In the USSR, the first warnings concerning the impact of industrialization on natural resources came from within the communist system. These warnings appeared as of the 1950s, launched by the planners and scientists who were heavily involved in economic development programs. These experts formed a network and their ideas circulated, but their influence remained limited until the political upheaval set off by Mikhail Gorbatchev. The article shows that these bureaucratic origins continued to mark the environmental heritage of post-Soviet space in spite of the brief parenthesis of the Gorbatchevian opening on both the society and the world.