Rational Use of Natural Resources in the USSR

Since the 1970s, the idea of rational use of natural resources has become widespread in the USSR. Nature protection and rationalization are becoming one of the most discussed topics in the country: discussions were held on the pages of newspapers and magazines, legislation was changed, the topic was reflected in the public space, in the cinema. This paper is analyzed the discussion of the phenomenon of rationalization among scientists, as well as the application of its ideas on the example of Lake Baikal. The main purpose of the work is to determine what rationalization was for the USSR: a measure aimed at economic growth or at improving the environmental situation in the country, and perhaps rationalization was seen as the possibility of combining these two tasks. This formulation of the question allowed to explore the links that existed between the economy and the environment. In the course of the work, a wide body of sources is used: materials of the journal "Nature", the newspapers "Izvestia" and "Literaturnaya Gazeta", individual publications of scientists, as well as archival documents of the Russian State Archive of Economics (RGAE). Based on the analysis of sources, the following conclusions were made: the phenomenon of rationalization was largely due to the decline in economic development. The depletion of resource bases, which played an important role in the extensive model of economic development, raised the question of finding a solution to the problem that, on the one hand, would increase economic growth, and on the other, reduce the anthropogenic impact on nature. It was in rationalization that saw the possibility of combining these tasks. In practice, such a system "worked" not perfectly, rational use of natural resources was not always possible, since the ambitions of the Soviet authorities often contradicted environmental decisions.