On Physical-Geographic Regionalization and the Regionalization of Natural Resources

The author finds conventional physical-geographic regionalization inadequate for economic-geographic purposes, and proposes instead a “natural regionalization” or regionalization of natural resources. Such a regionalization would reflect the economic assessment of the natural environment of a given area and would be more appropriate in economic-geographic research. The principles underlying natural-resource regionalization are illustrated with a regional scheme for the Sudan, an area to which the author has devoted special study.     

METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS IN THE GEOGRAPHY OF LABOR RESOURCES

Soviet population geographers have tended to study labor-resource problems at the level of major civil divisions, such as republics, krays and oblasts. There is a real need for investigating such problems at a more detailed regional level, down to particular rayons and urban places in which people live and are employed. Various types of economic-geographic investigations of labor-resource problems are suggested and a research strategy is proposed. The author notes that if population cannot be redistributed regionally in keeping with a given economic objective, economic plans may have to be revised on the basis of the actual labor resource situation.     

Book Review

Africa is said to offer a fruitful field for joint consideration of economic-geographic and ethnic factors. A number of subjects reflecting the relationship between the two aspects are proposed for investigation: the impact of environment factors, particularly resource use, on the process of formation of ethnic communities; the impact of traditional economic activities on ethnic processes; the relationship between ethnic territories and economic regions (some ethnic communities are associated with particular types of economic activities); the relationship between settlement types and urbanization and ethnic processes. A number of economic-geographic techniques, such as the cartographic method and the statistical method, may be applied to ethnogeographic problems.     

Dynamic Models of Agricultural Location in a Spatial Interaction Framework

Recent research demonstrates that spatial interaction models may also be made to function as location models by the addition of appropriate hypotheses about structural adjustment. An appealing feature of the approach is that dynamics are explicitly incorporated. In this paper, the attempt is made to recast a problem from classical economic-geographic theory—that of agricultural location—within a spatial interaction framework. It is shown that a wide variety of models is potentially available, and the properties of a range of these models are selectively explored.     

Economic Geography at the 1960 International Geographical Congress

The author compares the scope of economic-geography papers at the Rio de Janeiro and Stockholm congresses, discusses William William-Olsson's book on Stockholm, and analyzes a number of congress papers with an economic-geographic content.     

The Development of new Areas and Economic Complexes in the West Siberian Plain

An economic-geographic model of the development of the new resource areas of the West Siberian plain envisages a hierachy of support bases providing equipment, food, and manpower for the areas. Effective economic development requires that much of the investment in the first phase of development be channeled into auxiliary activities and service facilities to provide the infrastructure of the new oil and gas complexes. Only in the second stage should most of the investment be directed into facilities for basic oil and gas production.     

Structural-Mathematical Analysis of Systems of Urban Places

The method of “structural chains” used for the analysis of regional urban systems is subjected to structural mathematical analysis in the form of a rectangular matrix with the dimensions m X n in which the number of columns n represents the number of levels of development of urban places, and the number of rows m reflects the complexity of the urban system. The dimensions of the matrix and other magnitudes that describe the design of the matrix can be viewed as a whole object that may be called the “structural characteristic of the system.” Such an approach requires the construction of a calculus of structural characteristics that may open the way for new techniques in the structural study of economic-geographic systems.     

Stages and Methods of Economic-Geographic Prediction

An important technique of economic-geographic prediction is the comparative analysis of alternative combinations of productive forces that are likely to modify the existing system of the geographical division of labor and the system of economic regions. A suggested sequence of steps is designed to locate future productive capacity to a maximum extent in already developed regions with minimum inputs into new territorial development. Only industries whose growth cannot be insured in developed regions should be located in new pioneering regions. The predictive process is illustrated with particular reference to the economic development of the USSR up to the year 2000 and beyond. The principle of uniform spatial development, once a keystone of Soviet economic planning, is found to be economically unsound. Rapid returns on investment can be obtained by more intensive use of existing developed territories.     

On a Quantitative Assessment of the Economic-Geographic Situation of Cities

The author suggests the use of combined production and transport costs of raw materials and manufactured goods to the consumer as an indicator of the economic-geographic situation of a city. He contends that it is no longer sufficient to characterize the situation simply as “favorable” or “unfavorable” and that there is a real need for quantification with the purpose of using this technique in long-range plans.     

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 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF CITIES FORMED IN 1775-85 (COMMEMORATING THE 200TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GUBERNIYA REFORM)

Based on extensive unpublished research, the author discusses the distribution and economic-geographic situation of the 176 new cities that were incorporated under the territorial-administrative reform of 1775-85. (The translation was prepared by James R. Gibson of York University, Toronto.) [The author, one of the eminent Soviet economic geographers, died in 1986 at the age of 82.]     

TERRITORIAL STRUCTURES OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMY AND THEIR PARAMETRIZATION

The systems approach is applied to the study of economic-geographic objects with a view to elaborating a parametrization of the territorial structures of the national economy. Four basic parameters are distinguished: territorial concentration, territorial differentiation, territorial integration and territorial composition. Each parameter, in turn, is broken down into subparameters and into aspects. The parameter of territorial differentiation and its aspects (fineness of subdivision, contrastivity, zonality, etc.) are discussed in detail, and some measures are suggested.     

The Economic-Geographic Situation of Orenburg

This paper, which supplements another article by V. S. Varlamov, published in Soviet Geography, March 1961, pp. 54–60, analyzes the effect of Orenburg's economic-geographic situation on the city's past, present and future industrial development. The city is found to owe its growth almost entirely to its situation at the crossing of transportation routes linking major raw-material-producing and end-product-consuming regions of the USSR.     

New Aspects of the Location of Production in the Period of the Full-Fledged Construction of Communism

The author discusses some economic-geographic aspects of the so-called period of full-fledged construction of communism (1960–80). Off-season employment is to be provided for the farm labor force. In urban centers some new industries will be designed to absorb underemployed family members. The author discounts the principle of “uniformity of location of production” and says areas unfavorable to human settlement (subarctic, deserts, mountains) will remain undeveloped even under communism. Urban-rural differences are expected to disappear gradually.     

INTERACTION BETWEEN THE COAL-ENERGY-CHEMICALS AND IRON-STEEL CYCLES IN THE DONETS BASIN

An economic-geographic model of two technologically related industry groups in the Donets Basin (coal-energy-chemicals and iron-steel) reveals bottlenecks that reduce the cost-effectiveness of industrial performance. They include cross hauls of coal, amounting to about 5 million tons a year within the Donets Basin; in-shipments of up to 3 million tons of coal from outside the Donbas, and the waste of 3 billion m³ of blast-furnace gas. Remedies that would insure more rational utilization of fuel and energy resources are proposed.     

Problems in the Study of Domestic Commerce of the USSR

Greater attention to the study of the Soviet internal commerce is proposed, with particular emphasis on the geographical differences in retailing. The sources of marketable goods in any particular region are locally produced consumer goods, farm produce and forest products as well as goods shipped in from other parts of the USSR and from abroad. Regional economic-geographic factors affect both the volume and the structure of retail trade. Volume is affected by such factors as the size of population, income levels, regional prices, and the availability of retail outlets. Structure of retailing is affected by regional differences in production and consumption, income levels, ethnic preferences and seasonal changes.     

The Function of Place and its Changes

The function of place, though a significant concept in geographic research, has not received much attention in the Soviet literature. Functions are defined as activities performed to satisfy particular needs of society. These functions are generally performed by engineering systems, which may range from simple pasture management or cropping systems to such highly complex systems as a city or a major iron and steel plant. The authors polemicize against the view that the function of place is preordained by its natural potential and argue that a dynamic sequence of functions through time is much more relevant to the needs of a rapidly evolving society. Several types of functional sequences are distinguished: they may be “revolutionary,” in the sense of replacing one function by another, or “evolutionary,” involving change within the framework of a particular type of function. They may be “progressive,” by involving increasingly complex engineering systems and growing intensity of use, or “regressive,” in the sense of reverting from a cultivated to a natural state. Reversibility of function declines with increasing complexity and cost of engineering systems. Functional stability depends on the degree to which a function evolves naturally out of the given economic-geographic setting and on the level of inputs.     

The Study of a System of Cities of the Soviet Union

Odessa's advantageous economic-geographic situation has played a positive role in all phases of the city's development. It has promoted Odessa's pre-eminent place as a foreign trade center and its function as a key element in the geographical division of labor. The situational advantages of the city should be taken into account in any historical-geographic study and in insuring more rational economic relations between the city and the rest of the Soviet Union.     

A TECHNIQUE FOR CLASSIFYING URBAN PLACES IN TERMS OF DEVELOPMENT REQUISITES (with particular reference to Smolensk Oblast)

On the basis of a number of socio-economic and physical requisites, the prospects of future development are examined for all 28 urban places of Smolensk Oblast as of early 1973. The requisites are the economic-geographic (transport) situation, availability of water resources, labor resources, economic base, industrial terrain and housing. The urban places are assigned point scales combining these factors and are assigned to three categories (with very favorable, favorable and unfavorable prospects of development). The allocation of places to particular development classes is then tested statistically by association with two additional variables: population size and functional characteristics, and the corrections introduced by the procedure are analyzed. The prospects for further development are found to be most favorable for the six largest towns—Smolensk, Roslavl', Vyaz'ma, Safonovo, Yartsevo and Gagarin. (The study was completed before the founding in 1973–74 of two new urban places that are associated with major power stations under construction and are thus endowed with growth prospects: Desnogorsk, on the site of the Smolensk nuclear power station, and Ozernyy, on the site of the Smolensk peat-fired power station.)     

ECONOMIC REGIONS,ADMINISTRATIVE REGIONS AND TERRITORIAL PRODUCTION COMPLEXES

Three types of integral economic regions are distinguished in the USSR: (1) economic regions at various levels, performing strictly economic functions; (2) administrative-economic (or simply administrative regions), which perform both economic functions and the functions of government administration; (3) territorial production complexes, which combine interlinked economic activities within a particular area from the economic-geographic point of view. Because of the differences in functions, there can be no complete identity between economic and administrative regions although their boundaries often coincide. Production complexes are not a substitute for economic regions because the complexes encompass only interlinked activities while economic regions encompass all economic activities. However, production complexes are elements that give rise to both economic and administrative regions. Economic planning in the USSR proceeds along three lines: (a) within the system of economic regions; (b) within the system of administrative regions; (c) within the system of sectoral or branch administrations, which are now being replaced by corporation-type industrial associations.