Accidentally based propaganda. The Soviet Union was one of the...
Baltic Takes@Baltic_Takes
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Oct 29, 2026
~1 min read
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Accidentally based propaganda.
The Soviet Union was one of the world’s very worst polluters, generating far more industrial air pollution per unit of economic output than Western capitalist countries.
1986 was a particularly shameful year for its environmental record, as the Soviets were busy trying to conceal two of the world’s worst ecological disasters that they’d caused at Chernobyl and what was left of the Aral Sea, while also losing its destructive war in Afghanistan.
But while Soviet authorities were virtue signalling their fake concern for the environment by putting up these cutesy posters, people in the occupied Baltic countries were taking matters into their own hands.
1986 was the year that environmental protests erupted across the Baltic countries, successfully leading to a halt of several environmentally-destructive Soviet projects, demonstrating people power on a scale not previously seen under occupation.
Lithuanians prevented offshore oil drilling. Latvians stopped the construction of a dam for the Daugava river, which would have destroyed habitats and communities around it for little gain. The following year, Estonians prevented the expansion of phosphorite mining.
The success of these public protests spurred on the wider independence movements and the Singing Revolution to overthrow Soviet rule.
Irish Unity surely believes in the sovereignty of smaller countries so we’ll just assume they posted this to highlight all that.
There is no other home. That’s exactly right, and that’s why the Soviets had to go.
The Soviet Union was one of the world’s very worst polluters, generating far more industrial air pollution per unit of economic output than Western capitalist countries.
1986 was a particularly shameful year for its environmental record, as the Soviets were busy trying to conceal two of the world’s worst ecological disasters that they’d caused at Chernobyl and what was left of the Aral Sea, while also losing its destructive war in Afghanistan.
But while Soviet authorities were virtue signalling their fake concern for the environment by putting up these cutesy posters, people in the occupied Baltic countries were taking matters into their own hands.
1986 was the year that environmental protests erupted across the Baltic countries, successfully leading to a halt of several environmentally-destructive Soviet projects, demonstrating people power on a scale not previously seen under occupation.
Lithuanians prevented offshore oil drilling. Latvians stopped the construction of a dam for the Daugava river, which would have destroyed habitats and communities around it for little gain. The following year, Estonians prevented the expansion of phosphorite mining.
The success of these public protests spurred on the wider independence movements and the Singing Revolution to overthrow Soviet rule.
Irish Unity surely believes in the sovereignty of smaller countries so we’ll just assume they posted this to highlight all that.
There is no other home. That’s exactly right, and that’s why the Soviets had to go.