Erosion-Control Needs and the Intensification of Agriculture

Increasing intensification of agriculture requires an integrated approach to erosion control on a broad scale, making use of a combination of moisture-retaining tillage methods, runoff-regulating engineering devices and the inclusion of soil-conserving crops in rotation schemes on eroded fields. Erosion-control methods used thus far on Soviet farms are limited largely to grass-crop rotations, the planting of trees along gullies, and contour tillage, and they lack an integrated approach.     

Desalting of Water by Natural Freezing for Farm use

The author proposes methods for desalting brackish or salty groundwater in the arid zone for use in animal husbandry and crop raising. Stock-raising needs would be met by storing freshwater obtained in winter for year-round use. Crop production would be made possible by freezing a layer of ice over prospective cropland and saturating the soil with meltwater in the spring as in the basin system of once-a-year irrigation.     

Geographical Aspects of the Problem of Diverting Part of the Flow of the Pechora and Vychegda Rivers to the Volga Basin

This initial report on the effect of the proposed reservoir on adjoining areas is limited to a brief statement of methodology, namely the use of analogues, and examination of expected changes in the local climate. Because of the largely adverse character of these changes, it is urged that the reservoir area be reduced through elimination of its shallow water reaches, which affect local conditions but contribute little to water management needs.     

Forecast of Average Length of Haul on Soviet Railroads

On the basis of an analysis of expected railroad freight traffic of bulk commodities (coal, oil, ores, metals, lumber, grain) and miscellaneous goods over the next 20 years, the authors predict a continuing reduction of the average length of haul from the peak of 815 kilometers reached in 1957 to an estimate of 700 or 710 kilometers by 1980.     

Basic Methodological Problems in Ethnic Mapping

The following excerpt from a speech delivered October 18, 1963, before the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences USSR by a leading ideological spokesman of the Communist party is relevant to the discussion surrounding V. A. Anuchin's advocacy of a unified geography. Ilyichev denounces the Stalinist definition of the environment as a purely natural category. He charges that some Soviet scholars have used this definition as a “theoretical foundation” for erecting an insurmountable wall between the natural and social sciences. A briefer version of his remarks appeared in the journal Voprosy Filosofi, 1963, No. 11, pp. 6–7.     

Intra-Oblast Regionalization

The author develops a system of indices to measure the level and economic effectiveness of regional specialization of major economic regions of the USSR. These indices express the degree of intensity of the specialization of a given region in a certain type of product and the relative cost advantage of such a region over other regions or the country as a whole.