Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature
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Search complete. 6 mentions across 5 episodes found for "Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature".
Oct 16, 2026
McKinley BreenHOST
But they have an idea.
McKinley BreenHOST
Stalin implements what's called the Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature, not just in this region, but all over the Soviet Union.
McKinley BreenHOST
But for this region, it was a series of massive irrigation canals to transport water all over the place.
McKinley BreenHOST
Some of these were huge.
Sophie PinkhamGUEST
... who opposed his practices and in fact risked their lives in order to try to protect forests.
Sophie PinkhamGUEST
I should add also that under Stalin, there was a sort of a strange duality to it because late in his life, Stalin developed this bizarre plan called Stalin's Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature.
Sophie PinkhamGUEST
It was sort of typical Stalinist grandiosity.
Sophie PinkhamGUEST
And part of that plan was, in fact, to plant large numbers of trees in order to protect Russian land from what were imagined as the uncivilized Central Asian steppe winds, and therefore, thereby help agriculture.
Henry HakamäkiGUEST
It launched great programs.
Henry HakamäkiGUEST
There's discussion of the Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature.
Henry HakamäkiGUEST
which was established in 1948, if I remember correctly, which involved massive, massive programs of planting forest shelter belts across 2 million hectares, which, just for comparison's sake, is an area larger than France, just to protect crops from wind and drought, to restore soil fertility, to increase biodiversity.
Henry HakamäkiGUEST
It was essentially permaculture before permaculture had a name.
26 MINS LATER
Salvatore Engels-Di MauroGUEST
And in fact, it wasn't until really the 1980s where there was the favoring of organic farming practices that was common in the dashas, in the household farms, if you like, or gardens, but then also was becoming favored on an industrial scale to the point in which you had like 4% of farmland becoming dedicated to organic farming.
Salvatore Engels-Di MauroGUEST
So that was the 1980s, but that was a big setback by the 1990s, you know, when everything got privatized.
Salvatore Engels-Di MauroGUEST
And with respect to forests, which is also a huge component in terms of reducing wind erosion and reducing water erosion, we mentioned the shelter belt, part of the Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature under Stalin's administration, and that was huge.
Salvatore Engels-Di MauroGUEST
There was more planting of trees during that period, that short period, compared to 250 years earlier.
Sophie PinkhamGUEST
Um, and in the later Stalinist period when some writers, notably a man called Leonid Leonov, um, began to really protest against the deforestation that had run rampant under Stalin and indeed identified the forest as an essential source of Russian identity, and therefore something that had to be protected.
Sophie PinkhamGUEST
I should add also that under Stalin it was not only a matter of deforestation, there was a sort of a strange duality to it because late in his life, Stalin developed this bizarre plan called Stalin's Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature it was called, with sort of typical Stalinist grandiosity.
Sophie PinkhamGUEST
And part of that plan was in fact to plant large numbers of trees in order to protect Russian land from what were imagined as the uncivilized Central Asian steppe winds, and therefore thereby help agriculture.
Sophie PinkhamGUEST
But there too, there was a very strange ideological element to it because at that point they were relying on this bogus sort of ideologically motivated biological idea that you could even indoctrinate acorns to [laughs]
Sophie PinkhamGUEST
Um, and in the later Stalinist period when some writers, notably a man called Leonid Leonov, um, began to really protest against the deforestation that had run rampant under Stalin and indeed identified the forest as an essential source of Russian identity and therefore something that had to be protected.
Sophie PinkhamGUEST
I should add also that under Stalin it was not only a matter of deforestation, there was a sort of a strange duality to it because late in his life, Stalin developed this bizarre plan called Stalin's Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature it was called with sort of typical Stalinist grandiosity.
Sophie PinkhamGUEST
And part of that plan was in fact to plant large numbers of trees in order to protect Russian land from what were imagined as the uncivilized Central Asian steppe winds, and therefore thereby help agriculture.
Sophie PinkhamGUEST
But there too, there was a very strange ideological element to it because at that point they were relying on this bogus sort of ideologically motivated biological idea that you could even indoctrinate acorns to- [chuckles]