Geography and Geographers in the Soviet Union

Abstract

IN THE soviet union, geography holds a high status as an academic and practical discipline. The geographical tradition is long and honoured; it included such eminent exponents as P. P. Semenov Tyan-Shanskiy and N. M. Przhevarskiy, both Honorary Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society. The All-Union Geographical Society has been in existence for over a hundred years and, since its very founding, has had many links with the R.G.S. As early as the eighteenth century, M. B. Lomonosov, scientist and founder of Moscow University, enthusiastically advocated the study of geography and the Faculty of Geography at Moscow annually commemorates his interest in a series of papers, known as the Lomonosov Studies. Moreover, the Revolution, although it brought many new ideas and approaches to the subject, did not cause a break in this geographical tradition. Many outstanding figures, such as V. P. Semenov Tyan-Shanskiy, L. S. Berg and V. A. Obruchev, continued their research and teaching, long after 1917. Perhaps the clearest way to comprehend the framework of Soviet geographical instruction and investigation is to follow the career of a Soviet geographer. The schools which prepare for university are, at present, mostly ten-year schools, although this period is now being extended to eleven years under the recent reform of education. Under this new syllabus, children do no geography for the first three years, while in the fourth year it is combined with nature study. The fifth to eighth classes do two hours of physical geography a week, the ninth class none, the tenth and eleventh two hours a week of economic geography. Soviet geographers are much concerned that, under the new scheme, the number of hours devoted to the subject in schools has been appreciably decreased, together with the abolition of examina? tions in geography, and the introduction of textbooks felt to be inferior to those previously in use. On the credit side, there is strong emphasis in the schools on practical work and pupils are encouraged to carry out local studies, make relief models, take meteorological recordings and the like. On leaving school, the intending geographer must now undertake two years' employment and then may enter either a pedagogic institute (or Teachers' Training College) or a university. There are sixty-two pedagogic institutes with departments of geography, while of the forty universities, thirty have faculties of geography, either independent or in combination with geology or biology. By far the largest university and largest faculty of geography are at Moscow. The Faculty has over 1000 full-time students and 800 evening and external students, while the staff num? ber over 300. The facilities it enjoys are enviable. It is located in the new university on the Lenin Hills, where six floors of the central block of the giant skyscraper are given over to the Faculty for lecture rooms, laboratories and staff rooms. Here, too, is a section of the Gorkiy University Library, with a large collection of geographical material, including a limited selection of Western books and periodicals. The library's value is increased by its ability to borrow books from the Lenin Library. Apart from the Faculty, in the same building eight floors are devoted to a Museum of^ Earth Sciences, that is, geography and geology. Together with divisions for mineralogy, stratigraphy and pedology, there is one floor, consisting of a series of displays for every region of the U.S.S.R., in which the whole complex of the