One aspect of Cold War competition between the United States and the Soviet Union involved sparring over a range of environmental issues. Soviet political leaders claimed to manage resources in the name of the proletariat, whereas American officials spoke about the inviolability of private property. American specialists referred to great success in creating the legal framework to combat pollution; Soviet policy makers and scientists followed with the passage of statutes to demonstrate that the nation cared more about the citizen and the environment than the U.S. government did. Most observers agree that the United States won this Cold War battle owing to the successful implementation of the National Environmental Protection Act (1969), together with a series of clean air acts dating to 1955; the Clean Water Act (1972); and a variety of other legislative, juridical, and voluntary measures. Soviet policies and practices led to environmental degradation on a scale that may be exceeded only by current practices in China. The impacts on the environment and public health will continue to be felt for decades to come.

The Soviet environmental legacy is fields of toxic waste that continue to leak into the groundwater and costly, massive, failed white elephants – nature transformation projects and huge inefficient factories – that dominate the landscape. In some regions, pollution led to the formation of extensive tracts of land devoid of trees, where only the hardiest of grasses survive, what might be called industrial deserts.