<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal>The first book to examine the true environmental cost of Stalin’s policies, <I>Stalin’s Legacy</I> uncovers the lasting damage caused by the hubris of the undisputed leader of the Soviet Union who regarded nature as an enemy that could be overcome by the might of Soviet technology and the brute force of slave labor. Author Struan Stevenson has been allowed unprecedented access to the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan to reveal a grim catalog of environmental catastrophes caused by the diversion of major rivers, the building of vast networks of canals, and Soviet nuclear and biological weapons programs. From the Semipalatinsk region of east Kazakhstan, where more than 600 nuclear tests were carried out between 1949 and 1990, to the Aral Sea, the desiccation of which has reduced what was the world’s fourth largest inland body of water to half the size it was just 50 years ago, he talks with those whose lives continue to be cruelly affected by this terrible legacy. Despite almost insurmountable challenges, however, the book conveys a strong message of hope as both local and international organizations face up to the effects of disastrous Soviet policies.