Although the USSR is no more as a country, the contribution of Soviet geographers over the decades of the Soviet times remains remarkable. In the nineteenth century, in Russia, many faculties, institutions, and departments of geography were established. In the later parts of the 19th century, many atlases, maps, and monographs were published in the Soviet Union.
Peter the Great, who ruled Russia from 1682 to 1725, encouraged Alexander von Humboldt to explore the territory, east of the Urals. The objective of Humboldt's exploration was to gather geographical information to guide the eastward expansion of the Russian Empire. The Imperical geographical Society of Russia was founded in 1845. The purposes and aims of this Society were to promote the study of geology, meteorology, hydrology, anthropology and archaeology. The diverse specialties represented in the society were known collectively as 'the geographical sciences'. The eminent scholars of the Pre-Great Revolution period (l917) were Semenov, Tyan-Shanski, Vocikov, Dokuchaiev and Anuchin. Their major contribution was in the field of physical geography.
Before the October Revolution, the Russian geographers did not agree with the extreme forms of environmental determinism', A.I. Voeikov (1842-1916) was a physical geographer and worked on earth's heat and water balance. He tried to study climatology for the development of agriculture contributed appreciably in the science of snow, tea in Georgia, cotton in Turkistan (Turkmania), wheat in Ukraine were introduced at his suggestion. Voeikov point out to the over grazing of the Russian-steppes as the cause of gully erosion, and asserted that irrigation facilities can increase the productivity of semi-arid lands.
'Soviet scientists should not lose sight of the problem of environment and population growth which have recently assumed such a serious aspect. Improvement of the socialist use of natural resources and the formation of an effective demographic policy are important tasks facing a whole complex of natural and social sciences'.
Geography is one of the sciences involved in the implementation of this task. Its contribution to this objective consists in the detailed elaboration of the main lines for research connected with practical requirement of the present stage of interaction between socialist society and nature.
Soviet geographers have investigated a promising concept of recycling raw materials used in industry. Investigation into these cycles demand quantitative analysis of various types of natural resources that are initially extracted from the environment and then transformed in the processes of social production and finally returned to the environment in the form of various waste products.
Geographical science in the Soviet Union manifested considerable interest in the concept of territorial industrial complexes (TIC). The TIC concept was the planned organization of large industrial units. Moreover, the Soviet geographers were concentrating on environmental problems. They were trying to find out new methods for consolidating harmonious relationship between society and nature. Another sphere in which the Soviet scientists were doing constructive research is the study of the theoretical foundation of recreational geography.
In brief, the Soviet geographers, together with the experts of other sciences numbered among their society's productive forces and have become an important factor in regional planning, town planning, management of Water resources, the deployment of production enterprises, the organization of agricultural schemes, forecasting of weather and changes in the hydrological balance, the tight against soil erosion, mudflows and avalanches, droughts and other such spontaneous natural phenomena, in the selection of optimal sites for the construction and routing of roads, in the development of the service industries, recreational and tourist facilities, the provision of resorts and the provisions of health care, and so on and so forth. Thus geography was playing a very vital role in the judicious utilization and conservation of natural resources to provide more amenities to the society in the former USSR.
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