Foundations 099-10 'Russia and the Internet' | ||
The Geography of the U.S.S.R. | ||
Professor Robert Beard |
- GEOGRAPHICAL TOPOLOGY
- Size:
1/22 Earth's surface; 1/6 Earth's land mass; 24% arable at all; 11% commercially farmable (comparable to typical US farmland)
- Topography
- Largest open plain on earth offers no protection from Arctic air
- Eurasian plain interrupted only partially by the gentle Urals
- West Siberian plain west of the Urals; Turanian Plain south
- Mountains to the south and east stop moist air from Indian and Pacific oceans
- In the East: Chukhot, Chersk, Verkhoyansk, Stanovoi
- In the South: Khlngan, Yablonoi, Sayan, Altai, Tien Shan, Pamir, Hindukush, Caucasus
- Rivers run north and south while transportation problem is east-west
- Siberian rivers run into Arctic Ocean
- European rivers run into Black & Caspian seas
- Outlets to the sea are all choke-points
- Arctic Ocean - frozen 6 months
- Baltic Sea through Straits of Denmark
- Pacific through Kurile Islands past Japan
- Black Sea through Dardanelles
- Topographical Zones
- Tundra - No soil development, only lichens, scrub brush cannot support organized human life. Permafrost covers 47% of Soviet territory.
- Taiga - Coniferous forest. Land can be cleared but not rich; no deciduous trees
- Forest zone - largest in the world. 'Podzol', lacking plant food
- mixed deciduous/coniferous forest does not reach Siberia
- forest-steppe - narrow band runs to west Siberia
- Steppe - open plain. 'Chernozem', 2%-16% nutrient content from 2-6 feet
- Deserts and semideserts - from Caspian to Tien Shan Mountains
- Subtropics
- Eastern tip of Black Sea
- Lenkoran Lowland SE Azerbaijan
- Climate
- Temperature range 14O° F in Kyzyl Kum desert to -90° F in Verkhoyansk
- Dominated by cold air which does not hold as much moisture from Arctic.
- Continental Climate: short springs and falls, quick run-offs, hot summers, cold winters;
- Colder moving east rather than north
- Growing Season similar to Scandinavia a. 120-180 growing days per annum; mean average 140 (4.20 mos.)
b. USA average 200 days (6.20 months)
- Archangelsk 120
- Moscow 130
- Kazan 146
- Ukraine 151
- Saratov 161 (on the Volga)
- Minnesota 100
- Cotton Belt 200
- Southern borders 260
- Western Europe 240-280
- Precipitation
- Arctic air cold so holds little moisture; dries as blows southward (great distances)
- Mountain ranges to south prevent moisture: monsoons to south, deserts north; sukhoveys: long, stagnant wind storms; temperature range approximately same.
- More moisture from Gulf Stream but it must pass over Europe where most falls; remainder falls mostly in north where land poorest
- Highest mean ave. = 27" just east of Carpathians (minimum 20" required for effective farming)
- Upper Dnepr 26" per annum
- Caspian lowland 8"
- Pechora tundra 12"
- By comparison: US 60", per annum mean ave.
- By comparison: Norway 100" per annum mean ave. (40-120)
- GEOECONOMIC STATUS
- Only self-sufficient nation on earth
- Largest producer of wheat, rye, cotton, etc. (high production costs)
- Largest producer of oil and natural gas with largest known reserves
- Largest producer of coal and steel
- Second largest producer of diamonds and gold
- Largest fur auction in the world in terms of sales
- Largest producer of hydroelectricity
- Major geoeconomic problems: transportation
- Great distances
- Raw materials and population centers do not coincide
- resources in east, industrial centers in west but
- rivers run N-S, not E-W
- Temperature extremes makes difficult
- movement
- maintenance of transportation networks
- rivers freeze in winter, roads deteriorate, rails
- GEOSOCIAL STATUS
- Multinational State: 120 recognized languages and dialects in USSR
- Orthodox, Jews, Moslem (catholic, Protestant)
- Socialist in form, nationalist in content
- political-economic system is socialist
- culture (education), publication, local language are all nationalist
- courts conducted in local language
- Russian official language of U.S.S.R.; required second language in schools
- Soviets created 48 new alphabets
- literature published in 77 languages
- Problems of Multinational States
- 89 oblasts in Russia
- 15 former republics
- Slavic: Russia (Moscow), Ukraine (Kiev), Belorussia (Minsk)
- Baltic: Latvia (Riga), Lithuania (Vilnius), Estonia (Tallin)
- Transcaucasian: Georgia (Tbilisi), Armenia (Yerevan), Azerbaijan (Baku)
- Moldavia (Chisinau), Kazakhstan (Almaty)
- Central Asian: Uzbekistan (Tashkent), Tajikistan (Dushanbe), Turkmenia (Ashgabat), Kyrgyzstan (Frunze)
- The Slavs:
a. East Slavs-. Russians, Belorussians, Ukrainians b. West Slavs: Poles, (Czechs, Slovaks) c. South Slavs: (Serbs, Croatians), Slovenians, Macedonians, Bulgarians
- 3. Relatively small movement for succession except Ukraine and Baltic Republics (in Central Asia standard of living roughly 30% better in USSR)
- GEOPOLITICAL STATUS
- Security issue- CONTINENTAL POWER
- 9x longer borders than US
- 12 (13) mostly unfriendly neighbors: Korea, China, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway, Finland (Japan)
- Smaller portion protected by seas or oceans
- Choke points of navy: Dardanelles (Black Sea Fleet), Kurile Islands (Pacific Fleet), Danish Archepelago (Baltic Fleet)
- Industrial Base
- Central European Plain -- no natural defenses
- Poland invaded in 1611, 1920
- France invaded in 1812
- Germany 1914-1918, 1941-1945
- Heartland Theory (David Urquhart 1834; British consul in Istanbul) has nothing to do with Communism
- Slow, interminable expansion from the center outwards
- Seeking warm water ports
- Until it covers the entire globe
- Before the USSR collapsed, however:
- expansion stoppped at natural boundaries
- retracted from the western coast of North America
- retracted from Finland,
- retracted from Poland, Austria, Yugoslavia
- Russia has warm water ports in 3 locations already
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