THE 1929 MEETING OF SOVIET GEOGRAPHY TEACHERS: A KEY EVENT IN THE HISTORY OF SOVIET ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

A Soviet economic geographer who participated in a 1929 conference of geography teachers describes the antecedents, the atmosphere and the proceedings of this crucial meeting in a stormy period of the discipline. It was a landmark in the history of Soviet economic geography in marking the beginning of the end of the old sectoral-statistical approach and inaugurating the new regional school led by N. N. Baranskiy.     

A SUMMARY OF THE GLASGOW CONFERENCE ON SOVIET ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES

A meeting of the Advisory Panel on a major research project entitled “Soviet Environmental Policies and Practices: Most Critical Investment Priorities” was convened in Glasgow, Scotland on March 12 and 13, 1988. More than a dozen specialists from Britain, West Germany, and the United States participated. The meeting was hosted by the Institute of Soviet and East European Studies of Glasgow University. The results are summarized below.     

REPLY TO THE SOVIET REVIEW OF RADICAL GEOGRAPHY

A Norwegian geographer and Deputy Head of the International Northern Sea Route Programme (INSROP) Secretariat surveys past, present, and potential future Northern Sea Route (NSR) cargo flows. The route's economic potential and importance, both as an international transit route and as a transport corridor to and from the Russian Arctic regions, are discussed. An overview of the main NSR infrastructure components (icebreakers, ice-class cargo vessels, ports) also is made, with estimates of future capacity. Based on the survey of future cargo potential, future infrastructure requirements are calculated and compared with estimated capacity in order to identify possible future bottlenecks for NSR operations. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: L90, O18, R40. 1 figure, 4 tables, 76 references.     

PLACE-NAME EVIDENCE IN THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF MOSCOW

The authors demonstrate that place names can help to reconstruct the changing geography of Moscow by identifying and localizing the stages of the city's growth, the development of its radial-circular layout, the absorption of adjoining villages, the distribution of handicrafts and industries, and the existence of hydrographic features and vegetative cover. (The translation was prepared by James R. Gibson of York University, Toronto.)     

ON THE CONTENT AND THE TASKS OF HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY (AS THE HISTORY OF NATURE MANAGEMENT)

A Pleistocene geologist calls for a totally new approach to the study of geography as the basic discipline concerned with the man-nature relationship, or what he terms nature management (Russian, prirodopol'zovaniye). He views the basic study object of an essentially unified geography as natural-technical territorial complexes (biotechnocenoses or geotechnocenoses), requiring investigation in three time dimensions—the past (historical geography), the present (dynamic geography) and the future (predictive geography). In keeping with the proposition that historical geography should be a separate, unified discipline, a distinctive historical-geographic periodization is proposed, differing from the periodizations in use in paleogeography, anthropology, archeology and history.     

OBSERVATION: REDISCOVERING HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY IN THE LAND OF NORUMBEGA

Recent appraisals of historical geography range widely in their assessment of the field. Donald Meinig (1989), writing of 'The Historical Geography Imperative,' concludes: 'historical geography is not, has never been, just another item in the proliferating diversity of our grand enterprise. Rather, like physical and environmental geography, it is one of the foundations of the whole enterprise. In its own way historical geography encompasses and contributes to all of geography. Micheal Dear (1988) disagrees. In 'The postmodern challenge: Reconstructing human geography,' he states that historical geography is 'overde-termined,' and 'an empty concept' conveying 'few (if any) significant analytical distinctions …. He concludes that historical geography does 'little more than confirm what geography is about. Both writers agree on the pervasive and comprehensive nature of historical geography, but Dear sees this inclusiveness as more of a cincture, whereas Meinig conveys the fundamental and embracing understanding of geography inherent in the practice of historical geography.     

Reviews / Comptes rendus: THE SOVIET UNION AND THE GEOGRAPHY STUDENT -A SECOND LOOK

Book reviewed in this article:
The Soviet Wood-Processing Industry: A Linear Programming Analysis of the Role of Transportation Costs in Location and Flow Patterns, by BRENTON M. BARR
Cities of the Soviet Union, Studies in Their Functions, Size, Density, and Growth, by CHAUNCY D. HARRI
Economic Geography of the USSR, by A. LAVRISHCHEV (translated by DAVID MYSHNE)
Geography of the U.S.S.R. (2nd ed.), by PAUL E. LYDOLPH
Yakutia before Its Incorporation into the Russian State, by A. P. OKLADNIKOV (translated by Dr and Mrs STEPHEN P. DUNN and edited by HENRY N. MICHAEL)
Basic Industrial Resources of the U.S.S.R., by THEODORE SHABA.
Victorian Toronto, 1850 to 1900: Pattern and Process of Growth, by P eter G. G oheen
« l'électricité au Québec >>, par A lain M etton
Urban Water Supply Alternatives: Perception and Choice in the Grand Basin, Ontario, by I an MACI ver
Pioneer Settlement in Northeast Argentina, by R obert C. E idt
Spatial Organization, by R onald A bler , J ohn A dams , and P eter G ould
Geoforum, Journal of Physical, Human and Regional Geosciences (Executive Editor: W olf T ietze )     

THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S ARCHIVES: A RESOURCE FOR HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY*

In his review of progress in historical geography, Hugh Prince has observed that “the competence of historical geographers to handle source materials is no longer in doubt, but while documents may be faithful servants they are inadequate masters.” Although today, perhaps more so than at any time in the past, there is lively debate about the methodologies that might be employed in exploiting historical sources, the pivotal importance of archives in historical geographical research is no longer in question. As the major repositories of primary source materials, they are indeed the fountainheads sui generis of all historical research. Their increased use in recent years has been manifest, not only in the quantity and quality of recent research, but also in the appearance of a small, but growing, literature pointing to the opportunities for geographical research offered by discrete types of archival holdings and by certain unique collections. This essay calls attention to a particular archival collection, the Hudson's Bay Company Archives, which houses the records of a company that has been an active force throughout most of the present area of Canada for the past 300 years. Its purpose is to point to the geographical significance of this corporate record and to suggest ways in which it might be tapped by historical geographers.     

PANEL ON THE SOVIET UNION IN THE YEAR 2000

A panel of geographers debates possible future developments in the Soviet Union in regional and environmental policy, water resource management, agriculture, industry, energy, population, urban growth and planning, transportation, and foreign trade. The present emphasis on modernization of existing plant capacity in cities of the western, more heavily settled regions of the USSR seems destined to continue, although it will be constrained by a growing shortage of industrial labor, declining terms of trade and resource oversupply in increasingly competitive export markets, and the continued resistance of Central Asian populations to urbanization and industrial employment.     

川陕苏区“改制代用币”初论及藏品辨析

川陕苏区是第二次国内革命战争时期,中国共产党领导川陕苏区人民共同创建的一个重要革命根据地,是中华苏维埃共和国第二个大的区域。川陕苏区在革命政权中建立的金融体系是工农民主专政强有力的工具。它在支援革命战争,发展工农业生产,促进商品流通,支持合作化运动,巩固苏维埃政权等方面,发挥着重要的作用。根据现有史料和藏品实物,川陕苏区发行流通的货币有三种类型:1·苏维埃货币,有布币、纸币、铜币、银币、锡币五种及鄂豫皖苏区纸币(内部流通);2·仿制民国货币,有铜币、银币两种;3·改制代用币(简称改用币)。本文就第三种货币作一初步论…