What if anything did the USSR do to protect their vast expanses of wild land from exploitation and pollution? Was any effort made to protect Soviet citizens from polluted air and water? The 1970's in the United States saw a general surge in concern for environmental issues broadly - was there ever any analogue in the USSR?
While there’s always more to say on the subject, you might be interested in this previous answer to Do/did Communist regimes (like Cuba, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, China) have better environmental track records? from u/kieslowskifan.