usually, Khrushchev is considered to have been a comparatively liberal Soviet leader, having allowed the expression of some political dissent (142). Yet Khrushchev censored any news or scholarly publications that raised environmental issues (142). Conversely, Stalin allowed the presence of environmentalist groups and supported the creation of a number of zapovedniks (nature reserves) (107-8). It was even during the Stalin era that the project to prevent the extinction of Siberian tigers was given the green flag (111). Stalin did ideologically monitor and often harshly treat environmentalists, but it appears that so long as they toed the party line environmentalists were allowed to go about their work (108, 110, 112). Although both regimes had a devastating impact on Russia’s environment, Khrushchev appears to have been far more dedicated to the total censorship of environmentalists.

Nikita Khrushchev

The primary question raised by all of this is why did the generally less oppressive leader, Khrushchev, seem to find environmentalism more threatening than the infamously totalitarian Stalin? There are several possibilities; for example, Khrushchev’s coming into power on the promise to exploit nature through the Virgin Lands campaign could potentially have put him into opposition with environmentalist ideology. I would also like to raise the question as to why the project to prevent the extinction of the Siberian Tiger, having existed under both regimes, was accepted as both non-threatening and worthy of assistance by them?

Siberian Tiger