[MIM comments: Blind anti-communism rooted in the middle-class nature of U.$. politics causes many to think that China under Mao was as bad as capitalism in the West on the environment. Having also adopted the Western view of socialism without serious study, many budding environmentalists do not distinguish between what was happening in the Soviet bloc before it collapsed and what happened under Mao in China. The truth is that Chinese communists under Mao's leadership attacked Soviet renegades Khruschev and Brezhnev on the subject of the environment. The Soviet Union under Khruschev became a capitalist country, with the right to make profit enshrined in the Constitution. Below we reprint an excerpt from the most authoritative publication of the Communist Party of China, 1976.] Excerpt from "The Brezhnev Renegade Clique Damages Soviet Agriculture" Peking Review, No. 21 May 21, 1976 [ITALICS] In the vast countryside of the Soviet Union, land resources have been seriously damaged, crops have declined and the peasants' living standards are going from bad to worse. These are inevitable evil results of the all-round restoration of capitalism in the country by the Soviet revisionist renegade clique, which has stopped at nothing to grab maximum profits in the rural areas. The following two articles expose how the clique has brought this about. [END ITALICS] Land resources seriously spoiled After usurping political power the Khruschov-Brezhnev clique has thrown Soviet agricultural production into an increasingly grave crisis. To extricate itself from the predicament in grain production, this clique has resorted to land reclamation. Vast areas of wasteland were opened up in Kazakhstan, Siberia, the Urals, areas along the Volga River and some regions in north Caucasus. Brezhnev has on many occasions bragged about the "results" of land reclamation in Kazakhstan, alleging that is has "rejuvenated" Kazakhstan and brought about "radical changes in economy, culture and the complexion of this vast region." But facts are the very reverse. The living cover in the steppe of the newly reclaimed areas has been gravely damaged as a result of the Soviet revisionists' policy of land reclamation, which is aimed at grabbing grain for the year without paying attention to capital construction on the farms. This is a capitalist method of management, namely, draining a pond to catch all the fish. Dust storms The Soviet journal ITALICS Agricultural Economy END ITALICS admitted that dust storms have been caused "mainly by the shortage of ordinary and field-protecting forests and by the unsatisfactory conditions and distribution of existing shelter belts." Another Soviet journal ITALICS Our Contemporary END ITALICS disclosed in its 12th issue last year that dust storms occur "more frequently indeed" in the country and have almost become "ordinary phenomena." Beginning from 1969, nearly every spring there has been wind erosion," it added. The Soviet press reported that two dust storms in the spring of 1960 swept the vast southern part of the great Russian plain and more than 4 million hectares of spring crops in reclaimed areas were affected. In 1963 dust storms affected a larger area than in 1960. The affected cultivated land in the reclaimed areas in Kazakhstan came to 20 million hectares. A dust storm in 1969 destroyed in a few days all the wheat on 820,000 hectares in Krasnodar, Stavropol and Rostov. The Soviet publication ITALIC Moscow END ITALICS admitted: "Dust storms sweep over all reclaimed land in Kazakhstan every year." The Brezhnev clique's militarization of the national economy has resulted in a shortage of funds for capital construction of farmland. Its management policy of "profit comes first" has led the leading members of collective and state farms to confine their attention to immediate interests at the expense of farmland protection. Water erosion Construction of new water conservancy projects has become sluggish in recent years while existing establishments have been rapidly out of commission owing to lack of maintenance. According to obviously doctored data released by official Soviet quarters, every year, the newly increased irrigated acreage accounted for only 0.4 percent of the total arable land of the country, while the rejected irrigated land was equal to one-sixth of the increase. Woods have been felled at random in many places. As a result, soil erosion has become more serious year after year. The journal ITALIC Agricultural Economy ITALICS END in its 8th issue last year reported that in Azerbaijan alone, "48 million tons of fertile soil are washed away every year. . . 3.3. million hectares of land are eroded. It is not difficult to conceive what great losses erosion has brought to the national economy in Azerbaijan." Take the Don River basin in the Russian Federative Republic. "In Rostov, water erosion brings longer and more serious damage than wind erosion," according to a report by ITALICS Our Contemporary END ITALICS in its 12th issue last year. "The arable land decreases by 8,000 hectares every year in the Don River basin as a result of the washing away of soil" and "the losses caused by water loss and soil erosion in the Don River basin amount to 40 million rubles every year," it noted. The journal ITALICS Moscow END ITALICS also revealed that "more and more ravines have appeared" owing to water erosion, and that "in the Ukraine about one million hectares of land are criss-crossed with many ravines. In the Russian central black-soil belt, the average length of ravines per square kilometre is 580 metres and, in Kursk and Orel Regions, 700 metres." Land turning alkaline Since the Soviet revisionist renegade clique usurped political power, vast tracts of fertile Soviet land have become barren. ITALICS Agricultural Economy END in its 8th issue of 1975 disclosed that "owing to bad management fertile land in some areas is undergoing a process of erosion, becoming alkaline or turning in to swamp land again." The journal also reported that in the Republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia there were 9.6 million hectares of swamp, alkaline, wasted and erosive land shrubbery in 1973, constituting 52 percent of the total land area. It is reported that in Volgograd of the Russian Federative Republic erosive and alkaline land accounts for over 80 percent of the arable land. According to the fifth issue of ITALIC Agricultural Economy END ITALICS last year, in Vietebsk Region of Byelorussia 361,000 hectares of arable land were overgrown with shrubs, constituting 20 percent of the total arable land. In a state farm of this region, "all the arable land has become wild, swampy and full of shrubs and rocks." The ITALICS Moscow END ITALICS revealed that one-third of the farmland in the Ukraine has turned poor as a result of water erosion. Thirty-one thousand hectares of fertile land in Rostov turned barren in the decade of 1961-70. Arable land shrinking The acreage of Soviet arable and grazing land decreases year after year as more and more farmland lies waste. The Soviet press has to admit that "owing to various causes, arable land in some areas has kept shrinking." Because of "neglect and violating elementary rules of utilization, large stretches of natural grazing land and grassland are covered with shrubs, dunes and swamps." ITALICS Agricultural Economy ITALICS END disclosed in its 8th issue last year that "arable land in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia decreased by 961,900 hectares or 9.8 percent in 1973 as compared with 1950; and cultivated land by 676,400 hectares, or 22 percent. In this respect, the problem in Georgia is more serious. In the same period, its cultivated land contracted by 486,400 hectares, or 41.1 percent." The damage done to land resources affects grain production. It is precisely in Kazakhstan where Brezhnev once took charge of land reclamation, that harvests have fallen for three years running since 1972 and grain output in 1975 was down 60 percent compared with 1972.