1303 Chapter 2 - Russia

Russia

Geographic Data

· Immense territorial state

· Northernmost large and populous state

· Former colonial and imperial power – now collapsed

· Comparatively small and concentrated population and development

· Multi-Cultural state

· Quasi land-locked

· Major Devolution

· Irredentism as problem

· General economic disarray

· Source of raw materials

Climatology and Physical Geography – Geographical studies of areas

• Climate
• The average weather conditions at a particular place over a long period of time. Climate is the long-term predictable state of the atmosphere.
• It is affected by physical features such as mountains, rivers, positioning of the globe, plateaus, deserts, depressions and much more.
• Weather
• The state of the atmosphere at a given time in a particular place.
• Climatology
• concerned with the special arraignment of climate over the face of the earth and the processes which contribute to the distribution.

Russian climate – three major factors

· Latitudinal Position

· Continental Position

· Location of major mountains

Why is this important?

• By studying a nation’s climates (Russia in this case) we can begin to understand some of what the map of population distribution means.

Climate as a Restrictive Factor

• Agriculture
• Short Growing Seasons
• Drought Prone
• High levels of erosion
• Settlement and Transportation
• Population centered around agricultural regions
• Transportation difficult in more inclement environments
• High Energy Consumption
• Industry
• High Energy Consumption
• Specialized equipment and facilities
• Extractive restrictions
• Permafrost
• Spring and Fall Melt/Mud
• Greatly increased cost
• In Russia this means that the majority of the population and industrial centers are located in the west and southwest around good farming land with a more moderate climate.

Physiographic Regions

• Russian Plain
• Eastward continuation of North European Lowland
• Core Area (Moscow Basin)
• Ural Mountains
• 2000 miles long (North-South)
• Wide variety of mineral resources
• West Siberian Plain
• World’s largest unbroken lowland
• Permafrost
• Central Siberian Plateau
• Sparsely populated
• Temperature extremes and permafrost
• Yakutsk Basin
• Mountainous, high relief
• Eastern Highlands
• Mountain ridges, precipitous valleys, and volcanic mountains
• Lake Baykal
• Central Asian Ranges
• Glaciated
• Caucasus Mountains
• Extension of the Alpine Range

Evolution of the Russian State

• Kievan Rus and the Novgorod Rus
• 9^th Century CE – Dnieper River Valley
• Mongol Invasion
• 1223 – 1480 CE
• Destruction of urban centers
• Grand Duchy of Muscovy
• Begins in the early 1300’s
• Expansion and Consolidation 1400 – 1500
• The Cossacks
• Russian Tsars
• Ivan the Terrible
• Czar Peter the Great
• Europeanization of Russian
• St. Petersburg
• Russian Empire

Forward Capital

• Capital city positioned in actually or potentially contested territory, usually near an international border, confirms the state’s determination to maintain its presence in the region
• St. Petersburg
• Moscow

Historical and Political Legacy and Frameworks

• Rule of the Czars
• Very Centralized Power
• Focused on extension of power and protection of the Motherland
• Internal Imperialism
• Xenophobic
• Soviet Legacy
• Very, Very Centralized Power
• Subjugation non-ethnic Russians as tools of the State – Russification
• Corruption – due to centralization of power
• Collectivization of agriculture and industry
• Internal Relocation and Ethnic Cleansing (30 – 60 million deaths)
• Command Economy – a highly centralized economy where production of goods was assigned due to political and ideological considerations instead of through the principles of economic geography.
• Dependence on the control of the extraction and export of raw materials
• Collapse of the Soviet Union
• Federated Structure
• Russification
• Decline in agricultural and industrial production
• Strong devolution tendencies
• Collapse of the price of oil on the world market
• Federated Russia (Tensions)
• Unitary State System
• Centralized government and administration
• Federal System
• decentralized power, shared between the various member states of a federation

Distance Decay

• The various degenerative effects of distance on human spatial structures and interactions.

Economic Framework

• Centrally Planned
• Began in the early 1920’s
• Major Objectives
• Speed Industrialization
• Collectivize Agriculture
• The Soviet Model

Command Economy

• An economy in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state and in which central planning of the structure and the output prevails
• Features of the Soviet Economy
• Production of particular manufactured goods centralized at particular places
• Economic interdependence of the republics
• Caused a sharp decline in agricultural and industrial production as well as Ethno-Cultural nationalism and separatism

Concepts Central to Russia

Heartland Theory and Pivot Areas

• Halford Mackinder (1905)
• Says that any political power based in the heart of Eurasia could gain sufficient strength to eventually dominate the world.
• Who rules East Europe Commands the Heartland: Who rules the Heartland commands the world island; Who rules the World Island commands the World

Rimland Theory

• Nicholas John Spykman
• Says that the Heartland is primarily a defensive regions
• Who controls the Rimland rules Eurasia; Who rules Eurasia controls the Destinies of the World

Russia’s new challenges

• Natural resource control by former republics
• Irredentism
• Concern for ethnic Russians outside of Russia
• National Pride of the Russian peoples
• Champion of the Slavic Peoples
• Determined to remain a world power
• Centrifugal Forces – devolution
• Mainly on the periphery
• Chechnya
• Extraction of resources from Siberia

Changing Social Geographies

• Revival of Religion
• Rise of the Oligarchs
• Failure of the Pension System
• Crime and Corruption
• New Freedoms
• Population Decline