Powerful indictment of the policies and practices of the former USSR, under which enormous environmental damage was wreaked. 103 cities, with a total population of 70 million people, suffer from atmospheric pollution that exceeds safe levels by a factor of five or more; 75 per cent of surface water is contaminated by one or more pollutants, and great rivers such as the Volga and the Don have been reduced to chemical sewers; two-thirds of the Aral Sea has become an arid, sterile desert and the ecosystems of the Black and Caspian Seas may have been damaged beyond repair.