TECHNOLOGY, SOCIETY, ENVIRONMENT 5/2003 19 Overview of Environmental Problems in North-West Russia OLEG A. ANDREEV* AND MATS-OLOV OLSSON** 1. SOME BASIC FACTS ABOUT Oblast are centers for mechanical engi- NORTH-WEST RUSSIA neering, electro-technical and construc- tion, for transport and agriculture. It has The north-west of Russia occupies 1.7 a well-developed fishing industry, ferrous thousand sq. km and it has a population and non-ferrous metallurgy, sea- of 14 million people. The area includes transport, and electric power production. two large administrative regions; the Reindeer-breeding is also of some impor- North Economic Region (the Ark- tance in Murmansk Oblast. Arkhangelsk hangelsk, Vologda, and Murmansk Oblast is a center for the forest, fishing oblasts, the Karelia and Komi republics) and chemical industries; there is also a and the North-West Economic Region space-rocket launching site in Plesetsk. (Saint-Petersburg city, the Leningrad, Vologda Oblast has a prominent ferrous Kaliningrad, Pskov, and Novgorod metalurgical industry, forest industry and oblasts). The area borders on Norway, agriculture. In the Novgorod and Pskov Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Byelorussia. oblasts there are large-scale mechanical Inside Russia it borders on the Tver, engineering, electro-technical, chemical Jaroslavl, Kostroma, Kirov, Perm, and and woodworking enterprises. Forestry, Tjumen oblasts. The area is surrounded by pulp and paper, iron-ore and fishing are the Barents Sea, the White Sea, the Kara key industries in the Republic of Karelia. Sea and the Baltic Sea. In the Komi Republic there are rich re- serves of timber, bituminous coal, oil, gas The North and the North-West Economic and other minerals. Due to the intensive Regions together form the North-West economic exploitation the environmental Federal Okrug, an area of Russia that situation in north-west Russia is ex- means a lot to the country’s economy. The tremely severe. City of Saint-Petersburg and Leningrad * Oleg A. Andreev, PhD, Barents Centre for Social Research, Murmansk, Russia. Email: [email protected]. ** Mats-Olov Olsson, MA, Centre for Regional Science, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden. Email: [email protected]. 20 TECHNOLOGY, SOCIETY, ENVIRONMENT 5/2003 The Russian Federation Murmansk Republic of Oblast Karelia Arkhangelsk Kaliningrad Leningrad Oblast Oblast Oblast Nenets Autonomous Okrug Pskov Oblast Novgorod Oblast Vologda The Komi Oblast Republic 2. STAGES IN THE ECONOMIC and the Uchta oilfield and oil refinery DEVELOPMENT OF THE RUSSIAN (1930–1934) in the Komi Republic. An intensive forest exploitation was initiated NORTH-WEST in Arkhangelsk Oblast, the Karelian and Komi Republics. The Kondopoga Pulp and In 1920, the Bolsheviks adopted the Paper Mill (1929) and the Segezha Pulp GOELRO Plan (state governed electrifica- and Paper Mill (1936) were constructed tion of the Soviet Union) proposed by in the Karelian Republic, and in Ark- Vladimir Lenin as the basis for an exten- hangelsk Oblast the Archangelsk Pulp and sive economic development of the newly Paper Mill (1940) was built. Huge state established Soviet Union. In accordance fishing companies were established in the with this plan the Volkhov and Svir’ Hy- Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Leningrad dro Power stations and the Volkhov Alu- oblasts. However, in this period several minum Plant were constructed in Lenin- nature preservation areas were also estab- grad Oblast and in the City of Leningrad lished, like the Lapland (1930) and the the Kirovsky and the Izhorsky plants were Kandalaksha (1932) nature reserves in re-constructed. the Kola Peninsula, the Kniazitsky za- kaznik in Pskov Oblast. Somewhat later, in the 1930’s, Stalin’s plan for the industrialization and In the 1940’s, during the Second World collectivization of the Soviet Union was War, the Soviet industry and agriculture adopted. In accordance with this plan were completely destroyed. Military massive investments were made in heavy wastes and deposits of chemical, biologi- industry in Russia’s north-west, such as cal and conventional weapons were the the Niva and Nizhne-Tuloma Hydro main legacy of the war for the Russian Power Stations (1934, 1937), the Seve- people. ronickel plant (1939), the Apatite Fertil- izer Refining Complex (1929) in the Kola The period from the 1950’s to the 1970’s Peninsula, the construction of the White saw a reconstruction of the Soviet indus- Sea-Baltic Canal (1933), the establish- try and the beginning and entrenchment ment of the Vorkuta Coal Mines (1931), of the Cold War. In the Kola Peninsula, TECHNOLOGY, SOCIETY, ENVIRONMENT 5/2003 21 the Kandalaksha Aluminum Plant (1951), critical ecological situation and about the Olenegorsk (1955) and Kovdor ore 300 areas in which the environment was refining enterprises (1962), the Pechenga characterized as unfavorable for living. nickel plant (1946, 1965), the Paz, The situation is still especially problem- Kovda and Verkhne-Tuloma Hydro Power atic in the north of Russia. The most de- Stations (1951–1965) were all con- graded regions from the environmental structed in this period. In the Karelian point of view are the Kola Peninsula, the republic the Nadvoizy Aluminum Plant Jamal Peninsula, the Ladoga Lake, and (1954), and in Vologda Oblast the the territories around Norilsk, Ark- Sherepovets Steel Metallurgical Plant hangelsk, and Saint-Petersburg [5:132- (1948–1955) were established. Some- 133]. what later the Syktyvkar Pulp and Paper Mill (1960) was constructed in the Komi The Kola Peninsula is one of the ecologi- Republic, and in Arkhangelsk Oblast the cal disaster areas. Here the environment Solombala and Kotlas Pulp and Paper has been gradually destroyed since the Complexes (1961) were built. The Kola end of the 1930’s, with an intensive deg- (1973, 1975) and Leningrad nuclear radation taking place during the 1960’s power stations were also constructed to- and the 1970’s. Several well-known pol- wards the end of this period [7:704-731]. luting industrial centers were established in Murmansk Oblast. The fishing industry The military also engaged heavily in con- in Murmansk, the apatite extraction in struction activities during this period. For Kirovsk and Apatity, the non-ferrous met- instance, the nuclear testing site on No- allurgy in Nikel and Zapoljarny, the iron- vaya Zemlya and the Plesetsk military ore extraction in Olenegorsk and Kovdor, space site (1960) were established in the aluminum production in Kandalaksha, Arkhangelsk Oblast. Nuclear submarines and the mining for rare metals in Revda for the Soviet Northern Fleet were built are the most significant in this respect. at the naval shipbuilding enterprises Most of the industrial centers in the re- “Zvezdochka” and “Sevmashpredpriatie” gion are surrounded by belts of technoge- that was set up in Severodvinsk, Ark- nous deserts with no vegetation. This hangelsk Oblast (1946, 1954). Ship- wasteland occupies a large area around repairing enterprises were established in the “Pechenganickel” plant (450–500 sq. Murmansk, Poliarny, and Rosliakovo. km) and the “Severonickel” plant (300– Nuclear icebreakers were acquired 350 sq. km). Here the annual sulphur (1960) by the Murmansk Shipping Com- fall-out per sq. km is about 20–25 tons, pany in the Kola Peninsula. the non-ferrous metals fall-out is about 5– 6 tons per sq. km [1:8; 3:205; 9:6]. 3. THE OUTCOME OF ECONOMIC One of the difficult international problems DEVELOPMENT: ENVIRONMENTAL facing regional governments in north-west Russia is the atmospheric transfer of pol- DEGRADATION luting substances across the national bor- der. As a result of the sulphureous gas At the end of 1991, there were seventeen pollution emitted by the “Pechengan- so-called ecological disaster areas on the ickel” and the “Severonickel” plants territory of the Soviet Union [2:145]. many lakes have been oxidized and the There were more than 100 areas with a vegetation is dying on Norwegian and 22 TECHNOLOGY, SOCIETY, ENVIRONMENT 5/2003 Finnish territory. However, according to of northern Russia. The number of cars is the Murmansk hydro-meteorological cen- increasing; today emissions from cars ac- ter at the Russian-Norwegian border post count for 50 percent of the air pollution. Borisoglebsk, polluting substances are In addition there is the pollution from mostly transported from the west and ninety-two boiler-houses and heat and north-west to the east and south-east, power plants in Murmansk. Until recently rather than in the other direction, 24 % there were no sewage treatment facilities, compared to 16 % [4:12]. Scientists are and the facilities constructed during the seriously concerned about the transport of last years are already obsoleted. This polluting substances to the Arctic area. means that the pollution of the Kola Gulf According to observations made by Mur- is continuing. The fishing and transport mansk hydro-meteorological center on the fleets as well as the military vessels of the scientific icebreaker “Otto Schmidt” the Northern Fleet also contribute to this pol- volume of sulphureous gas and sulphur lution. that is transported from the countries of western Europe and the USA to the Arc- The bio-resources of the Barents Sea, the tic basin is twice as large as the volumes White Sea and the Norwegian Sea are originating from the territory of the for- close to disaster. Biological deformation mer Soviet Union [4:12]. of the marine ecosystem is a consequence of unrestrained fishing. Fish resources Air pollution from stationary sources in have been depleted due to the fishing the Northern Region were down by 17.5 practices of the Soviet Union, Norway percent in 1993 compared to 1988. At and other countries. Another serious the same time the region’s share of the problem is the pollution of the northern total air pollution in the Russian Federa- seas that is transported with the Golf tion increased from 8.8 to 11.1 percent, Stream. Foreign ships as well as vessels which indicates that the rate of fall-out belonging to the Russian Northern Fleet reduction in the Northern Region was and various merchant fleets continue to lower than that of other economic re- dispose sewage, scrap and oil wastes in gions.