Books in Brief
A Russian Silent Spring?

Ecocide in the USSR: Health and Nature Under Siege
By Murray Feshbach and Alfred Friendly, Jr.
New York: Basic Books, 1992

By Lynda L. Maillet

In their book Ecocide in the USSR, Feshbach and Friendly use their remarkable and careful research to show the devastated state of the environment and health care system of the former Soviet Union. They present an extraordinary array of disturbing statistics to illustrate the severity of the situation: 70 million people living in cities are in danger of life-shortening diseases from air that carries five and more times the allowed limit of pollutants; almost three quarters of the surface water in the ex-USSR is polluted; and 25 million acres of cropland are still overloaded with DDT, years after it was banned in other nations.

The authors address the origins and symptoms of a degraded environment caused by "heedless industrialization compounded by failure to measure the social costs of exploiting limited natural resources." They point to the beginnings of the problem in the Bolshevik revolution and leaders' emphasis on rapid industrial development. The emphasis on large-scale industrial projects, like canals and dams, stemmed from an exaggerated faith in economies of scale. Many of these projects were ill-conceived and have since caused environmental damage far exceeding any benefits provided over the years. The regime's historical mania for secrecy has compounded the difficulties by restricting public knowledge of problems and making it difficult to gather information.

The origins and consequences of the "infirm" health care system are also discussed in detail by Feshbach and Friendly. There were early successes in the new Soviet health care system where doctors worked for the state and society rather than for the individual. The incidence of certain diseases fell radically in the 1920's and won many Western admirers. However, the system deteriorated over the years as more resources were poured into heavy industry and defense and less into consumer goods and the welfare of the people, including health care. The fact that many hospitals in the former Soviet Union do not even have running water, let alone hot water, is a telling sign.....

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