One of the main memes of building communism in the USSR was the conquest of nature. Most of the territory of the USSR was located in areas of risky agriculture. The party's ability to make them favorable to agriculture was hailed as one of the proofs of the progressiveness of socialism.
Bacchanalia of flooding
Various plans for influencing the climate by constructing huge dams, delaying and deflecting water flows in the right direction, creating gigantic reservoirs that soften the climate, were expressed back in the 19th century. The Soviet government announced that nothing was impossible for it. Many of these projects were taken into service, some more were added.
Hydropower construction was considered key in Soviet plans for transforming nature. Blocking large rivers allowed not only to get a lot of cheap electricity, but also to create huge reservoirs that can be used to water arid areas. True, one would have to build a lot of irrigation canals and flood many territories that are already safely used in the economy, and in addition to resettle many people from them. But the communists did not consider it a loss when it came to building a bright future.
Gigantomania in the construction of reservoirs began even before the Great Patriotic War. Then, when blocking the Volga near Rybinsk, two projects were considered. A higher dam allowed a little more energy to be obtained, but it flooded three times more populated area and agricultural land than just a slightly lower one. But the leadership of the USSR accepted the project of the large Rybinsk Sea, not stopping before the destruction of entire cities. Their ruins to this day flaunt over the surface of the largest man-made reservoir in Europe at that time.
After the war, the flood bacchanalia continued. The plan for the fourth five-year plan (1946-1950) included projects for starting the construction of cascades of waterworks along the Volga and Dnieper, as well as a huge reservoir on the Don in connection with the construction of the Volga-Don shipping canal. The Tsimlyansk Sea, which emerged in 1952, flooded 2,636 square kilometers of prime farmland. But, in the opinion of the country's leadership, it was possible to send water to irrigate the arid Kalmyk steppes (which was never implemented).
In 1950, the construction of the Kakhovska hydroelectric power station began on the lower Dnieper. The resulting Kakhovskoe Sea made it possible to create a network of irrigation canals in Northern Tavria and the Crimea. However, more than 2000 sq. Km of already existing arable land and meadows went under water. According to the plan of the fifth five-year plan (1951-1955), adopted under Stalin, the construction of the Volga hydroelectric complex began. It led to the formation of the Kuibyshev reservoir - the largest in area in Eurasia.
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Scientists already in the 50s began to notice the influence of artificial seas (in particular, the Rybinsk one) on the climate of the surrounding territories. The creation of gigantic reservoirs did not stop with the death of Stalin. On the contrary, Khrushchev favored colossal, costly hydropower projects.
Siberian sea
The popular brochure "The Future of Electrification of the USSR", published in 1954 based on projects developed by scientists back in Stalin's time, mentions several grandiose ideas that were supposed to be implemented in the near future. One of them is the overlap of the Ob by a dam near Salekhard. As a result, Western Siberia would be covered by the sea with an area of several hundred thousand square kilometers.
As noted then in many publications, the West Siberian Sea was supposed to soften the harsh winters in Siberia, move the permafrost border several hundred kilometers to the north and open millions of hectares for agriculture. In addition, it was planned to transfer part of the flow from this sea through the Turgai Hollow to the Aral Sea basin and irrigate the deserts of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
In 1956, the commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences gave a positive expert opinion on the project. In 1958, Khrushchev granted the Ministry of Power Plants the right to independently make decisions on the construction of new hydroelectric power plants. However, in 1960, the first large oil and gas fields were found in the Tyumen region. And some departmental interests collide with others. Oil and gas workers not only defeated the hydropower, but also prevented construction, which could unpredictably affect the climate of the entire planet. In 1963, Gosplan makes the final choice in favor of the oil and gas industry.
Main Turkmen canal
Let's go back a little. In 1948, Stalin signed a plan to create eight transcontinental forest belts in the steppe and semi-desert zones of the USSR. Their purpose was to prevent dust storms and reduce the risk of farming in arid regions, ensuring regular high yields there. Propaganda called it "The Great Stalinist Plan for Transforming the Nature of the USSR." Experts still note that the plan of protective forest belts was real and useful. However, after 1953, its implementation was suspended.
But even during Stalin's lifetime, the concept of "Stalin's plan for transforming nature" included other, less real projects. One of them was the Main Turkmen Canal. It had to pass from the lower reaches of the Amu Darya along its ancient dry channel Uzboy through the Karakum Desert for 1200 km to the Caspian Sea. On the way, it was planned to build reservoirs. It was expected that the canal would allow watering more than a million hectares for cotton farming, more than 7 million hectares for pastures and 5,000 square kilometers for forests - and all this is in the heart of the Karakum Desert!
The canal itself had to be navigable. Construction began in accordance with the decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the USSR Council of Ministers of September 11, 1950. In 1954, it was discontinued in favor of a less ambitious project of a purely irrigation Karakum canal, which ran through the southern regions of Turkmenistan.
Dam across the Bering Strait
The same brochure "The Future of Electrification of the USSR" also mentioned the plan to block the Bering Strait by a dam! There is a current from the Pacific to the Arctic Ocean. It was assumed that the hydroelectric power station would be able to use the energy of this flow for the industrial development of Chukotka. But not only that. According to the experts of the time, the Bering Dam would create conditions for a more significant influx of warm waters into the Arctic through the Gulf Stream! The Arctic Ocean would be free of ice, and winters in the polar tundra would be as warm as in Norway! It was neither more nor less, a global warming project. True, for its implementation, the consent of the United States was required.
Even a technical justification was prepared. It was only supposed to detonate atomic charges with a total capacity of several hundred megatons … Even if we ignore the consequences of such an unusual operation, modern experts believe that the closure of the Bering Strait would not lead to warming, but, on the contrary, to a new great glaciation.