The Role of Scientific Knowledge in the Protection and Use of Water Resources in the USSR in the Second Half of the 1950s and 1970s
https://doi.org/10.69571/SSPU.2025.99.6.017
Abstract
In this article, the author examines the role of scientific knowledge on the protection and use of water resources in the USSR in the second half of the 1950s-1970s. The Soviet Union, possessing one of the largest reserves of fresh water, as well as water sources from the second half of the 1950s, began to experience difficulties in managing the country’s water management complex. The presence of a large number of different water users, the problems of sanitary treatment of wastewater, the need to ensure the reproduction and rational use of fish resources all this required a sound scientific approach to the regulation and protection of the country’s water complex. In this regard, the main purpose of this study is to analyze the role of scientific knowledge on the protection and use of water resources in the USSR in the 1950s-1970s.
Archival materials from the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian State Archive of Economics acted as a source base for the study. The concept of environmental history was chosen as the methodological basis of the work.
It should be noted that the presented work has sufficient scientific novelty. The author conducts a comprehensive analysis of the role of scientific knowledge and approaches to the protection and use of water resources in the USSR in the 1950s-1970s.
The article concludes that, despite the scientific principles declared by the state for the use and protection of water resources, as well as the adoption of a regulatory framework, in practice the situation was different. Water sources were trapped in both government and departmental interests.
About the Author
M. S. Mostovenko
Surgut State Pedagogical University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Mostovenko Maxim Stanislavovich — Candidate of Historical Sciences, Senior Researcher
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Review
For citations:
Mostovenko M.S. The Role of Scientific Knowledge in the Protection and Use of Water Resources in the USSR in the Second Half of the 1950s and 1970s. Surgut State Pedagogical University Bulletin. 2025;(6(99)):172-181. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.69571/SSPU.2025.99.6.017
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