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Soviet Union [USSR] PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
Any geographic description of the Soviet Union is replete with
superlatives. Its inventory of land and water contains the world's
largest and deepest lakes, the most expansive plain, and Europe's
highest mountain and longest river. Desert scenes from Soviet
Central Asia resemble the Australian outback. The Crimean coast on
the Black Sea is the Soviet Riviera, and the mountains rimming the
southern boundary are as imposing as the Swiss Alps. However, most
of the topography and climate resembles that of the northernmost
portion of the North American continent. The northern forests and
the plains to the south find their closest counterparts in the
Yukon Territory and in the wide swath of land extending across most
of Canada. Similarities in terrain, climate, and settlement
patterns between Siberia and Alaska and Canada are unmistakable.
After the Bolshevik Revolution and the ensuing Civil War (1918-
21), Soviet regimes transformed, often radically, the country's
physical environment. In the 1970s and 1980s, Soviet citizens, from
the highest officials to ordinary factory workers and farmers,
began to examine negative aspects of this transformation and to
call for more prudent use of natural resources and greater concern
for environmental protection.
Data as of May 1989
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