Settlement in Lumber-Industry Regions of the USSR

About 80% of the population in Soviet logging and rafting areas is non-urban and lives in 6000 lumbering settlements assigned to the rural category. The majority of these places are small, crude settlements without adequate services that exist for periods of about 20 years until the surrounding timber stands have been depleted. It is suggested that area planning and diversification of forest utilization can improve the settling pattern, working and living conditions and the provision of services through the concentration of population in larger, modern central settlements supplemented by mobile dormitory camps in timber-felling areas situated beyond an optimal commuting distance. Existing and proposed settling patterns are illustrated with particular reference to a logging area in the western Urals.     

A Small-Scale Map of Rural Settlement in the USSR

The methods used in mapping two versions of a map of rural settlement of the USSR are described. Both versions use 17 basic economic types of settlement as suggested by rural settlement patterns shown on topographic sheets. The first version, which includes in the typology additional indicators such as density and size of places, yields a highly complex map legend and reduces map legibility. The second version simplifies and generalizes the settlement patterns by the proportional plotting of settlement symbols against a shaded or tinted background representing the 17 basic economic types.     

The Rayon Seats of the USSR in the System of Services

The administrative centers of rayons (county-type civil divisions) are viewed as key elements in the provision of services in the USSR. The effectiveness of rayon seats as service centers is analyzed in terms of the category of places serving as rayon seats (small cities; urban-type settlements [towns]; rural places), mean rayon population, area and radius, and the mean transport accessibility of the rayon center. The existence of a small city with a high level of services in a small rayon, as in the Baltic region, Belorussia, Moldavia and parts of the Ukraine, is viewed as optimal. Particular problems arise in Siberia and Kazakhstan, where the large size of rayons, low mean rayon population, big rayon radius and low transport accessibility combine to produce a low level of services. In such regions, a system of local service centers is advocated, with rayon seats performing the role of major regional centers.     

Multiagent Systems and the Dynamics of a Settlement System

In order to simulate the evolution of a system of settlements with a dynamic model, many processes must be integrated: the spatial aggregation of population, the complexification of urban activities, and the increasing hierarchical differentiation of settlements. The model must also simulate the progressive structuration of the settlement system through a growing variety and enlarged range of interactions between its elements. “Multiagent systems” provides a flexible modeling method for dealing with the multiple spatial interactions of cooperation and competition and relations that generate and regulate the evolution of a settlement system. Its principles are described and applied to building an evolutionary model, including a simulation tool. The model combines economic and spatial rules to produce birth, growth, decline, and functional diversification of the towns. The “urban transition” from an agrarian settlement system toward a hierarchical system of trade- and manufacturing-oriented towns and cities can be simulated.     

美国对苏政策中意识形态因素及其在苏联解体过程中的作用

美国特殊利益集团对全球霸权主义的追求、根深蒂固的反共主义,以及为维护世界资本主义的一统天下,决定了美国对苏联意识形态进攻的必然性。在苏联存在的几十年间,美国从未放弃消灭或西化苏联的图谋。在苏联基本坚持马克思主义的指导和社会主义道路的情况下,这种图谋难以实现。但是,当苏联把马克思主义教条化和僵化,并在西方和美国意识形态进攻面前逐步西化,就潜伏了巨大危险。一旦苏联领导彻底抛弃马克思主义意识形态,而以美国等西方国家宣扬的所谓全人类价值观作为指导时,苏联的解体和西化也就变得不可避免。     

A Quantitative Approach to Designing a System of Economic Regions of the USSR

The authors state the rationale and describe the technique used to devise a system of seven economic macroregions of the USSR for long-term planning purposes. Since broad resource groups determine the specialization of regional complexes and their specialization in the geographical division of labor, the macroregions were constructed on the basis of homogeneity in key resources, such as manpower, fuels, land, water and transport geography. The new regional system preserves the basic division of the USSR into western and eastern economic zones, and reflects the lower labor and transport costs in the west, and the lower natural-resource costs in the east. The seven-region system, which is already being used in the 15-year plan 1975–1990, is expected to help determine optimal directions of regional development depending on whether regions have surpluses or are short of fuels, electric power, land, water or manpower. The new macroregions were designed by consolidating existing basic economic regions and union republics into larger entities, but the republics may be set apart as subzones for more detailed planning purposes.     

The Present State of Toponymy in the USSR

A review of recent place-name research, methods, and publications in the Soviet Union by a deputy chairman of the Toponymy Commission of the Moscow Branch of the Geographical Society USSR. For a previous article on Soviet toponymy, see E. M. Murzayev, “Origin of geographic names,” Soviet Geography, Accomplishments and Tasks, American Geographical Society, 1962, pp. 254–58.     

The Development of Motor Roads in the USSR

Surfaced roads, including gravel roads, total 510,000 km, or 37.5 percent of the Soviet Union's motor-road net of 1.4 million kilometers, the rest consisting of dirt roads. Only about 260,000 km, or less than one-fifth, consists of blacktop or cement or asphalt concrete highways. The lack of roads tends to cause considerable losses to the Soviet economy, particularly in agriculture. An accelerated road-building program is therefore under way, with the current five-year plan (1971–75) calling for the construction or reconstruction of 110,000 km of improved surfaced roads (blacktop and cement or asphalt-concrete) compared with 75,000 km added in the preceding five-year period (1966–70). The densest road nets in the USSR are found in the Baltic republics, in Transcaucasia, Moldavia, the Ukraine and Belorussia. The lowest road-density indices apply to the Russian republic and to Kazakhstan.     

比较视角的农产品统派购制度

农产品统派购制度始于在特定历史条件实行的粮食统购统销制度,它在实现保障向工业提供农产品原料这一初始政策目标的基础上,还承接起国民收入分配的功能,成为服务于赶超战略的一种制度安排.农产品统派购制度的长期实施,对农村经济运行产生了严重的负面影响.中国的农产品统派购制度与加拿大牛奶、鸡蛋等某些农产品行业协会的配额管理制度在农产品的计划生产、收购上有着相似之处,但制度背景、产生的动因和功能、计划管理的主体、实施范围的差异却导致了绩效的反差.     

The Water Problem in the Deserts of the USSR

A regional review of existing and planned irrigation projects in the desert zone of the Soviet Union envisages the use of water from the Siberian streams in the northern section of the desert zone. For increased water supplies in the south, the author looks to other potential sources such as artificial increases of precipitation in the mountains of Central Asia, elimination of wild growths of water-loving plants, and technological advances that will make possible the economical desalting of water from salt lakes and of mineralized subsurface waters.     

The Major Economic-Geographic Regions of the USSR

A survey of the recent history of development, shifts in locational patterns and changes in organizational structure of the craft industries of Gor'kiy Oblast, one of the principal craft-industry areas of the Soviet Union. The authors map changes in the distribution of crafts and analyze economic-geographic factors in locational changes. Recommendations are made to preserve some of the crafts within the pattern of the Soviet economic system.     

The Geography of Radioactive Contamination in the Former USSR

A detailed survey of the location and scope of radionuclide contamination in the former USSR examines the character and spatial patterns of such contamination by source—e.g., commercial and military reactor operation (including reactors on submarines and icebreakers); uranium mining and enrichment; plutonium production; nuclear waste storage and disposal; and “peaceful” nuclear explosions and nuclear weapons tests. Attention also is focused on updating the situation at sites known to have sustained some of the most severe radionuclide contamination—e.g., Chornobyl' (Chernobyl') and adjacent areas; Mayak, Tomsk-7, and Krasnoyarsk-26; Novaya Zemlya; the Barents and Kara Seas; Lake Ladoga; and Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. 5 figures, 8 tables, 60 references.     

The Present State of Medical Geography in the USSR

A review of the present state of Soviet medical geography based on an analysis of papers presented at the Second National Medical Geography Conference held in Leningrad in November, 1965. The authors, representing four departments of the Geography Faculty of Moscow University, stress geophysical and geochemical causative factors of human disease and the contributions being made by medical landscape science in relating environmental prerequisites to particular diseases.     

The Main Tasks and Trends of Geomorphological Research in the USSR

The suburban area of Moscow consists of a green belt and an outer suburban zone, containing both satellites of Moscow and “independent” urban agglomerations without direct links to the capital. The problem of limiting the population growth of Moscow should be solved by promoting the expansion of existing satellite places and by limited construction of new satellite cities. Care should be taken not to urbanize the green belt, set aside for recreation, or to reduce the forest area in the outer suburban zone.     

The Transport Industry in the West and East Zones of the USSR

The levels of development of production and transportation are compared for the western and eastern zones of the USSR. The low density of the transport net in the East, combined with the high cost of transport construction and a manpower shortage, tends to favor the development of large industrial complexes within limited areas making use of the zone's unique natural resource base. Such areally concentrated development would reduce the need for local transport systems and make more investment available for the more efficient mainline routes. The western zone, with its virtually continuous economic development and denser transport net, favors a more uniform location of production and the increasing location of industry in small and middle-size cities, which would ease the load on heavily used mainline transport routes and make greater use of local forms of transportation, including motor freight.     

庚子之后制钱铸造体系的规复与解体

制钱铸造在庚子之变中遭受重创,此后经历了一个艰难规复、地方实践、观念转型、民间转向与最终解体的复杂过程。面对庚子后的钱荒危机,清政府通过批准开铸铜元、重建中央铸钱局、改铸新制钱、推广粤式制钱等钱法改革,于光绪三十三年初步规复传统的制钱铸造体系。但随着各省对铜元余利的倚重与货币本位制改革的推进,朝野人士对主、辅币关系形成新的认识,铜元超越制钱被纳入主辅币方案,一文铜元亦在光绪三十四年逆转一文制钱成为推行全国的一文新钱。由此,钱法改革从属于本位制改革,政府币制改革观念亦由银钱并行、分层开展转型为统筹划一、建立银本位,故制钱被排除在新币制之外,长期亏赔的宝泉局最后亦被撤销。同时,民间私钱历经泛滥与衰落之后,在宣统朝转入消亡期。至宣统三年,虽然官私制钱仍在广泛流通,但相关铸造活动已全面停止,这标志着自秦代以后运行两千余年的传统铸钱体系最终解体。