The relevance of this article is substantiated by the fact that ecology along with economy and international relations is among three basic problems of modern Russian society development. In this context the historical and ecological analysis of the country’s industrial growth allows to trace the nature and reaction to the ecological degradation that determined the environment critical state at the present stage. The article provides the results of the historical and ecological analysis of Middle Volga area industrial development in the second half of the XX century in Russia. They allowed to designate the prospective guidelines of environment state optimization in the researched region. The materials of this article may be used for the purpose of effective economic, legal, technological, moral and organizational methods application to impact the forming economic system, its maximum ecologization to balance the development of diverse processes: economic development of the country and creation of the environment favorable for person’s life and health.