Has Geography “Disappeared”?

The director of the Institute of Geography accuses Anuchin of having misrepresented the character of the research conducted at the institute. Gerasimov says that the institute's present emphasis on the study of natural resources and the forecasting of changes in the natural environment that result from man's activities in fact require close collaboration between physical and economic geographers.     

P. K. Kozlov's Archeological Investigations in their Historical-Geographic Aspect

The authors, who advocate the use of archeological data in historical-geographical research, analyze the implications of findings made by Pyotr Kuz'mich Kozlov, Russian explorer, in Mongolia in 1908 and 1924 as they affect existing knowledge about cultural influences among the Huns and the factors behind the destruction of the Tangut capital of Kara Khoto.     

Some Aspects of the Formation of Urban Settlement Patterns (Illustrated by the Tatar ASSR,Bashkir ASSR,and Kuybyshev Oblast)

Using the example of the Soviet Union's principal oil-producing region between the Middle Volga and the Urals, the authors identify systems of urban settlement and classify urban places in terms of their situation within systems of settlement. The situation of a place within a system is used as a criterion for determining whether future industrial growth of that place should be stimulated or restricted. A related article by one of the authors, F. M. Listengurt, appeared in Soviet Geography, October 1965.     

The Development of Geography in the Ukraine during the Soviet Period

A survey of geographic research in the Ukraine over the last 50 years reviews work in the various disciplines. In physical geography, research has focused on the problems of the steppe, including irrigation, droughts and erosion control. In economic geography, work has concentrated on resource development, agricultural regionalization and industrial geography. Research in geography is done mainly by universities, institutes of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, and a number of government agencies.     

Geographical Requisites in the Selection of Areas for Economic Development in the Middle Ob' District

Development potentialities of the Middle Ob' district are analyzed in terms of three natural areas. The well-drained terraces on the margins of the Ob' valley are found to be most suitable for town development. The left-bank area offers additional land for economic development, but the extensive swamp cover of the right bank imposes serious obstacles. Because of the southward orientation of the Middle Ob' oil district, it is recommended that priority be given to town development and transport routes on the left-bank margins of the Ob' valley. This is contrary to the present tendency of developing towns on the right-bank margins of the valley.     

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.     

Models of an Optimally Organized Network of Service Establishments in a Region

Networks of varying complexity are analyzed. The number of service centers is derived, first, by assuming that the upper limit of their range is fixed and construction costs are to be minimized. A second step yields the location of the service centers on the basis of minimizing the total time spent by residents in traveling to the centers.     

Two Traditions Of Ancient Tibetan Cartography (Landscape and Ethnos,VIII)

An historical geographer and a Tibetan philologist combine their talents in an effort to interpret and date two ancient Tibetan maps, one in the Iranian-Tibetan tradition and the other in the Indian-Tibetan tradition. The Iranian-Tibetan map, though drawn in an unusual stylized fashion, is found to reflect a level of precision and areal coverage superior to Greco-Roman maps. The Indian-Tibetan map, though more concerned with cosmological matters of the Buddhist tradition, also reflects, in the authors' opinion, an unusual range of knowledge whose precise origins remain obscure.     

Study of the Shape of Rural Communities

Recent research on the configuration of populated communities is found to suffer from the fact that it seeks to isolate shape from size and orientation. The authors dispute the view, underlying central-place theory, that minimum-distance or minimum-energy concepts are fundamental to spatial relations. An equally basic tendency in geographic phenomena, it is suggested, is a disregard for efficiency criteria at various stages of development. Shape, size, and spatial orientation are viewed as representing a unity that reflects the interaction of these two opposed tendencies. Accordingly a technique is proposed for the analysis of community shapes, seeking to establish the magnitude of deviation from an equal-area circle. The method is applied to 203 communities in Ukrainian and Siberian areas, representing different physical and economic conditions. In both situations a predominant tendency toward southward expansion of communities is observed, and configurational deviations from the equal-area circle are found to increase in middle and upper size classes. (The senior author, A. M. Smirnov, died in July, 1969.)