The subject of this essay is the growing body of historical scholarship on Russian and Soviet environmental history produced in recent decades by environmental historians in the west. These scholars are taking advantage of the extraodrinarily rich material for research offered by the interaction over time between human societies and the natural world of which they are a part in this section of the globe. Of especial interest is the work of a younger generation of western scholars. All western environmental historians of Russia and the Soviet Union have benefitted greatly from their interaction with Russian scholars
