528 
successful and unsuccessful) to combat erosion and earthslides on 
the shores of the Black Sea.”? In an article summing up industrial 
methods to reduce pollution, S. Parshenkov, Scientific Secretary of 
the Scientific Council on Problems of the Biosphere AS U.S.S.R., 
cites the contruction of ‘‘670 purification complexes and installations 
capable of decontaminating more than 3 billion cubic meters of waste 
water per day” in the last decade, in the Volga and Ural basins 
alone.?4 However, at about the same time, a review of progress under 
a decree of the CPSU Central Committee and the U.S.S.R. Council 
of Ministers on improvements in the Volga and Ural basins, by the 
Commission on Housing and Communal Economy and Planning of 
Public Services of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet took note of “a number 
of shortcomings in the contruction of water purification installa- 
tions.” 
Environmental protection in the Soviet Union appears to be neither 
more nor less advanced than in other industrialized countries. Official 
statements make claims which are in effect countered by substantial 
legislation and exhortations to improve environmental conditions. 
Quite obviously, statements such as the one that environmental issues 
‘“‘“have been at the center of attention of the Soviet state since the 
first days of its experience’? do not square with the majority of 
articles and reports, both official and unofficial, which are directed 
at serious environmental deterioration. Pollution of rivers feeding into 
coastal zones, oil pollution in the major seas, and erosion of coastal 
areas, appear to have resulted from the demands of economic growth, 
most of which has occurred over the past five decades. And while 
the official literature may cite coordinated management that takes 
proper account of environmental protection, there is enough evidence 
to force the conclusion that the imperatives of economic growth con- 
tinue to make costly claims on the environment. All this notwithstand- 
ing, the literature of the past few years indicates that Soviet attitudes 
toward the environment have changed considerably, and corrective 
measures are being taken. If economic growth priorities permit, and 
to the extent that environmental improvement costs can be assimilated 
in that process, the Soviet environment, including its great river basins 
and coastal areas will show improvement in the future. 
23. V. Grigorovitch, et. al. Protect nature (Material for the field meeting of the Economic Club in 
Cherkassy). Rabochaya Gazeta (Kiev) August 23, 1974. (JPRS 63307. Translations of Environmental 
Quality No. 
24S. Parshenkov. Our resources, let us conserve the. Sovetskiye Profsoyuzy No. 18 (Moscow) Sep- 
tember 1974. (JPRS No. 63418; Translations of Environmental Quality no. 64). 
25 In the Commission of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet. Sovetskaya Rossiya (Moscow) Oct. 31, 1974. 
(JPRS No. 63604; Translations of Environmental Quality No. 69). 
26 The Policy of the Soviet Union in the Area of Environmental Protection. Paper presented on 
Oct. 23, 1974 at Expo-74 in Spokane. Politika Soventskogo Soyuza V. Oblasti. Okhrany Okruz- 
hayuschiy Prirodnoy Sredy. (Moscow) 1974 (JPRS No. 64946; Translations of Environmental Quality 
No. 84). 
