Paul Josephson is Professor of History at Colby College. A specialist in big science and technology in the twentieth century, he is the author of nine books on the history of science and technology and on human-nature interactions. Aleh Cherp is Professor of Environmental Sciences and Policy at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, and Associate Professor at Lund University, Sweden. Ruben Mnatsakanian is a Professor of Environmental Sciences and Policy at the Central European University and head of the Collaborating Centre of the Global Environmental Outlook Project launched by United Nations Environmental Programme. Nicolai Dronin is a Senior Researcher in the Department of Geography at Moscow State University. Dmitry Efremenko is Head of the Sociology Department at the Institute for Scientific Information on Social Sciences at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Vladislav Larin is a senior analyst, writer and researcher for the Russian Academy of Sciences' journal Energy: Economics, Technology, Ecology.

'An Environmental History of Russia is the most important English-language environmental study of the former Soviet Union since Douglas Weiner's Models of Nature and A Little Corner of Freedom. Spanning geography; nature preservation; urban, industrial, and agricultural environments; and policies, practices and pollution, the book provides a broad sweep of a country's environmental heritage little known in holistic terms. This is worthwhile reading.' Martin V. Melosi, University of Houston

• 1. From imperial to socialist nature preservation: environmental protection and resource development in the Russian empire, 1861–1925; 2. Stalinism, industry, agriculture and the environment; 3. The Khrushchev reforms, environmental politics, and the awakening of environmentalism, 1953–64; 4. Developed socialism, environmental degradation and the time of economic 'stagnation', 1964–85; 5. Gorbachev's reforms, the break-up of the USSR and the environmental policies of transition; Conclusion: 6. After the break-up of the USSR: inheriting the environmental legacy.