The Arctic region in the economic and geographical concept of Vladimir Dehn

Abstract

The article discusses the views on the Arctic region of Russia expressed by V.E. Dehn (1867-1933), an outstanding Russian researcher in the field of economic geography who developed the theoretical background of this science and contributed to the organization of teaching economic geography in theuniversities of St.Petersburg (Leningrad).The analysis of the book collection created by V. Dehnin 1902 at the Economic Geography Department at St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute which was regularly replenished with various publications on commodity science, railway engineering, aviation, statistics, geopolitics and other materialsenabled the authors to look into the «intellectual laboratory» of V. Dehn. In his assessments of the prospects for the Arctic region development, V. Dehn used the descriptions of sea polar expeditions, ethnographic surveys of the life of the aboriginal population, governmental reports and scientific reviews of the regional economy development, etc. Within the framework of sectoral economic and geographical concept, V. Dehn’s interest in the North region wasdue to the prospects for the development of forestry and timber industry in Russia. V. Dehnreferred to transport inaccessibility and low population density as the main obstacle for the economic development of the Arctic territories and Siberia. Hence, the researcher paid special attention to railway construction projects developed in the early twentieth century, considering them the primary factor in the colonization of the North. The historical development has shown that the colonization of the Arctic in the twentieth century was associated with the discovery of rich mineral deposits in the region and their industrial production. The researcher highlighted the global importance of the Northern Sea Route as a transport corridor.