Geography and the great victory: A story from the wartime life of “pacific” academic geography

Abstract

Based on an analysis of materials from the “List of Works of the Institute of Geography, USSR Academy of Sciences, Conducted during World War II (1941–1943)” and numerous works in geographical publications commemorating the 40th and 50th anniversaries of the Great Victory, the paper considers the contributions of scientific geographers to military geographical support of the army and the home front. Quantitative and qualitative estimates for the volume of cartographic and reference materials are given, prepared at the Institute of Geography, including direct participation in works by I.P. Gerasimov and K.K. Markov. A hypothesis is proffered that, owing to the wartime departure from the ideological war again “Denism” and “Hettnerism,” Soviet geography was able to return to its country-specific essence, a landscape approach, and industrial-statistical direction in economic geography, which helped to actively create the military-cartographic and military-reference materials needed for the front and rear, including maps—landscapes of the front and rear, passability maps, location of the population, industries, natural resources, the mobilization potential of territories, etc. It is shown that each of the directions of the institute’s activity during the war was substantially developed in the postwar years.