What Was Once Red Struggles to Go Green : Soviet Ecology: Popular activism is spreading but can’t become fully effective until the nation settles on its new principles and institutions of state.

So far, no one in the Soviet Union has attempted to understand who the Soviet Green activists are, the nature of their organizations or what they aim to accomplish. This despite the fact that the Green movement is spreading in the country.

It is fair to ask, however, what has changed in the 25 years since the Soviet public and press protested a project to construct a hydropower plant on the stretch of the Ob River that reaches into the Polar Circle? Also, how have our adversaries--the Water Conservation Ministry and the Ministry of Power Engineering--changed?

The power projects of these two ministries, in Soviet eyes, wreak environmental havoc, including the flooding of vast territories. Their plans to re-route the flow of rivers are ecologically dangerous. There is even strong evidence that the two ministries killed the Aral Sea. Yet they have become more and more insolent.

Many articles have been written about how the Water Conservation Ministry has committed punishable crimes. The result: It goes on digging canals no one needs.

But the Green movement in the Soviet Union is gaining momentum and reaching new corners of the country. During the Kuzbas miners’ strike, workers sought an end to the construction of the Krapivinsky hydropower plant on the River Tom. Ecological problems are now discussed in the associations and unions of writers, film-makers and artists. No candidate for elective office, no matter how humble, would dare waive ecological issues during the campaign. As a result of public pressure, a special committee on ecology and the utilization of natural resources has been set up in the Supreme Soviet. Also, there is a state committee on nature conservation in the government. The Supreme Soviet previously passed a resolution on measures to protect the country’s ecology .

Still, is a Green party possible in the Soviet Union? In principle, it is. In reality, the test is how to form such a political party. This raises numerous questions that are not easily answered.

A Soviet multiparty system is not far off. But a new party must be more than a group of people united by a common desire. It must offer a positive program. Its point of departure must be the laws already in place and its program should either uphold or refute them.

But what if there is no agreement on what forms property should take in an economy no longer monopolized by the state? What if the nature of the relations between the republics is still undetermined? What if there are no institutions ultimately accountable to the law?

The only type of political party possible in such a situation is one determined to destroy everything first, then to start over again, using its “new” ideas as guideposts.

The Soviet people are sick and tired of “revolutionary” transformation. It is doubtful the country would survive another round of it. Thus, it is necessary to come up with a set of fundamental principles--a law-based state and an appropriate state structure--that enjoys widespread acceptance. Then the debate can begin over how best to put the principles into practice.

The Soviet Union has yet to reach this critical stage. Accordingly, it is hardly possible for a new party, including a Green party, to formulate an alternative program and convince anyone of its need.

In the end, though, an ecological movement, whether in the Soviet Union, the United States, West Germany or any other country can only be international. The ecology of the Soviet Union--one-sixth of the globe’s surface and 40,000 kilometers of coastline--cannot be our only concern.

The Soviet Greens may not be well organized, but they understand this.