ДИАХРОНИЧЕСКИЙ МЕТОД В ИСТОРИЧЕСКОЙ ГЕОГРАФИИ НАСЕЛЕНИЯ (НА МАТЕРИАЛАХ СЕВЕРО-ЗАПАДА РОССИИ)

Abstract

The main purpose of the article is to assess the advantages and disadvantages developed in historical geography methods of time slices and temporal dynamics (the diachronic method). The results of the analysis of applying historical-geographical approach in modern studies of the sociogeographical field, published in the known geographical and regional Russian journals, are presented. It is concluded that studies fulfilled in socioeconomic geography, especially population geography, frequently rely on the diachronic method (the method of spatiotemporal dynamics). The examples of applying the diachronic method in geography of settlement pattern and ethnic geography of Northwestern Russia are given. This method is focused on describing the changes that have occurred in the geography of the region during the study time range. Thus, in the geography of rural settlement pattern in Northwestern Russia, the diachronic method made it possible to trace the processes of polarization of the population of the region, the greatest intensity of which occurred in the last fifty years. At the same time, there was an alignment of ethnic mosaic at the level of the lower administrative units of the region. Areas, which previously had a high share of non-Russian population (St. Petersburg and its surroundings), lost their ethnic diversity. Most areas of Novgorod and Pskov oblasts, which were almost exclusively Russian in the first half of 20th century, increased ethnic mosaic. The conclusion is made that the diachronic method based on cartographic analysis allows solving the traditional problems of social geography. This includes the analysis of socioeconomic, demographic and sociocultural processes in a certain territory with the subsequent identification of spatial regularities in the development and the creation of scientific prerequisites for the geographical forecast.