ИСТИНА

Lands, unsuitable for agriculture, cover a great part of rural areas in the Moscow region and in the surrounding regions, such as Tver, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Ryazan regions. And peatlands are a characteristic type of landscape in these regions. For many years peat was the main source of fuel. Peat extraction in combination with the development of local industry significantly increased the incomes of the population of surrounding rural settlements, contributed to their growth and development, and improved the quality of life. Peat electricity was one of the cornerstones of the first electrification plan for Soviet Russia in1920s. But in the second half of 20th century restructuring of the electric power industry - the transition to natural gas and fuel oil - negatively affected the peat industry and since the late 1970s it began gradually collapsed. In parallel, according to the plan of reclamation of agricultural land peat bogs were drained. In the post-Soviet period in conditions of system crisis after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, only in the Moscow region thousands of hectares of former peat extraction lands were abandoned. This situation sharply increased the dependence of the stability of all areas of the Central Russia with the spread of peatlands from harsh weather and climate fluctuations, primarily in long periods of dry and hot weather in summer. The fire hazard areas of the Moscow region are located mainly in the east and the north and are associated with the spread of former and often now abandoned peat-extraction lands. Now the seasonal dacha migration determines the specifics of suburbanization in the Moscow agglomeration. In the peripheral parts of the Moscow region and adjacent areas of neighboring regions with less population density, seasonal summer population far exceeds the number of permanent residents. A lot of settlements are situated near the abandoned peatlands, so permanent hazard of peat fires is a real problem here. Further development of these areas is impossible without maintaining ecological balance on peatlands and returning these areas to the territories of the natural mode of life.