TheGreat Plan for the Transformation of Nature, also known asStalin's plan for the transformation of nature, was proposed byJoseph Stalin in theSoviet Union in the second half of the 1940s, forland development, agricultural practices and water projects to improve agriculture in the nation. Itspropagandamotto andcatchphrase was "the great transformation of nature" (великое преобразование природы,velikoye preobrazovaniye prirody).[1]
The plan was outlined in the Decree of theUSSR Council of Ministers andAll-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)Central Committee of October 20, 1948: "On the plan for planting ofshelterbelts, introduction of grasslandcrop rotation and construction of ponds and reservoirs to ensure high sustainable crop yields insteppe andforest-steppe areas of the European USSR." It was a response to the widespread1946 drought and subsequent 1947 famine, which led to estimated deaths of 500,000–1 million people.[2]
A network ofirrigation canals was built in thesteppe belt of the southern Soviet Union, and in the deserts ofCentral Asia.
A project was proposed to plant trees in a gigantic network ofshelterbelts or windbreaks (лесополоса,lesopolosa, "forest strip") across thesteppes of the southernSoviet Union, similar towhat had been done in the northern plains of the United States in the 1930s following drought and the extensive damage of theDust Bowl years.[3] The idea was that planting windbreaks around rivers of southern Russia and around collective farms would supposedly stop the drying winds from Central Asia that were thought to have caused the drought. The actions were surrounded by a great deal of propaganda which included a patriotic oratorio, theSong of the Forests, composed byDmitri Shostakovich. The plan was to be overseen by theGlavnoe Upravlenie Polezashchitnogo Lesorazvedeniya (GUPL) ("Main Directorate of Field-Protective Forestry") which came under a scientific technical committee that includedTrofim Lysenko. Lysenko claimed that he was an expert on planting trees in "nests" - where members of the same species helped each other. He planted at high densities and claimed that plants underwent "self-thinning" working together against weeds in the early stages and then some plants would sacrifice themselves for the main plant. He further suggested that an oak seedling at the center would have four seeds around them in a plus pattern. One ecologist and opponent of Lysenko,Vladimir N. Sukachev recorded that by September 1951, 100% of the trees planted using the "nest method" in the Ural territories had died. Although the plan achieved none of its stated goals, some collective farms surrounded by plantations produced better yields due to improved water storage.[4]
The Soviet government launched a number of extensive projects inland improvement,hydroengineering for water control, irrigation and power, and in supporting areas. Planned for completion in 1965, the projects were mostly abandoned after thedeath of Stalin in 1953.
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