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.     

原苏联地区新的政治地图

本文从宏观、中观、微观三个层次描述了原苏联地区新的政治地图,分析了其形成原因及由此而产生的一些地缘政治问题,指出了今后本地区政治地图的变化趋势。     

CANADA AND THE INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL UNION

RÉSUMÉ. Les débuts de la coopération internationale dans le domaine de la recherche géographique remontent aux premiers temps de la Confédération. Bien que la participation de canadiens aux premières réunions de Congrès International de Géographic ait été assez rare, un certain nombre d'entre eux y assistèrent a plus d'une occasion. Ce n'est que depuis 1934, année de l'acceptation officielle du Canada au sein de l'Union Géographique International, que notre pays assiste à toutes les assemblées générates de cette organisation et aux congrès géographiques internationaux. Depuis la nomination, en 1952, des premiers canadiens aux commissions de ce groupement, la participation du Canada a été intensifiée de beaucoup.     

MILK PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION IN THE SOVIET UNION

The magnitude of regional milk production and consumption imbalances is calculated using the most recent (1970) comprehensive set of data on Soviet milk production and consumption. The type and amount of inter-regional exchange this imbalance generates is then estimated, and the implications of the product's perishability on the need for differentiated regional development of the dairy industry are assessed.     

SPATIAL PATTERNS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE SOVIET UNION

Analysis of spatial patterns of attained educational levels is helpful in understanding the cultural geography of an area, perhaps especially in the Soviet Union, with its many ethnic groups and stated aim of providing equality of education regardless of ethnicity or sex. The proportion of the population that had completed a higher education was mapped at oblast level from 1970 census data. High rates are found in certain urban areas, Estonia and Latvia, Georgia, and certain sparsely populated areas of the Far North, Siberia, and the Far East. There are regional patterns of disparity between male and female rates of completed higher education and between rural and urban rates, despite Soviet attempts to reduce these inequalities. The distribution of Soviet higher educational institutions conforms generally to the distribution of population, although access to higher education opportunities appears to be geographically limited in some regions. (Maps by Joann L. Krupa, George Mason University.)     

REGIONAL PATTERNS OF MEDICAL CARE AVAILABILITY IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION

This paper analyzes patterns of change in the regional availability of medical care resources in the former Soviet Union for selected years from 1940 to 1989 by examining the relationships among the supplies of physicians, mid-level medical personnel, and hospital beds. Data from economic handbooks, the 1989 health handbook, and unpublished Goskomstat USSR statistics are used to construct composite (ratio) indices of medical care availability for oblast-level units. Maps of these indices reveal that distinct medical resources regions existed in the former Soviet Union in 1989.     

INDUSTRIAL DISPERSION IN THE SOVIET UNION: AN APPLICATION OF ENTROPY MEASURES

Industrial dispersion across the republics of the USSR between 1926 and 1974 is described through the use of entropy measures. Ostensibly, a set of location principles would guide such dispersion, and several of them stress regional equalization as an important consideration in locating industry. Therefore, trends in regional inequality (in industrialization) are investigated through the use of inequality statistics derived from entropy measures at three different spatial scales. Between 1926 and 1960, inequality among the republics decreased, but has increased between 1960 and 1974. However, inequality has decreased between the economic regions of the USSR between 1940 and 1975, and at the oblast level, there has been a tendency toward greater equality (homogeneity) within each economic region or republic since 1960. In attempting to account for these diverse trends, it is suggested that they are largely the result of the priority of efficiency considerations in location decisions rather than those of regional equity per se.     

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 FIRST SOVIET CONFERENCE ON HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY

An attempt is made to demonstrate the need for a joint focus for microterritorial and socio-economic planning in small areas of cities. It is suggested that such a focus might be the territorial (spatial) structure, a derivative of the socio-economic structure of a territory that has long been the object of territorial planning at various levels. With particular reference to the transport services in the southernmost section of the city of Volgograd, it is shown how social processes are affected by the extent and the parameters of territory. Particular attention is given to the problem of “location,” including the meaning of “location” in microgeographic investigations.     

试论宗教的地理背景

本文从宗教的起源、宗教的源地、宗教的习俗和教义、宗教的分布等四个方面论述了与其地理背景的密切关系.     

ON SPURIOUS CORRELATION IN GEOGRAPHICAL PROBLEMS

In human and physical geography, researchers routinely calculate correlation coefficients between variables that are in a functional relationship with one another. At least part of the correlation between such variables is due to the functional relationship and is termed spurious correlation. Such correlation contributes practically nothing to the understanding of the phenomenon under investigation and a systematic method for its removal is desirable. This paper provides such a methodology for cases such as (A - B) and B, for any random variables A and B. The discussion is also extended to the linear regression model when the dependent variable is in a functional relationship with one or more of the independent variables. In this case, it is demonstrated that spurious correlation does not affect the parameter estimates or their standard errors. It could, however, distort the coefficient of determination substantially, giving the false impression with regards to the model's overall goodness-of-fit. In both correlation and regression, formulae for the calculation of spurious correlation are derived. Examples are provided to demonstrate the application of the formulae in practice. En géographie humaine et physique les chercheurs calculent souvent les coefficients de corrélation entre les variables qui sont dans une relation fonctionnelle. Au moins une partie de la corrélation entre de tels variables est le résultat de la relation fonctionnale qui s'appelle corrélation apocryphe. De telles corrélations ne contribuent pratiquement pas à la compréhension du phénomène étudié. On cherche done à“éliminer cette corrélation, et nous offrons ici une méthode pour l‘éliminer dans des cas tels que (A - B) et B, pour n'importe quel variable A et B. La discussion s'étend aussi au modèle de régression linéaire quand la variable dépendante est dans une relation fonctionnale avec un ou plus des variables indépendants. Dans ce cas, on a démontré que la corrélation apocryphe n'influe pas sur l'estimation des paramètres ou leurs erreurs-types. Elle peut, néanmoins, fausser dans une grande mesure le coefficient de détermination, ce qui donne une fausse impression quant à l'adéquation du modèle. Dans les deux corrélations et dans la régression, les formules pour le calcul des corrélations apocryphe sont dérivées. Nous avons indue des exemples pour démontrer l'application des formules en pratique.     

论陈传康教授的地理学研究

陈传康教授是一个"全能型"的地理学家,无论从何种意义上来说,都是值得认真研究的。本文对陈传康地理学研究道路、特点和方法进行了多角度的解剖和梳理,勾勒出陈传康学术研究的总体特征,即为"专门性综合研究的开拓者",从而为中青年地理工作者提供学习借鉴的治学经验有"干"字型结构法、案例研究法、"三步"调查法、"双向"因果法、定性定量法、政策研究法。     

井冈山斗争的军事地理分析

国内的军事地理研究大大落后于其他人文地理分支学科。本文结合实地学习考察,对于井冈山军事斗争这一重大历史事件从现代地理学视角进行比较系统的全新分析。在井冈山斗争期间,根据地经历了从队伍上山、据险驻守,到外线出击、最终撤离的军事地理过程,并在根据地内部形成了"两片、两心、一环、五哨"的军事地理格局。从根据地尺度看,这一格局对于斗争初期的立足有一定合理性,但范围狭小、资源支撑和回旋空间不足;从宏观的区域尺度分析显示,井冈山地区远离敌方核心,但立足后则面临两省"会剿",腹背受敌,军事地理上的劣势凸显。分析还显示了新军事力量形成的"核心-边缘"结构对于旧格局的反转。作为井冈山道路的发展,中央苏区、陕甘宁根据地以及东北解放区的建立,是对井冈山斗争开辟的革命道路的发展,同时也是在区域尺度、位置、区际关系等方面军事地理优势不断增强的过程。     

THE NONCHERNOZEM DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM AND PROSPECTIVE SPATIAL SHIFTS IN GRAIN PRODUCTION IN THE AGRICULTURAL TRIANGLE OF THE SOVIET UNION

The Soviet program to proceed from further expansion of the grain area in the semi-arid steppe zone to intensification of graingrowing in the humid Nonchernozem Zone after decades of neglect is considered a landmark decision in the history of Soviet agriculture. If successfully carried out, the Nonchernozem program might yield by the late 1980s a grain increment equivalent to the amount now being imported by the Soviet Union for its own needs and for re-export to its allies. The implementation of the Non-chernozem program would also have consequences for regional grain-production patterns in the Soviet Union. The Nonchernozem Zone would be in a position to make a more significant contribution to the demand for grain in the industrial centers of European Russia, thus easing the pressure on the virgin lands of northern Kazakhstan and reducing the need for the present long grain hauls. Finally, a greater shift of grain production into the humid Nonchernozem would be in keeping with a program of water economies since grain output in the humid zone requires less than half of the water needed for grain production in the arid zone. The success of the Nonchernozem program is conditioned on greater attention to the development of rural infrastructure, particularly roads, which the author considers a key element in upgrading the agriculture of the region.