TITLE: ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES AND CONSTRAINT S IN THE FORMER SOVIET REPUBLICS : Chapter 4: THE URALS AND SIBERIA AUTHOR : ANNA SCHERBAKOVA and SCOTT MONROE THE NATIONAL COUNCI L FOR SOVIET AND EAST EUROPEAN RESEARC H TITLE VIII PROGRAM 1755 Massachusetts Avenue, N .W . Washington, D .C . 20036 PROJECT INFORMATION : ' CONTRACTOR : San Diego State University PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR : Philip R . Pryd e COUNCIL CONTRACT NUMBER : 807-04 DATE : July 25, 199 4 COPYRIGHT INFORMATIO N Individual researchers retain the copyright on work products derived from research funded b y Council Contract. The Council and the U.S. Government have the right to duplicate written reports and other materials submitted under Council Contract and to distribute such copies within th e Council and U.S. Government for their own use, and to draw upon such reports and materials fo r their own studies; but the Council and U.S. Government do not have the right to distribute, o r make such reports and materials available, outside the Council or U .S. Government without th e written consent of the authors, except as may be required under the provisions of the Freedom o f Information Act 5 U.S.C. 552, or other applicable law . The work leading to this report was supported in part by contract funds provided by the National Council for Soviet and East European Research, made available by the U . S. Department of State under Title VIII (the Soviet - Eastern European Research and Training Act of 1983) . The analysis and interpretations contained in the report are those of the author. NCSEER NOTE This report is part of a Council funded research project entitled Environmenta l Resources and Constraints in the Former Soviet Republics . Twenty one reports, listed below , resulting from this project will be distributed seriatim by the Council, and will collectivel y become the chapters of a book to be published in 1994 by Westview Press . Eighteen of the 2 1 (written by other authors) deal with the fifteen former republics, and three (written by Dr . Philip R. Pryde, the Principal Investigator) are summarizing reports . Chapter 1 : The Environmental Implications of Republic Sovereignty . (Pryde) Chapter 2: Russia - An Overview of the Federation . (Pryde) Chapter 3 : European Russia. (Kochurov) Chapter 4: The Urals and Siberia . (Scherbakova & Monroe ) Chapter 5: The Russian Far East. (Strand) Chapter 6: Estonia. (Soot) Chapter 7: Latvia. (Dreifelds) Chapter 8: Lithuania. (Kritkausky) Chapter 9: Ukraine. (Stebelsky) Chapter 10: Environmental Management in Ukraine . (Freeman) Chapter 11 : Belarus. (Cherp & Kovaleya) Chapter 12: Moldova. (Dinu & Rowntree) Chapter 13: Georgia. (Richards) Chapter 14: Armenia. (Valesyan) Chapter 15: Azerbaijan. (Wolfson & Daniell) Chapter 16: Kazakhstan. (Smith) Chapter 17: Turkmenistan. (Micklin) Chapter 18: Uzbekistan. (Lubin) Chapter 19: Kyrgyzstan. (Braden) Chapter 20: Tajikistan. (Eicher) Chapter 21: The View to the Future. (Pryde) ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES AND CONSTRAINTS IN THE FORMER SOVIET REPUBLIC S Chapter 4 : The Urals and Siberi a Anna Scherbakova and Scott Monro e Executive Summar y The following paragraphs summarize the main contents and conclusions of a chapter o n the Urals and Siberia, which has been prepared as part of a larger work on the environmenta l and economic-geographic situation in each of the former Soviet republics . The full study , edited by Philip R . Pryde, will be published by Westview Press under the title "Environmenta l Resources and Constraints in the Former Soviet Republics . Funding assistance from th e National Council for Soviet and East European Research is acknowledged with appreciation . In this chapter, the history, physical geography and ethnography of the Urals and Siberi a is briefly summarized, followed by a survey of its main economic resources and any significan t environmental constraints (climatic, geomorphologic, etc .) that affect the region's development . The contemporary state of the development of industry within the region is reviewed, with a focus on the environmental disruption that has resulted from this development . The current situation with regard to biotic preservation is also reviewed, including the establishment o f nature reserves and parks, and the potential for ecotourism . Particular discussion is directed to the problems that currently exist within this regio n with regard to radioactive contamination from processing facilities and at testing and disposa l sites. The serious problems of air and water pollution, and of the timber industry, ar e discussed, and a special section is devoted to Lake Baikal . The main conclusions of the chapter are that this is a region of long-standin g environmental indifference and neglect, and that due to present economic difficulties it is likel y to remain so for many years . Radioactive contamination is a particularly serious problem, as i s pollution in such industrial centers as Norilsk, Magnitogorsk, Novokuznetsk, Chelyabinsk , Angarsk, Krasnoyarsk, and many other cities . As a result, many areas of Siberia have been rendered marginal or even unfit for human habitation . Philip R . Pryde, June 6 , 1994 Figure 4.1 Chapter 4. THE URALS AND SIBERIA By Anna Scherbakova and Scott Monro e This chapter examines the vast region of Russia that takes in the eastern slopes of th e Ural Mountains and West and East Siberia. This huge territory occupies ten million squar e kilometers of northern Asia, from the Urals in the west to Yakutia (Sakha) in the east, an d from the shores of the Arctic ocean in the north to the steppes of Kazakhstan and the Chines e and Mongolian borders in the south (Figure 4.1) . In addition to the Urals, its principal region s are the West Siberian plain, the mid-Siberian plateau, the mountains of southern Siberia, an d the mountain system of northeastern Siberia . Within Siberia's borders are the republics o f Buryatia and Tuva, the Altai and Krasnoyarsk territories, and the Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinbur g (Sverdlovsk), Tyumen, Kurgan, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Kemerovo, Irkutsk, and Chit a provinces (oblasts) . According to the 1989 census, 33 .620,000 people lived in this region . Physical Characteristics and Settlemen t Siberia is situated in the middle and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, in th e temperate and arctic climatic belts . The climate in most of Siberia is continental and seasonall y arid ; average annual air temperature is less than 0 degrees C ., and in northeastern Siberia i t drops below -18 degrees C. Winters are long and cold . Most precipitation (up to 75--8 0 percent of the annual total) occurs during the warm period of the year, and thus snowfal l during the remaining portion generally is not substantial, averaging 30--40 cm . Siberia's arid climate contributes to the freezing of the soil and the formation o f permafrost. Over six million square kilometers of Siberian territory are under permafrost , which in northern areas reaches a depth of 200-500 m . This permafrost is one of the majo r obstacles to expansion into Siberia and to the completion of construction projects of any siz e and scope . The majority of Siberian rivers, including the most voluminous (the Ob-Irtysh system , and the Yenisey and Lena), empty into the Arctic basin (Figure 4 .1) . Rivers are blocked with ice from five months a year in the South to eight months a year in the North, which limit s navigation on the extensive river systems . Nevertheless, due to their immense volume (the y account for over fifty percent of the former USSR's hydroelectric potential), Siberian river s play a significant role in the Russian economy . The soil and plant cover of Siberia varies primarily with latitude, forming sharpl y defined zones from north to south : arctic desert; tundra; forested tundra ; taiga; and, in 1 southern west Siberia and southeastern Chita province, forested steppe and steppe . Siberia's most typical landscape is the taiga, with dense, pine-dominated forests and more open, larch - dominated conifer forests being most common in the western and eastern portions . respectively . Except in the southernmost steppe regions, soils are generally poor . Until the end of the sixteenth century the population of Siberia was quite sparse, but th e following century saw the rapid settlement of its interior regions by Russians . Tomsk wa s settled in 1604, Krasnoyarsk in 1628, and Yakutsk in 1632 . Expansion into Siberia wa s characterized by three factors : speed, due to the abundance of rivers made accessible by th e virtual absence of resistance from indigenous peoples ; relatively low financial costs ; and the stability and cohesion of settled lands . The stream of settlers grew after the emancipation of serfs in 1861 and especiall y following the construction in 1891-1905 of the Trans-Siberian railroad . As a result of the expansion of Russians into Siberia, indigenous peoples were pushed away from their traditiona l places of residence, and their ancient ways of life suffered irreparable damage . In economic terms native Siberian peoples (about four percent of the total population) mainly belong to on e of two groups: agrarian cattle-raisers and farmers (most Yakuts, Buryats, Tuvans, and othe r peoples of Southern Siberia), and the so-called "small peoples" of the North, who engage i n deer-raising, hunting, and fishing . The northern peoples are related in the west to th e Laplanders of northern Europe, and in the east to the Inuits and Aleuts of North America . The Tuvans and Yakuts are Turkic, and the Buryats are closely related to the people of Mongolia . Some of the interior indigenous groups, such as the Nenets, belong to the Uralo-Altai c linguistic family . Natural Resources Developmen t Siberia is famed for its wealth of natural resources, from the oil fields of Tyumen to the gold mines of Kolyma . Although the harsh climate and sheer enormity of the Siberian territor y present natural barriers to development, industry was well developed in the Urals in Tsaris t times, and Soviet planners have subsequently built many important industrial centers throughout Siberia .