A little corner of freedom

While researching Russia's historical efforts to protect nature, the author unearthed a trail of documents that raised fundamental questions about the Soviet political system. These documents attested to the survival of a critical-minded, scientist-led movement through the Stalin years and beyond. Using information from the documents, it appeared that within scientific societies alternative visions for land use, resource exploitation, habitat protection and development were sustained. In contrast to known Soviet practices, these scientific societies prided themselves on their traditions of free elections, foreign contacts and a pre-revolutionary heritage.