From charting to mapping: Russian military mapping of Corfu in the early nineteenth century

Abstract

This paper concludes the overview of the Russian Navy's chart making published in Imago Mundi, Volume 52 (2000). In the present paper attention is drawn to the way the emphasis shifted in the early years of the nineteenth century from charting by naval surveyors to land mapping by the Army. The need for specialized military topographical education had led to the founding of the Map Depot in 1797 in St Petersburg. The first major survey undertaken by the Depot was of the island of Corfu (1804–1806), in anticipation of further Russo‐Turkish hostilities (the Third Russo‐Turkish war, 1806–1812).     

TOGETHER WITH ACADEMICIAN N.I. VAVILOV

A colleague at the Institute of Crop Breeding many years ago, S. V. Zonn, recalls the fame abroad of N.I. Vavilov in contrast to the oblivion to which for a time he was consigned in the Soviet Union. Vavilov opposed the harmful adventuristic projects announced by the evil paranoid “scientist” Lysenko. Among the many contributions of Vavilov, those to research for the development of deserts, largely forgotten, are here recalled. Vavilov organized the Office of Deserts, which established the Aral', Repetek, and Kara-Kalinsk experiment stations, which made major contributions to desert studies and which attracted able productive scientists. In practical work he organized work to provide fresh vegetables and fruits and green amenities to workers at the Balkhash copper combine and the urgently needed vegetables and vitamins to workers at the Bekdash salt works of the Kara-Bogaz-Gol of the Caspian Sea. He advocated scientific principles and applications free from the opportunism and adventurism which at one time flourished in Soviet biological sciences but which should not be repeated. “Recalling all that has happened to N.I. Vavilov, we preserve in our hearts his bright and uncompromising manner, which was devoted to science and society” (translated by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington DC 20005).     

THE MAP IN THE SCIENTIFIC AND ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIVITIES OF N.I. VAVILOV

Special attention is devoted to Vavilov's use of detailed maps for (a) recording initial results of field work in the study of local agriculture and ranges of domesticated plants in travels across several continents; and (b) presenting information about a large number of processes and phenomena in a concise way, affording the basis for their critical analysis and comparison. He was involved in programs to map Soviet and world agriculture (translated by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005).     

GEOGRAPHIC FORECASTING FOR OPTIMIZING NATURE MANAGEMENT AS A BASIS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE KANSK-ACHINSK FUEL AND ENERGY COMPLEX

A program for forecasting the possible environmental consequences of industrial development in the Kansk-Achinsk Fuel and Energy Complex (KATEK) is described, the resulting forecasts providing the basis for recommendations for future resource development. Attention is focused on the projected impacts of the location of two state regional power stations (GRES) and one large strip mine in the Sharypovo area, the authors recommending that this represent the maximum capacity to be concentrated at any one location for environmental reasons. [Apparently, planners took this into consideration, as recently announced plans for the basin have been scaled back to include only two stations (see S.G., April 1988)—Ed., S.G.] One variant calls for the resiting of one of the GRES units to the eastern part of the KATEK area (translated by Natalia B. Barbash, Brooklyn, NY 11209).     

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES ON CHANGES IN RURAL AREAS

The author advances an interesting and somewhat controversial argument for the dismal state of affairs in central Russia's countryside. Programs addressing problems in the countryside should focus not on reversing the tide of outmigration and agricultural employment loss, but on reducing labor intensity in agriculture and recognizing social and other realities working to the disadvantage of remote rural areas. What is needed is not expensive and unfeasible “revitalization” of the countryside, but the regulated decline of its agricultural workforce and the selective introduction of new labor-saving technologies and alternative land uses. Translated by H. L. Haslett, Leamington Spa, UK from: Evolyutsiya rasseleniya v SSSR, Chast' I (Evolution of Settlement in the USSR, Part I), G. M. Lappo, Zh. A. Zayonchkovskaya, and P. M. Polyan, eds. Moscow: Akademiya Nauk SSSR and Pol'skaya Akademiya Nauk, 1989, pp. 43-59.     

REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT,ECONOMIC ACCOUNTABILITY,AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

The author argues in favor of redoubled efforts at improving access to transportation and communications as the most effective means of government intervention promoting a “level playing field” for disparate territorial units under “regional khozraschet.” He maintains that such an approach does not remove incentives for innovation and productivity at individual enterprises, but helps eliminate the disadvantages of peripheral production enterprises relative to those of “central” areas. A scheme is proposed whereby increasing overall (intermodal) transportation accessibility would be the objective, rather than maximizing narrowly based microeconomic efficiency criteria for various transportation ministries. Translated by H. L. Haslett, Leamington Spa, UK from: Territorial'naya organizatsiya obshchestva i problemy mezhnatsional'nykh otnosheniy: Materialy k IX s'yezdu Geograficheskogo Obshchestva SSSR. Leningrad: Geograficheskoye Obshchestvo SSSR, 1990, pp. 9-13.     

THE ROLE AND MAIN FUNCTIONS OF THE OUTER ZONE IN THE TERRITORIAL STRUCTURE OF THE MOSCOW REGION

The proposed basic functions and structure of the “Outer Zone” of the Moscow Region are outlined as part of a long-term physical planning model. The zone, which includes the Transition Zone, Linear Anti-Cores I and II, and Peripheral Zone I of the original model (Soviet Geography, February 1987), is to serve primarily as a check to territorial growth of the Core (a function once assigned to the more centrally located, but now largely developed Buffer Zone) and a potential base for new economic development in the future. A ranking of sites for limited, more immediate development is included (translated by H. L. Haslett, Birmingham, UK).     

THE DYNAMICS AND ETHNIC COMPOSITION OF THE POPULATION OF RUSSIA IN THE ERA OF IMPERIALISM (FROM THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY TO 1917)

The authors critically survey tsarist censuses before the October Revolution and Soviet works on historical demography, and they re-estimate population numbers, natural and mechanical increase, and internal and external migration between 1897 and 1917, as well as changes in ethnic composition. (The translation was prepared by James R. Gibson of York University, Toronto.)     

THE CENTENNIAL OF THE FOUNDING OF THE ASKANIYA-NOVA NATURE RESERVE

This article traces the history of the creation and early precarious existence of the oldest Soviet nature reserve, Askaniya-Nova in the Ukraine, and represents part of the ongoing Soviet re-assessment of environmental history in that country (for a Western view, see [60]). It describes the protracted conflict between preservationist and utilitarian perspectives on land use in the reserve, the latter gaining ascendancy during the 1930s under Lysenko and Stalin. Of special interest is coverage of post-war “restoration” at the reserve, or more specifically, the continuation of less than ideal conditions up to the present (translated by Elliott B. Urdang, Providence, RI 02906).