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Soviet Union [USSR] Chapter 3. PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT AND POPULATION
CURVING AROUND THE North Pole and the Arctic Ocean like a huge
arc, the Soviet Union spans almost half the globe from east to west
and about 5,000 kilometers from north to south. It is the world's
largest country, occupying the major portions of Europe and Asia
and including one-sixth of the earth's inhabited land area. Its
diverse terrain ranges from vast deserts to towering mountains,
yielding huge stores of natural resources and enabling the country
to satisfy all of its own essential natural resource needs. In
terms of population, the Soviet Union ranks third after China and
India. Its peoples, however, as its terrain, are as diverse as
those of any continent.
The Ural Mountains extend more than 2,200 kilometers, forming
the northern and central boundary separating Asia from Europe. The
continental divide continues another 1,375 kilometers from the Ural
Mountains through the Caspian Sea and along the Caucasus Mountains,
splitting the Soviet Union into grossly unequal Asian and European
parts. Roughly three-quarters of Soviet territory encompass a part
of Asia far larger than China and India combined. Nevertheless, it
is the western quarter, the European part, that is home to more
than 70 percent of all Soviet citizens. Surveys of Soviet geography
and population have long pointed out the acutely uneven
distribution of human and natural resources throughout the country.
Despite considerable attempts to settle people in Asian areas that
are abundant in resources, this imbalance persists. Rapid depletion
of water and fuel resources in the European part has continued to
outstrip development in resource-rich Siberia, which is east of the
Ural Mountains. From 1970 to 1989, the campaign to settle and
exploit the inhospitable frontier region of western Siberia with
its plentiful fuel and energy supplies was costly but successful.
Although the Soviet Union is richly endowed with resources,
several factors severely restrict their availability and use. The
extreme climate and the northern position of the country, plus the
unfavorable location of major deposits, present formidable
geographic impediments. Massive depopulation, firmly established
patterns of settlement, and disparate birth rates have resulted in
regional labor shortages and surpluses.
In the years since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the
inhabitants of the Soviet Union have suffered terrible hardships.
Before the 1950s, in each decade the population experienced a
cataclysmic demographic event in the form of epidemics, wars, or
famines and in state-sanctioned mass killings. Only those persons
born since World War II (62 percent of the population in 1987) have
been spared the havoc that ravaged their grandparents' and parents'
generations. The long-term effects of these disasters on the
population can hardly be overstated. The opportunity to examine in
relative tranquillity the national demographic situation is a
postwar phenomenon. During this time, Soviet officials have become
increasingly aware of the importance of demographic issues. The
most visible signs of this are the policies aimed at influencing
and directing demographic processes such as reproduction and
migration for the benefit of society and the economy.
Encouraged by
glasnost' (see Glossary), in the 1980s
Soviet and foreign geographers and demographers engaged in spirited
and open discussions. Probing articles and books began appearing on
previously sensitive or taboo topics. Alcohol and drug abuse, high
rates of infant and adult mortality, environmental degradation, the
decline of the Soviet family, and the frequency of divorce were
among them. Population problems stemming from sharp differences in
the reproduction rates and migration patterns of the numerous
Soviet nationalities were also openly debated.
Data as of May 1989
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