The "decade of the environment" in the u.s.s.R

The decade of the 1970's was for the U.S.S.R, as for the United States, a period of increased awareness of environmental deterioration. In response, new laws were passed, pollution control funding was increased, and natural resource conservation was heavily stressed. Despite such good intentions, the cumulative effects of new technologies, inadequate budgets and enforcement, the primacy of production goals, and various institutional impediments resulted in an uneven and in some places inadequate level of environmental enhancement.