World Regional Geography GEG 101 ONLINE! CHAPTER 2: Russia

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Studying the Chapter:

• Read and study the textbook. (See "Textbook Notes" below.)
• Read and study the Online Lecture

Map Quiz 10 - Chapter 2:

• blank outline map
• required map quiz locations
• online map quiz tutorial

Review Activities:

• Chapter Quiz from the textbook Student Companion website
• GO TO MULTIPLE CHOICE QUIZ
• Exam 3 - Sample Short answer questions
• Realm Worksheet

For All Realms:

Keep these in mind as you read and study EACH REALM (chapter). Defining a Realm: Know the physical, cultural, economic, and/or historical criteria (characteristics) used to define the realm. Why are the boundaries drawn where they are? Are there any physical barriers (oceans, seas, mountains, deserts, dense forests) at the realm border? Are there physical, cultural, economic, and historical differences on either side of the realm boundary? Do the realm boundaries tend to run through areas of sparse population? How do the physical, cultural, economic, and historical characteristics of the realm differ from these characteristics of neighboring realms?   You may want to do the following FOR EACH REALM to help your learning: print this realm worksheet and keep track of the characteristics in the chart as you read and study the chapter. You may want to review the lecture on REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY Use the Goode's Atlas maps, especially the world maps at the beginning, to see differences between realms   Here are SOME of the physical, cultural, economic, and historical characteristics that you should consider physical geography landscapes climate precipitation major physical features physical barriers at the realm boundaries (oceans, seas, mountains, deserts, dense forests) cultural geography religion language politics other economic geography level of development - IMPORTANT: SEE TABLE G-1 (pp. 34-41) per capita income (GDP) population growth rate % urban population life expectancy other measures of development - IMPORTANT: SEE TABLE G-1 (pp. 34-41) historical Geography culture hearths colonization - who colonized other   Know where most people live in the realm. See the population density map in your Goode's Atlas and Figure G-9 (pp. 18-19) in your textbook. Also, assess how well the 5 reasons explain the population distribution. Do they apply to this realm or not?   Know the CONCEPTS, IDEAS, and TERMS listed on the first page of each chapter and the italicized words within the chapter. ALSO, know EXAMPLES of the terms from the realm being studied. It is strongly suggested that you make a list of these terms with their definitions and examples. Each unit exam will have a question where you DEFINE and GIVE EXAMPLES of these terms.   You must understand map SCALE. Know the difference between a large scale map and a small scale map. Each unit exam will have a question about map scale. See Figure G-3. Large scale = large detail = small area Small scale = small detail = large area

Textbook Notes:

[Some maps may be difficult to read. To see a clear image, RIGHT CLICK on the image and select VIEW IMAGE]

BRIEF OUTLINE / 4 CLASS THEMES Chapter 2 RUSSIA DEFINING THE REALM 104 Historical Geography: Roots of the Russian Realm 106 Physical Geography: Russia's Physical Environments 107 Physiographic Regions 110 Historical Geography Evolution of the Russian State 1111 The Mongol Invasion 111 Grand Duchy of Muscovy 111 The Cossacks 111 Czar Peter the Great 111 Czarina Catherine the Great 113 A Russian Empire 113 The Colonial Legacy 114 An Imperial, Multinational State 114 The Soviet Legacy 115 The Political Framework 116 The Soviet Economic Framework 118 Cultural Geography Russia's Changing Political Geography 118 The Federal Framework of Russia 119 Regional Issue: Chechnya 124 Changing Social Geographies 126 Russia's Prospects 127 Russia, Europe, and the World 127   REGIONS OF THE REALM 128 Russian Core and Peripheries 128 Central Industrial Region 128 Povolzhye: The Volga Region 131 The Internal Southern Periphery 132 Failure in Chechnya 134 The External Southern Periphery (Transcaucasia)135 Georgia 135 Armenia 135 Azerbaijan 136 The Urals Region 136   The Eastern Frontier 137 The Kuznetsk Basin (Kuzbas) 137 The Lake Baykal Area (Baykaliya) 137   Siberia 137   The Russian Far East 139

MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC QUALITIES OF THE REALM

• Russia is the largest territorial state in the world. Its area is nearly ice as large as that of the next ranking country (Canada).
• Russia is the northernmost large and populous country in the world; much of it is cold and/or dry. Extensive rugged mountain zones separate Russia from warmer subtropical air, and the country lies open to Arctic air masses.
• Russia was one of the world's major colonial powers. Under the czars, the Russians forged the world's largest contiguous empire; the Soviet rulers who succeeded the czars took over and expanded this empire.
• For so large an area, Russia's population of under 142 million is comparatively small. The population remains heavily concentrated in the westernmost one-fifth of the country.
• Development in Russia is concentrated west of the Ural Mountains; here lie the major cities, leading industrial regions, densest transport networks, and most productive farming areas. National integration and economic development east of the Urals extend mainly along a narrow corridor that stretches from the southern Urals region to the southern Far East around Vladivostok.
• Russia is a multicultural state with a complex domestic political geography. Twenty-one internal Republics, originally based on ethnic clusters, function as politico-geographical entities.
• Its large territorial size notwithstanding, Russia suffers from land encirclement within Eurasia; it has few good and suitably located ports.
• Regions, long part of the Russian and Soviet empires, are realigning themselves in the post communist era. Eastern Europe and the heavily Muslim Southwest Asia realm are encroaching on Russia's imperial borders.
• The failure of the Soviet communist system left Russia in economic disarray. Many of the long-term components described in this chapter (food-producing areas, railroad links, pipeline connections) broke down in the transition to the post communist order.
• Russia long has been a source of raw materials but not a manufacturer of export products, except weaponry.

   

DEFINING THE REALM

• Transition Zones along Russia's border:
  • Belarus: European or Russian realm?
  • Transcaucasia:
    • between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea
    • Caucasus Mountains
    • Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Chechnya
  • Northern Kazakhstan: Russian speaking, orthodox Christian population in Islamic Kazakhstan

   

• Russia is still an empire even after the breakup of the soviet Union in 1991
  • 20% of population are non-Russian (see figure 2-5)
  • minority-based "republics" / political divisions

   

• Mountains, deserts, and oceans encircle Russia EXCEPT to the west; there is no physical barrier between Europe and Russia

   

  Question: What is the "Eurasian continent" and "European Russia"? Where does Russia have a port through which they can access the Atlantic Ocean? Which four countries make up the "Russian Realm" as defined by our authors? Locate the three major transition zones along the border of the Russian Realm and discuss briefly.

• PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY: Russia's Physical Environments 
  • Summary:
    • vast plains and plateaus (low relief)
    • rimmed by rugged mountains
    • cold (D and E climates)
    • dry
  • Russia's Dimensions
    • Spans 11 time zones
    • Gulf of Finland to Alaska (Europe in the west to the North America in the east), and well above the Arctic Circle to as far south as Salt Lake City (North to South)
    • Twice the size of the US or China
    • Siberia: "Sleeping Land"

    

     

  • Locational impact on Russia's climate
    • the world's northernmost populous country
    • no natural barriers to the north; open to the cold arctic air
    • continentality
      • definition: inland climatic environment remote from the moderating and moistening effects of the oceans
      • therefore D climates (similar to the upper midwest of the US - Illinois - and Canada)
      • and dry (see figure G-7; similar to the Great Plains of the North America)
  • Where do people live and why?
    • Review online Lecture: Where do people live and why?
    • Concentrated in the west and southwest
    • Mostly in a triangular area
      [textbook says (p. 110) " . . . the more habitable area becomes latitudinally narrower from the west to east."
    • to the east of the Ural mountains settlement patterns become discontinuous

      

       

    • Why:
      • warmer climate

        

         

        more precipitation (figure G-7)

        

        more fertile river valleys

        

   

• Climatology
  • Climate-definition: average weather conditions for a given area over an extended period of time
  • Weather: refers to the atmospheric conditions at a specific place and time
  • Climatology
    • A branch of physical geography
    • Concerned with...
      • Spatial arrangement of climate over the surface of the Earth
      • Processes which contribute to the distribution

     

  • Russian Climate - affected by 3 natural conditions:
    • Latitudinal position: so far north
    • Continental position: far from oceans
    • Location of major mountains
      • rain shadow (drier) to the east of the Ural Mountains
      • some orographic rainfall to the west of the Ural Mountains

     

  • Climate

    

  Question: How does the concept of "continentality" apply to the Russian Realm? What is the difference between "climate" and "weather"?

   

  • Vegetation

• Climate as a restrictive element
  • Agriculture
  • Short growing seasons
  • Drought prone
  • Erosion (accelerated via snow melt)

   

• Physiographic Regions
  • Mountains, deserts, and oceans encircle Russia EXCEPT to the west; there is no physical barrier between Europe and Russia
  • therefore warm subtropical air from the south cannot reach Russia
  • so cold Arctic air sweeps south without any physical barrier
  • tundra and taiga

  

  1. Russian Plain
     • Eastward continuation of North European Lowland
     • Core area
     • Ural mountains to the east
  2. Ural Mountains
     • 2,000 miles long (North-South)
     • Yields a variety of minerals
     • not all that high; not a significant barrier to transportation
     • separates two large plains
     • southern end well populated
  3. West Siberian Plain
     • World's largest unbroken lowlands
     • Permafrost in the north
     • marshy center
     • more populated south
  4. Central Siberian Plateau
     • Sparsely populated
     • temperature extremes
     • permafrost
  5. Yakutsk Basin
     • mountainous
     • high relief
  6. Eastern Highlands
     • Ranges, ridges, precipitous valleys, volcanic mountains,
     • Lake Baykal: deepest lake in the world (over 5000 feet = 1 mile deep)
  7. Central Asian Ranges
     • mountains
     • rise above the snow line, glaciated
  8. Caucasus Mountains
     • between the Black and Caspian Seas
     • extensions of the European Alpines
     • high relief

   

  Question: On a blank outline map label the major physiographic features of Russia .

• HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY
  • Evolution of the Russian state
    • Slavic kingdoms (each called a rus) began on the Russian Plain
    • The Mongol Invasion
      • in the 13th century (1200's)
      • the Islamic "Tartar" Mongols came on horseback from the Mongol Empire north of China
      • Slavs fled into the forests and established the Moscow Rus; repelled Mongol attacks
    • Grand Duchy of Muscovy
      • rulers called czars
      • Ivan The Terrible- 1547-1584
      • Moscow became a strong military power
      • eventually defeating the Tarters and destroyed hundreds of mosques
    • The Cossacks
      • seminomadic peoples
      • spearheaded the eastward expansion of Grand Duchy of Muscovy to the Pacific Ocean
      • even crossed the Bering Strait to present day Alaska
        • remember, the US bought Alaska from the Russians in 1867; "Seward's folly"
        • optional: http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h230.html
      • the Russians eventually even moved down the western coast of North America to what is now northern California
    • Czar Peter The Great: 1682-1725
      • "founder of modern Russia"
      • Moscow was the center of a great empire
      • built St. Petersburg as a forward capital
      • began to reorient Russia toward the west (Europe)
      • became Russia's leading port
      • Continued to conquer lands including Estonia
    • The Russian Empire expanded during the nineteenth century
      • southward into land of the Islamic Ottomans
      • westward into what is today Poland
      • Took Finland from the Swedes in 1809
      • into Islamic Central Asia
      • and west into China

      

      • What stopped the expansion of the Russian Empire? (see figure 2-4)
        • Russians, after failing to get china's permission to cross Manchuria with the Trans-siberian railroad (to get to Vladivostok), invaded China in 1901
        • this threatened Japan's imperial interests and sparked the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)
        • Russia was defeated and lost Manchuria and Sakhalin Island to the Japanese

• The Colonial Legacy
  • Russia expanded through colonialism
  • traveling overland, conquering contiguous lands
  • creating the largest territorially contiguous empire in the world

   

  • An Imperial , Multinational State
    • annexed and incorporated more than 100 different nationalities
    • even after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia remains a multinational empire
    • many minorities still occupy their ancestral homelands

 

• The Soviet Political Framework
  • Soviet Legacy (1917-1991)
    • Russian Revolution (1905-1917)
      • Russia at the beginning of the 20th century was a feudal society
      • with a wealthy nobility and terrible living conditions for peasants and laborers
      • most Russians and the minorities "faced exploitation, corruption, starvation, and harsh subjugation.
      • "Bolshevik Red Army" vs. "Menshivik White Army" vs. the Czar
      • the Bolsheviks won
      • The Soviet Union was formed; Union of Soviet socialist Republics; USSR
      • Capital moved to Moscow - the opposite of a "forward capital"; inward looking

      Question: When and what was the Russian Revolution? Who won?

       

  • The Political Framework of the Soviet Union: Federation
    • USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) -1924
    • SSRs, ASSRs, Autonomous Regions

     

    • Russians accounted for only about half of the total population
    • Lenin, the first leader, talked about the "right of self-determination for the nationalities" but did not allow it
    • the Soviet political frameworks was based on the ethnic nationalities (nations) creating 11 SSRs (Soviet Socialist Republics) based on nationalities (see figure 2-6); Moldova, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were added later

  

  [to enlarge: right click and select "view image]

  • Smaller minorities within some SSRs were assigned their own ASSR (Autonomous Soviet socialist Republic)
  • Other even smaller nations were given their won "Autonomous Region"

   

• Russification

• Former Soviet Union

   

The Soviet Economic Framework: Command Economy

• Command Economy (Socialism): An economy in which the means of production are owned & controlled by the state (by the government) and in which central planning of the structure and the output prevails
• based on Marxist-Leninist principles
• Features of the Soviet economy:
  • Goals:
    • to accelerate industrialization
    • to collectivize agriculture
  • Collectivization of Agriculture
    • private lands of the wealthy landowners was taken by the government
    • land was consolidated into large government farms called sovkhoz
    • the idea was that large farms could be more efficient and produce more with fewer farmers
    • this would free up workers who could move to the urban factories
    • some landowners opposed collectivization, but the Soviets were ruthless
    • the Ukrainian famine
  • Industrialization
    • results were better
    • production increased greatly
  • Production of particular manufactured goods were assigned to particular places
    • often this was based on politics rather than economics
    • this made the different areas of the country dependent on other areas
    • such practices were extremely expensive and harmed the economy

 

A Comparison of Command Economies and Market Economies CHARACTERISTIC COMMAND ECONOMY MARKET ECONOMY ownership of resources: government ownership private ownership decision making: centrally planned by the market motivation: "social good" self interest and profit prices and wages: set by the government often distorted set by the market change with market results: inefficiency full employment low inflation low standard of living shortages more equal distribution. economic efficiency periods of unemployment. periods of inflation high standard of living wide range available less equal distribution. problems: corruption=self interest lack of incentives distorted prices inefficiency monopoly= inefficiency inequality changing prices instability (Unemployment, IN) pollution OVERALL: LESS FOR MORE = INEFFICIENT MORE FOR LESS = EFFICIENT

• Soviet Leaders
  • Czars before 1917
  • Lenin
  • Stalin
  • Kruschev
  • Breshnev
  • Gorbachev
    •  
  • Lenin (1918 - 1927)
    • Introduced Marxist philosophy
    • Replaced private with public ownership
    • Developed national economic plans
    • Established Soviet political structure based on ethnic identities

     

  • Stalin (1927 - 1953)
    • All assets nationalized
    • Creation of huge centralized state machine over all aspects of Soviet life
    • Purges Of Dissidents (30-60 Million)
    • Collectivized farming (Sovkhoz)
    • Concentration on heavy industry at expense of agriculture

     

  • Kruschev (1953 - 1964)
    • Greater emphasis on agriculture
    • Virgin Lands Program - pastures into irrigated wheat fields
    • Ultimately led to Aral Sea environmental disaster

     

  • Breshnev (1964 - 1982)
    • Height of the Cold War
    • Military/Industrial economy
    • Economic stagnation (Agriculture)

     

  • Gorbachev (1985 - 1991)
    • Initiated economic and political reform
    • Perestroika
      • "Restructuring"
      • Intended to produce major changes to both the economic and political system
      • Economic Aim: to catch up with western economies
      • Political Aim: reform of the Communist Party
    • Glasnost
      • Policy of encouraging greater openness in both internal and external affairs

     

   

• Collapse of the Soviet Union
  • A sharp decline in agricultural & industrial production
    • Economic output down by 4% in 1990 and 10-15% in first half of 1991
  • Intensification of ethno-cultural nationalism & separatism
    • Unity of the Soviet Union and unity of republics threatened
  • Pluralization of Soviet politics and steady erosion of Communist Party monopoly or power
  • The emergence of a "Commonwealth" of Slavic countries to replace the Soviet Union: Commonwealth Of Independent States
  • The Resignation of President Gorbachev

    

   

  Question: Where and what was the Soviet Union (USSR) Discuss the "Soviet Economic Framework" using the following terms in your discussion: central planning, communism, collectivization, command economy.

  Question: Why was Czarist Russia considered an "empire"? How did the Russian Empire differ from the empires of European countries like Great Britain and France? Discuss the "Russian Revolution" and the U. S. S. R.

• CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
  • Russia's Changing Political Geography: Current Political Organization
    • 1991 the USSR dissolved
    • the new Russian Federation (1992)
      • Russians now made up 83 % of the 150 million population
      • numerous minority nations remained
      • all but one of the political units of the former Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic signed the Russian Federation Treaty
      • eventually only the Islamic Chechnya refused to sign the Federation Treaty
        • Russian military intervened
        • dispute continues (see below)
      • The complex Federal Framework of Russia: 89 Political Units
        • 21 Republics (based on cultural minorities)
        • 11 Autonomous Regions (Okrugs)
        • 49 Provinces (Oblasts)
        • 6 Territories (Krays)
        • 2 Autonomous Federal Cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg)

       

      Question: Does Russia have a unitary state political system or a federal political system? Explain. Also, what are some of the PROBLEMS that Russian is facing operating under such a system?

  • OTHER DRAMATIC CHANGES:
    • Democratization of the political process
    • Transition to a market economy
    • Sale of state-owned industries (privatization)
    • Liberation of the press

       

    • Problems
      • distance decay
      • republics of greatly differing sizes
      • republics of differing population sizes
      • "growing social disharmony between Moscow (the federal government) and the subnational political entities" e.g. Chechnya

   

  • Religions Of Russia

    

     

   

• ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
  • Changing Social Geographies: Daily lives of it's citizens
    • population decline 150 million in 1991 to 142 million in 2006
    • declining life expectancy increase in diseases decline in national institutions like the military, universities, leading industries
    • increase in corruption and organized crime

   

  • Geographic Theories of World Power:
    • Mackinder's Heartland Theory
      • Argued that western Russia and eastern Europe contained the geographical attributes of natural protection and natural resources
      • This area is the world's "heartland'
      • Therefore this area could one day become a major world power
      • This theory was published when Russia was weak and economically poor
      • The Soviet Union's role as a superpower during the cold war seemed to confirm Mackinder's theory
    • Spykman's Rimland Theory
      • disagreed with Mackinder
      • predicted that the world's rimland states would rise in power
      • example: Japan

     

  • Russia, Europe, and the World

    • Will the changes in Russia move it toward greater cooperation with the US and Europe?
    • Or will Russia return to a path of conflict and disagreement with the west?

   

  Question: How does the Russian realm rank compared to other realms on the common measures of economic development? [See table G-1] On the map below locate the Russian CORE area.

REGIONS OF THE REALM

Russia's Regions: Russian Core and Peripheries (including the Transcaucasian Transition Zone) Siberia Eastern Frontier Far East

• Russian Core and Peripheries
  • A country's "core":
    • contains much of the country's population
    • its major cities
    • its major industries
    • its most dense transportation networks
    • its most intensively cultivated lands
  • Sub-regions of the Russian core:
    • Central Industrial Region
      • centered on Moscow
      • more than 1/3 of the country's population
    • Povolzhye: The Volga Region
      • middle and lower Volga River valley linked by canal to the Don River and hence to the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean [the Volga flows into the Caspian Sea with no outlet to the rest of the world.]
    • The Internal Southern Periphery
      • generated some of the most difficult politico-geographical problems for the new Russia
      • part of Russia between the Black Sea and the Caspian sea

         

      • also includes Chechnya
        • oil pipelines and refineries
        • Islamic majority
        • entire population exiled in central Asia during Stalin's rule; returned later
        • did not sign the Russian Federation Treaty; wanted independence; Russian troops intervened; fought Russian army to a stalemate
        • terrorist attacks
        • Russian army still unable to control the republic
        • BBC Timeline: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/country_profiles/2357267.stm

        

      • Republics of the Internal Southern Periphery
        • Kalmykia
          • 1/2 Buddhist
        • Dagestan
          • Islamic majority
          • 30 cultural minorities speaking 80 languages
          • oil
        • Ingushetiya
          • once part of Chechnya
          • Islamic
        • North Ossetia
          • South Ossetia is part of the state of Georgia
        • Kabardino-Balkariya
        • Karachayevo-Cherkessiya
        • Adygeya

[to enlarge: right click and select "view image]

Question: For each of the conflicts listed below (1) LOCATE it on the map, (2) discuss WHO IS/WAS FIGHTING WHOM, and (3) a little about the CAUSE of the conflict. a. Chechnya b. Nagorno-Karabach

• The External Southern Periphery: Transcaucasia
  • made up of three countries: Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan
  • historically a battleground between
    • Christians and Muslims
    • Russians and Turks
    • Armenians and Persians
  • boundary disputes and ethnic quarrels

   

  

• Georgia
  • four regions

    

  • 65% Georgian, 8% Armenian, 6% Russian, 3% Ossetians, 2% Abkhazians
  • 90% Greek Orthodox Christian, 10% Muslim
  • Black Sea Coast and therefore a warm water port to the world
  • high mountains and fertile valleys
  • Post independence (1991) problems:
    • South Ossetia fought to join North Ossetia and Russia; Russia intervened
    • Abkhazia fought for independence, Russia intervened
    • Muslim Ajaria wanted more power
• Armenia
  • landlocked
  • Christianity
  • massacred by the Ottoman Turks during W.W.I
  • at war with Azerbaijan
    • Nagorno-Karabach: exclave of Armenians in Azerbaijan
    • Armenian troops entered Azerbaijan and gained control over Nagorno-Karbakh
• Azerbaijan
  • 8.4 million in Azerbaijan
  • Shi'ite Muslims
  • Also live in neighboring Iran (10 million)
  • Turkish language (not Persian like Iran)
  • oil and natural gas using Russian oil pipelines to export it via the Black Sea
  • New pipeline through Georgia or Iran?
  • poverty, corruption see table G-1)

Question: Why are Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan included in the Russian Realm? How have these countries fared since independence?

The Urals Region

• not very high; not a barrier
• natural resources and industrialization

• Eastern Frontier
  • The Kuznetsk Basin (Kuzbas)in the west
    • heavy manufacturing left over from communist planners
    • iron ore and coal
    • leading city: Novosibirisk
  • The Lake Baykal Area (Baykaliya) in the east
    • ribbons of settlement along the two east-west railroads

• Siberia
  • Size: Larger than the conterminous Unite States
  • only 15 million people
  • Larger than continental US, but less than 15 million people
  • Challenging Environment
    • Vast distances
    • Cold temperatures
    • Arctic winds
    • Poor soils
  • Resource Potential
    • Precious minerals
    • Metallic ores: iron, bauxite (aluminum ore)
    • Oil and natural gas
    • Timber
  • Rivers flow north

• Far East
  • Mainland and Sakhalin Island
  • Port of Vladivostok
  • distance decay: far from the Russian Core and isolated
  • Contested Areas?