Nature protection activity in the western region of the Ukrainian SSR: on the exampleof Ivano-Frankivsk region (the 1960s - 1980s)

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to characterize the funding mechanism and entire set of measures, as well as accumulated experience of the public in the field of nature protection and a rational use of natural resources Ivano-Frankivsk region of the western region of the Ukrainian SSR, based on archival materials and researches. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, objectivity, and systematicity. When conducting the research, general scientific (analysis and synthesis, abstraction) and specifically scientific methods were used. The scientific novelty consists in the fact that based on the study of the perspective plans for the economy development in Ivano-Frankivsk region, the main resolutions of the communist party and the government, the relevant orders of the regional executive committee, the funding mechanism and a set of activities carried out by the public and relevant organizations for nature protection were revealed: improvement of the protected area, an effective use land, construction of sewage treatment plants, dust and gas treatment plants, establishment of water protection zones, bank strips of small rivers, improvement of forestry and hunting management. The Conclusions. Interdepartmental Council for Environmental Protection under the Regional Executive Committee, Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Organization of the Ukrainian Society for Nature Protection, Regional Inspectorate for Nature Protection, a voluntary association of hunters and fishermen, posts of public control, pedagogical teams of secondary schools, squads of “blue” guards, “green” patrols carried out a constant control over industrial enterprises, organizations, collective farms, state farms for the implementation of complex measures, which had a positive effect on improving the ecological situation. Similar measures, to one degree or another, were carried out in all regions of the republic and the western region of the Ukrainian SSR, with the difference that the Carpathian Mountains added some features to Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Transcarpathian and Chernivtsi regions. Along with this, in the matter of nature protection and rational use of natural resources in Ivano-Frankivsk, as well as in other regions, there were significant shortcomings. In the USSR nature protection was declared a national and national issue, and significant success in this matter was officially declared. The Soviet propaganda tried to create the illusion that the party and the government care about the protection of the environment and the health of citizens. However, the priority tasks remained the development of the region’s heavy industry, a maximum use of natural and human resources for the country’s military and industrial complex.