Well, before that, there was no environmentalism at the time in Siberia. At least from talks with my historian friend (who worked in Novosibirsk Institute of Hi

Well, before that, there was no environmentalism at the time in Siberia. At least from talks with my historian friend (who worked in Novosibirsk Institute of History of academy of science), he never mentioned any such cases or that this was on any agenda. Second, industrialization on large scale in Siberia happened first since 1905 after the Trans-Siberian railway was built, and later only in WWII in the '40s, when factories from the Western part were evacuated. In '30s, the majority of population were villagers, and for them the biggest concern in late '20s were taxes, in '30s it was the dysfunctional state farms that everyone were forced into, and famine. And industrialization for them was a new American tractor that produced in a licensed factory, and some factory in the district capital, where some people could go become low-skilled workers. IDK, if it tells about rural or urban areas -- but cities were small (Novosibirsk that has 1.6M now, had just 120-150K then) to make a factory or coal heating in individual houses a problem. Environmentalism in the USSR came to agenda probably in the 70s, but became openly discussed after 1987 with Glasnot policy, when lots of such ideas started penetrating from other countries.