23: Environmental Pollution

Contemporary Soviet economists and politicians hold that harmony between man and his environment is possible only under a planned socialist or communist social system:

"True harmony between man and nature is only possible under socialism and communism".

(K. Ananichev: "Environment: International Aspects"; Moscow; 1976; p. 30).

But, since the "economic reform", each enterprise is required to maximise its profits and minimise production costs -- an aim which frequently conflicts with the social need to minimise environmental pollution resulting from production, as contemporary Soviet economists admit:

"The implementation of pollution control programmes leads to worsening of the cost-accounting performance of enterprises".

(N. Fedorenko & K. Gofman: "Problems of Optimisation of the Planning and Control of the Environment", in: "Voprosy ekonomiki" (Problems of Economics), No. 10, 1972, in: "Problems of Economics". Volume 15, No. 12; April 1973; p. 46).

As a result, since the "economic reform" environmental pollution in the Soviet Union has reached dangerous levels, as in orthodox capitalist countries:

"The Zhdanvsky and Lovozersky ore-dressing combines of the USSR Ministry of Non-ferrous Metallurgy have not yet taken the necessary measures to bring a complete halt to contamination of the rivers and lakes of the Kola Peninisula... A number of enterprises belonging to the Ministry of the Chemical Industry... are polluting the air. Many cement plants are operating with a low degree of purification of exhaust gases. The construction of purification facilities at the Selenginsky and other pulp and paper enterprises is unsatisfactory. Individual enterprises of the ministries of oil refining and of the petrochemical industry, of power engineering and electrification, of the building materials industry, are also polluting the air and water. In a number of major cities the contamination of the air by automotive transport has increased...

The law calling for the re-cultivation of disturbed lands is not always observed in the prospecting and extracting of minerals and in urban, industrial and transport construction".

("Safeguard and Multiply Natural Wealth", in: "Planovoe khoziaistvo" (Planned Economy), No. 6, 1973, in: "Problems of Economics", Volume 16, No. 11; March 1974; p. 32-33).

"In the Soviet Union and other socialist countries... there are violations of technology... and as a result unpurified gases are discharged into the atmosphere, unpurified waters are discharged into rivers and water basins, there is soil erosion, etc.".

(G. Khromushin: "Problems of Ecology", in: "Voprosy ekonomiki" (Problems of Economics), No. 8, 1973, in: "Problems of Economics", Volume 16, No. 11; March 1974; p. 53-54).

"For all the variety of causes behind the deterioration of the environment in the United States and the Soviet Union, both these countries are now faced with the practical need to check this process...

The harm caused to bodies of water by effluents from pulp-and-paper, chemical fibre, and other factories is well-known. Every day they discard thousands of tons of polluted water into rivers, lakes and seas. The damage caused by these effluents is incalculable".

(K. Ananichev: ibid.; p. 118, 123)

Soviet politicians certainly support, in words, moves to reduce environment pollution:

"As we take steps to speed up scientific and technical progress, we must see to it that it should combine with the rational treatment of natural resources and should not cause dangerous air and water pollution or exhaust the soil".

(L. Brezhnev: Report to the 24th. Congress CPSU, in: K. Ananichev: ibid.; p. 24).

The practice is, however, somewhat different.

For example, Soviet environmentalists generally agree that one of the two chief causes of atmospheric pollution is motor transport:

"The development of motor transport has come up against a number of 'dead-ends'. One of them is the air pollution with the noxious gases of internal combustion....

The chief sources of air pollution today are the power industry and motor transport".

(K. Ananichev: ibid.; p. 97, 120).

and that the difficulty in producing a non-noxious motor vehicle is economic, and not technical:

"Of course, it is possible in principle to develop a motor vehicle which does not emit poisonous or harmful exhaust fumes. This, however, would be.... very costly".

(K. Ananichev: ibid.; p. 97).

They propose, therefore, that the number of private cars in use should be drastically reduced:

"In all probability, the number of motor vehicles will be reduced by withdrawing from use a tremendous number of private cars".

(K. Ananichev: ibid.; p. 97-8).

But the car industry is such an important sector of the Soviet capitalist economy that exactly the opposite policy has, in fact, been pursued:

"In accordance with the directives of the 24th. CPSU Congress for the five-year plan for 1971-1975, there is to be a fourfold increase in car production. This tremendous increase in the number of motor vehicles... poses the threat of large-scale air pollution".

(K. Ananichev: ibid.; p. 121).

Some contemporary Soviet economists propose a "business-like" approach to the problem of environmental pollution: the state should make an

"....assessment of the loss resulting from the... higher morbidity among the population".

(N. Fedorenko & K. Gofman: ibid.; p. 45).

resulting from it, and, on this basis, impose on enterprises responsible proportionate

"... payments for environmental pollution".

(N. Fedorenko & K. Gofman: ibid.; p. 46).