Environmental protection activities in the Komi ASSR in the 1940s and 1950s: from resource use to conservation and restoration

In light of the implementation of the national project "Environmental Well-being" in Russia starting in 2025, as well as the return to discussions in 2025 of a Soviet-era project concerning the diversion of the flows of northern and Siberian rivers, the historical experience of academic science's participation in the country's and regions' environmental protection activities takes on special significance. The aim of this work is to analyze and summarize the activities of the scholars from the Komi branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which contributed to the formation of a scientific and practical direction in environmental protection in the mid – 1940s to 1950s. The object of study is the problems of organization and the main directions of environmental protection activities in the regions of the USSR (using the example of the Komi ASSR). The subject of research includes the areas of work, forms, methods, and results of the activities of the scholars from the Komi branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the field of nature conservation. The implementation of the main methodological principles was achieved through the application of methodological techniques: comparative-historical, specific and logical analysis, methods of periodization and prospectivity. All political, cultural, scientific-technical events are revealed in historical sequence against the backdrop of general history. Analysis of documents from the Scientific Archive of the Komi Scientific Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and published sources has shown that during the 1940s–1950s, the scientific works of the scholars from the Komi branch of the Academy of Sciences predominantly focused on topics related to the study of the characteristics of the natural resources of Komi and the impact of economic activities on the republic's nature: "Forests of the Komi ASSR, their use and restoration," "Wildlife of the Komi ASSR, its changes under human influence and ways of rational development of hunting economy in the republic," "Fish resources of the Komi ASSR and ways of their most rational use," "Kama-Vychegda-Pechora water management complex," among others. The key results of the institution's work included: a systemic analysis of the productive forces of the Komi ASSR, the setting of environmental protection problems and the initial stage of their resolution, and a comprehensive analysis of the impact on the economy and nature of the region of the grand project for diverting northern rivers into the Caspian Sea basin. Scholars in the 1940s–1950s made a significant contribution to the identification of regional environmental protection problems and laid the groundwork for subsequent research and management decisions in the field of nature conservation.