Stalin's Legacy: The Soviet War on Nature

Exposing ecological horror through a humanist lens, this chronicle of the "environmental atrocities" wrought by an indifferent Soviet regime is as much a personal account as it is a methodological critique. Stevenson (Crying Forever), a Minister of European Parliament for Scotland, recounts his tour through environmentally tarnished areas of Central Asia. Taking center stage are his visits to villages in eastern Kazakhstan, an area selected by the Soviets for the testing site of 607 nuclear devices. Stevenson also draws attention to the underwater storage of "uranium tailings" across Central Asia, the desiccation of the Aral Sea by irrigation canals, and the construction of a man-made Golden Age Lake in Turkmenistan, a country "determined to repeat the mistakes of [its] forbears." Although Stevenson's purpose is to reveal, from personal experience and witness testimony, the environmental harm wreaked by the Soviets, he does not leave all the work to gravitas. That is Stevenson's success: an "incurable optimist", he peppers the book with jocular anecdotes%E2%80%94nauseous plane rides and obligatory vodka toasts with the village akims (mayors). Celebrating life in areas condemned by industrialism, this book is as much a conscientious call to arms as it is an act of love. Photos and maps. (Apr.)