Heterochronism in the Moisture Supply of Eurasia in the Middle Ages (Landscape Ethnos,V)

The author relates climatic fluctuations in inner Asia to the political fate of the nomadic inhabitants from the 1st century A. D. to the 18th century. He thus establishes an absolute chronology of climatic changes related to latitudinal shifts in storm tracks. Previous articles in this series appeared in Soviet Geography, June 1964, February 1966, and December 1966.     

On the Subject of the “Unified” Geography (Landscape and Ethnos,VI)

A theory of ethnogenesis is advanced, associating stability of ethnic communities with homogeneous landscapes and ethnic change leading to the formation of new communities with heterogeneous landscapes. The ethnic aspect of population, unlike the social and political aspects, is found to be a function of geographical factors. The study of the interplay between ethnic man and the environment does not require an integration of the geographic disciplines but can be investigated within the framework of a special discipline, say, ethnology within geography.     

Khazaria and the Caspian (Landscape and Ethnos,Part I)

The author combines the techniques of historical geography, archeology, and paleogeography to investigate the distribution of the Khazars, a people settled in the Volga delta from the sixth to tenth centuries. Data on Caspian Sea level changes, obtained in part from study of the Derbent wall, are correlated with known political events in the history of the Khazars. A history of settlement of the Volga delta is reconstructed.