Word: soviet
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...burn the region. Nearly two-thirds of the region lies atop permafrost. Climate models estimate that even a small temperature rise globally would be exaggerated in the north, and could melt the upper parts of the permafrost, turning huge areas of Siberia into mush and toppling the thousands of Soviet-era buildings erected on stilts sunk into the ice. The price for ridding Siberia of ugly Stalinist architecture, however, would be that the meltdown would release enormous amounts of methane, exacerbating climate change...
...perverse genius of the Soviet system was its ability to maximize the problems associated with modern industrial societies without producing many of the benefits. Perhaps never has so vast a territory been so despoiled so rapidly. Now the question is whether the capitalism of the new Russia will save Siberia and its reeling ecosystems or finish them off. The stakes could not be higher, involving the future of earth's grandest northern landscape and the political stability of a nuclear superpower...
Forests, however, are just one item in Siberia's bulging portfolio of natural resources. Soviet exploitation managed to poison and degrade 35,000 sq. mi. of the vast republic, but that only scratched the surface of its mineral wealth. Bob Logan, an economist at the University of Alaska, has made trips to Yakutia to study the region's economic prospects, which he describes as "staggering." As much as 20% of the territory is known to have oil and gas deposits that could make it the Saudi Arabia of the north. The area is one of the world's leading sources...
...Things have been quiet recently in Georgia, but there are a lot of problems," saysMoscow bureau chief John Kohan. "The economy has broken down, and Shevardnadze is struggling to establish a strong central authority." The bombing, he adds, illustrates the difficulty of theformer Soviet foreign minister'scurrent job. "In some ways it's been harder for Shevardnadze to bring peace to his own country than it was to help end the Cold...
DIED. HOWARD KOCH, 93, screenwriter; in Woodstock, New York. A lawyer, Koch wrote radio plays for Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre, notably 1938's panic-provoking War of the Worlds broadcast. His fine craft illuminated film scripts for Casablanca (1942), Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) and-notoriously-the Soviet-friendly Mission to Moscow in 1943. Though not a communist, Koch was blacklisted in the 1950s. He outlived his vilifiers, enduring with grace and grit worthy of Bogart's Rick...