SOVIET ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY: SIX DECADES OF DEVELOPMENT AND CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS

A senior Russian economic geographer reviews the peripatetic evolution of the discipline during the Soviet period. After an early phase in the 1920s and 1930s, when it made some practical contributions to economic planning, particularly in regionalization, economic geography was long relegated to the status of a teaching discipline separating it from the more goal-oriented economic sciences. In recent years, economic geography has again acquired greater practical relevance, largely because of the development, and official endorsement, of the theory and application of territorial-production complex theory as an approach to spatial organization of the Soviet economy. Its thematic content has been broadened by the inclusion of the increasingly active field of population geography and urban geography. The growing “social” content of the discipline has given rise to suggestions that it be renamed “social geography,” or at least “social-economic geography,” reflecting a similar change of designations of the Soviet economic plans to social-economic plans.     

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.     

A GEOGRAPHY OF THE WAY OF LIFE,A DISTINCTIVE SUBFIELD OF REGIONAL ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

The authors formulate principles for a subfield of geography that would study and describe the way of life of peoples. Such an area of inquiry would use a wide range of data from population geography and the geography of services and seek to convey a composite picture of the way of life and identify a typology and regional differences. An attempt is made to illustrate some of these principles with particular reference to the French way of life.     

THE BAM AND THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOVIET FAR EAST

The construction of the Baykal-Amur Mainline, which began in 1974 and is scheduled to be completed in 1983, is expected to have a profound impact on the economy of the Soviet Far East, whose development has long lagged because of lack of transport access to regional resources. The BAM is expected to foster the development of new industries, such as coal and steel, oil and gas, hydropower, metal fabrication and chemicals, and stimulate the expansion of traditional activities, such as gold and tin mining, fisheries and forest products. The BAM is also expected to play a key role in expanding trade between the Soviet Far East and the countries of the Pacific basin and the Indian Ocean. In light of the complex aspects of the BAM project, it is suggested that integrated planning procedures encompass not only the transport aspects of the project, but all economic activities to be generated as a result of the construction of the new railroad. In view of the labor shortage, a high level of labor-saving technology is recommended. Concern for the local environment is expressed in view of the extensive construction activities in permafrost. (Previous articles on the BAM appeared in Soviet Geography, April and October 1975.)     

西方新区域地理学的发展及其对我国区域经济地理研究的启示

近20年来,西方区域地理学发生了巨大变化。从80年代开始,出现了一种新的区域地理学。与传统区域地理学相比,新区域地理学倾向于结构主义、现实主义和后现代主义的哲学思维。强调区域的个性,强调人的能力及角色与社会结构在区域特性的形成与发展的作用。新区域地理学的核心概念是“地方”、“行为主体”、“体系”。在具体的区域研究中,它不仅注重当地的人及其它因素的重要性,也很重视“人”的各种行为背景,并且也重视来自“体系”的外部大环境的影响。本认为,新区域地理学的研究观点和方法对我国区域经济地理的研究具有启示意义,并主张在我国的区域研究中,应从对“地”的关注转向对“人”及“人地关系”的关注,发展中国的新区域地理学。     

A TURNING POINT IN THEORY OF HISTORY: THE PLACE OF HAYDEN WHITE IN THE HISTORY OF METAHISTORY

This article intends to place Hayden White's reflection on the basic principles of meaning-construction in history into the historical context of modern historical studies. It first presents the self-understanding of professional historians in which they emphasize the academic (wissenschaftlichen) character of the discipline. In this way of reflection, the traditional (premodern) interpretation of history as a part of rhetoric was pushed back and replaced by methodological argumentation about the rules of research (with an emphasis on source critique). Historiography, or the presentation of the results of research in a narrative form, was not completely neglected, but was not widely recognized. After the analytical insight into the narrative form of historical knowledge, significant discussion of the principles of historical thinking dramatically changed from the issue of research to that of representation (historiography). Hayden White's Metahistory (1973) marked this change paradigmatically. It turned the shift from rhetoric to science in its contrary direction: a new turn to rhetoric was proclaimed. This new anti-turn set off a hitherto unanswered question as to how research methodology should be treated. Source critique was not refuted but did not attract significant attention. The research procedure of interpretation, in contrast, was met by a new understanding and interest: it was identified as representation by the linguistic procedures of meaning-construction. Its role as a part of historical method, however, was completely ignored. The article ends with a still unresolved problem of metahistory, namely the relationship between interpretation and representation. They are not identical, but are closely related. Their synthesis and their differences have to be systematically inquired into and reflected upon if metahistory is to step forward and engage in this task. Then the merits of White's return to rhetoric will be appreciated as well as its one-sidedness criticized, before a further step is taken.     

SOVIET TERRITORIAL CLAIMS IN THE ARCTIC AND THEIR ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS

The increasing importance of the Soviet Arctic for navigation in connection with a northward shift of resource development and the strengthening of the Soviet icebreaker fleet with nuclear-powered icebreakers and modern conventional icebreakers has focused attention on the issue of freedom of navigation in the Soviet sector of the Arctic. The Soviet sector, defined in a 1926 decree as extending from the mainland to the North Pole, comprises the Northern Sea Route, which the Soviet Union regards as an internal shipping route, and seas of the Arctic Ocean that it views as historic waters. Because of differences in the interpretation of international law, there is ambiguity regarding the right of innocent passage through the Soviet Arctic by vessels of other nations. The growing significance of Arctic shipping operations raises the timeliness of the issue.     

THE CRITICAL THEORY OF HISTORY: RETHINKING THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY IN THE LIGHT OF KOSELLECK'S WORK

There are many ways to consider the philosophy of history. In this article, I claim that one of the most viable approaches to the philosophy of history today is that of critical theory of history, inspired by Reinhart Koselleck. Critical theory of history is based on what I call known history, history as it has been established and expounded by historians. What it contributes—its added value, so to speak—is a reflection on the categories employed to think about historical experience at its different levels, not only as a narrative but also as a series of events: their origins, contexts, terminology, functions (theoretical or practical), and, finally, eventual relevance.     

MODERNITY: A PROBLEMATIC CATEGORY IN THE HISTORY OF EMOTIONS

Emotions in History: Lost and Found by Ute Frevert is a lively introduction to some of the issues that historians must address when writing about emotions. Emotions in History notes some of the uses emotions have had in both public and private life, and it charts the changing fate of several emotions—particularly acedia, honor, and compassion—that have been either “lost” or “found” over time. Nevertheless, it suffers from a notion of modernity that obscures rather than clarifies. Making “modernity” the cause of changes in emotional ideas, comportment, and feeling, it cuts today's society off from its earlier roots and fails to see the continuities not only in emotions themselves but also in the mechanisms by which emotions have changed over time. Frevert's assumption that only the modern world has been interested in emotions is belied by eloquent learned writings on the topic in the medieval period (though not using the term “emotions”). Further, modernity is not alone in having effective mechanisms by which ideal standards of emotions and their expression are transmitted to a larger public.     

长征中的中华苏维埃共和国国家银行

七十多年前中国工农红军长征的途中,中国革命的金融工作者也同红军战士一样进行了英勇的斗争。他们除了行军打仗外,在极其艰难的条件下还进行了大量的经济、金融工作,特别是利用有利时机适时发行苏维埃国家银行纸币,为迅速补充红军给养,促进部队战斗力的恢复做出了贡献。