Modern Geography and its Tasks in Siberia and the Soviet Far East

The director of the Institute of Geography of Siberia and the Far East, founded in 1959 in Irkutsk, discusses his philosophy of modern geography, outlines the table of organization of his institute, and lists the principal research problems in the geography of Siberia and the Far East, with particular reference to the study of the tayga, or boreal forest.     

沙俄的远东移民政策

１８６０年《北京条约》签订后,沙俄政府一直鼓励、支持向所侵占的黑龙江以北、乌苏 里江以东地区移民。其颁布的一系列法令和采取的各项措施对加快移民的进程起到了重要作用。 在不同阶段,沙俄的远东移民政策具有不同的特点,但总体上都是出于政治需要,即缓解国内政治 危机,巩固自己新占领的远东地区,进而争霸远东。     

The Future In The Far East

Nationalism and Communism in East Asia, by W. Macmahon Ball (Melbourne University Press, 1952. 25s.).     

俄罗斯远东“中国移民问题”论析

在俄罗斯远东乃至全俄罗斯,“中国移民问题”是一个被有关势力上升到政治层面加以夸大、炒作的敏感问题。其主要肇因既有历史基因的复萌,也有现实利益的驱动。在其影响下,中俄两国开展劳务合作的潜力远未得到应有的发挥。近年来,俄虽有部分学者和政界人士能较为客观地分析中国移民问题,阐述利用中国劳务的必要性,且积极探讨利用中国劳务的有效途径,但俄罗斯社会对中国人持有的戒备和排斥心理仍相当浓厚。对此,我们应多从自身方面找原因,改进做法,积极应对,促使俄罗斯社会改变对中国人的偏见,从而将远东变成中俄合作真正的窗口和桥梁。     

俄罗斯远东的“犹太民族家园”

俄罗斯远东的“犹太民族家园”——犹太自治州诞生于苏联时代,迄今已有70余年的历史。作为世界上第一个犹太民族行政区,犹太自治州的创建与发展有着深刻的国际、国内背景,并日月显地带有象征意义,其中不仅反映出东亚局势的风云变幻、苏联远东移民与开发的时代特征,而且折射出苏联对待犹太人和犹太复国主义运动的态度。     

Land Evaluation and Regional Pricing in the Soviet Union

The author examines the use of the Lorenz curve and the Florence method for measuring the degree of spatial concentration of industry in a given area, and then develops an index of his own, based on ratio of the industrial output, value of plant, and industrial employment per unit area in a region to the industrial output, value of plant, and industrial employment per unit area in the country (or larger regional entity) as a whole. Findings for the major economic regions and middle-level regions (oblasts, krays, ASSRs) of the RSFSR are shown in the form of tables, graphs and map. A pronounced spread in levels of concentration is found between the European and Asian portions of the RSFSR, with concentration levels in the Central Russian region (at one extreme) and the Soviet Far East (at the other extreme) differing by a factor of 56.     

Developments in Russia's Far East and their implications for the Pacific Basin

The Soviet Union ceased to exist as a subject of international law and a geopolitical reality in December 1991 with the declaration of a new Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). For the present the territory formerly known as the Soviet Far East remains part of the Russian Republic controlled from Moscow, but its political and economic destiny remains uncertain. In 1986 Mikhail Gorbachev asserted that the USSR was an Asian-Pacific country and that the development of the Far East region was to be reinvigorated. This coincided with. and was closely related to, efforts designed to improve relations with several countries in the Pacific Basin, including Australia. This paper outlines some of the infrastructural, social and other obstacles to development that can only be overcome by financial and technological assistance from abroad. Lingering international tensions (such as the Kurile Islands dispute with Japan) and political, economic and administrative uncertainties within the Russian Republic and the CIS more generally have led private companies — including several in Australia — to defer their investment plans. It seems likely that it will be many years before the Russian Far East will have much impact on the economy of the Pacific Basin.     

Regional Identity in Regional Development and Planning1

This paper analyses the regional identity and social capital formation process and components. Regional identity is the special kind of phenomenon, which forms throughout historical and territorial socialization. The great ambition of this paper is to interrelate Anssi Paasi (1986) and other cultural geographers' and sociologists' ideas with recent regional economic development and planning discussion and to enhance regional identity as a planning tool. The theoretical part describes components and the process of regional identity formation. We assume that regional identity correlates with people's volition in achieving common goals, raises their personal activity and influences due to that regional development and planning. The regional identity is crucial in securing public participation in planning. The empirical part of the paper is based on mass survey analysis.     

Empowerment Planning in Regional Development

In the planning literature, there is a tendency to contradict top-down and bottom-up policies, government and governance and instrumental and communicative planning. However, through extensive action research in regional development practice, we have learnt that there is a need for combining them in adequate planning models, and we have found strong arguments in philosophy and theory for this combination when we go to the debate on modernization and the arguments in favour of better balance between communicative and instrumental rationalities. This article is a theoretical discussion of a planning model that we have called empowerment planning. In this discussion, we regard empowerment in regional development as a combination of top-down and bottom-up processes with the variables context, mobilization, organization, implementation and learning. Planning is regarded as a combination of instrumental and communicative rationalities in an institution-building process based on Habermas' will-forming process with different discourses. We present how a planning approach with institutional, strategic, tactical and operative levels of planning can stimulate different development variables, contribute to the institution-building process and strengthen the legitimacy of the planning institution.     

Some Achievements and Problems in Soviet Cartography

A review of the last 50 years finds that the traditional breakdown of Soviet cartography into its specialized research disciplines no longer conforms to current needs. Soviet cartography has been divided historically into mathematical cartography, map science (the study of maps and their uses), map compilation and editing, map design and production. A growing specialization in cartography by thematic disciplines (geomorphic mapping, agricultural mapping, etc.) with widely differing requirements and principles of compilation and editing suggests the need for a restructuring of the research disciplines. In addition to mathematical cartography, concerned with map projections and map measurements, the new structure would include: technical cartography (the study of source materials, map design and production); natural-historic cartography (principles of compilation and editing of maps of the physical environment), and socioeconomic cartography (concerned with the mapping of human phenomena).     

Neolithization and Ancient Landscapes in Southern Primorye,Russian Far East

Archaeological and paleoecological investigations of Neolithization processes in Southern Primorye (or the Maritime Region) of the Russian Far East are generating new insight into the complex interactions between human populations and the natural environment during the Middle Holocene. Dynamic coastal and terrestrial ecosystems have been linked to transformations in the paleoeconomy and social structure of prehistoric societies that gave rise to the Boisman Neolithic culture (7500–4500 BP) of coastal hunter-fisher-gatherers. These human–environment relations are reconstructed in the current paper, drawing from a wide range of available evidence.     

Transport Infrastructure and Regional Integration in the Middle East

The soft aspects of the infrastructure of regionalism in the Middle East have previously been studied, while the impact of the region’s hard infrastructure, in particular transport infrastructure, has received little attention. This paper contributes to the study of regionalism in the Middle East by investigating the relationship between hard infrastructure and economic integration. It analyzes whether the state of domestic and cross‐border transport infrastructure in the region promotes regional trade. This is done by addressing the following sub‐questions: 1) What is the condition of domestic and cross‐border transport infrastructure in the Middle East? And 2) What is the relationship between domestic and cross‐border transport infrastructure and regional trade in the Middle East? These questions are answered by examining Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey as representative samples of the broader region. It is argued that regionalism relies on the development of domestic and cross‐border transport infrastructure and where the latter is limited, regionalism cannot deepen. The study concludes that domestic and cross‐border transport infrastructure performance is weak in several of the countries studied and that this weakness hinders regional economic integration regardless of the level of the region’s soft infrastructure.     

区域东亚与知识“东亚”

"东亚"既是一个空间性概念——即地理性、地域性的概念,又是一个时间性的概念——即历史性的和意识形态的概念。现代性的介入,使得"东亚"成为一个需要不断重新界定和检验的概念。区域东亚是知识"东亚"的理解和阐释对象,知识"东亚"是区域东亚在理论和知识上的抽象和提升。区域东亚在结构上具有封闭性、多元性的特征,在功能上又具有流变性和开放性的特征。知识"东亚"的命题集中反映了知识界的"中心-边缘"结构、各种知识背后的意识形态竞争和权力诉求。现代性和东亚的关系并不是一种单向度的"冲击-回应"关系,而是一种双向的相互建构的共生关系。