Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences

The leading Russian research center in the field of political geography and international relations. Key areas of the laboratory's research: - geopolitical concepts and imperatives of Russia's changing geopolitical situation; - Russian borderland: socio-economic, geocultural and environmental challenges of the neighborhood

Economic geography was the basis for the creation of the Institute of Geography, which has a history of more than 100 years. In 1937, the Department of Economic Geography was actually established under the leadership of N.N. Baransky. From 1946 to 1962, three economic and geographical departments already worked at the Institute: general economic geography, geography of agriculture and economic geography of the European part of the USSR under the leadership of V.F. Vasyutin, P.M. Alampiev, S.N. Ryazantsev, V.V. Pokshishevsky. In 1962, the departments were merged under the leadership of A.A. Mints. Economic and geographical resource studies became the leading direction. Since 1973, the department was headed by G.M. Lappo, in the 1980s the divisions were headed by O.A. Kibalchich, E.B. Alaev, G.A. Privalovskaya, G.V. Ioffe, N.V. Petrov, major scientific areas were developed by T.G. Runova and J.A. Zayonchkovskaya, in the early 1990s the department worked under the leadership of G.A. Privalovskaya, from 1996 to 2014 the work of the department was carried out under the leadership of S.S. Artobolevsky, since 2014 the department has been headed by V.N. Streletsky. Main research areas: • Theoretical and evolutionary socio-economic geography • Urbanization and cities • Spatial development of Russia • Spatial mobility of the population • Evolution of rural areas and economy • Socio-economic problems of geography of nature management • Geography of local government and lawmaking

Areas of work: comprehensive assessment of anthropogenic impact on the environment, geo-ecological assessment of territories, GIS technologies, climate change, natural and climatic risks, forest fires, traditional life support systems, resilience of Arctic cities and settlements, landscape planning.

The department is engaged in a comprehensive study of the natural environment of the Quaternary period (the last 2.6 million years).

Methodological and methodical work in the field of radiocarbon dating of various carbon-containing materials. The use of scintillation (LCS) and accelerator (AMS) techniques in radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon dating of organic matter(s) of soils and sediments. Approaches to the allocation of the "dating fraction". Determination of the coefficient of renewal of organic matter of modern soils, determination of the rates of carbon fluxes in the soil-atmosphere system based on radiocarbon data, assessment of carbon fluxes in soils of various epochs and their dynamics in connection with climate change. Application of the radiocarbon method in paleogeography, soil science, geology, and archaeology.

Research area: diagnostics of natural and climatic events of the Pleistocene and Holocene in Russia through a detailed analysis of sedimentary records of various types (lake-bog, loess-paleosoil, alluvial, slope). Main research objectives: 1. Improving the methods of studying sedimentary paleoarchives. 2. Detailing paleoreconstructions, transition from averaged smoothed constructions to the event level. 3. Identification of chronostratigraphic markers of abrupt changes in the natural environment. 4. Diagnostics of traces of volcanic paleoevents. 5. Identification and assessment of the recurrence of hydrometeorological extremes. 6. Reconstruction of natural conditions of the past in the context of archaeological research.