From the Editor-in-Chief.

The authors analyze the evolution of the system of urban settlement pattern in the post-Soviet space, comparing the consecution of urbanization processes and the change of migration balances in cities of different size, status and location in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Despite the differences in size and density of cities, their spatial and hierarchical structure, as well as in management decisions, many trends of changing the network of cities in these countries were similar. The causes of different migration attractiveness of cities of different size, including their socioeconomic state and the degree of infrastructure development are considered. For countries under review, strong contrasts of urban settlement pattern with a large role of big centers and a high percentage of small towns are typical. In all three countries there are significant differences between the quality of life in large urban centers and small towns. The authors analyze the situation before the war in Ukraine in 2014. Migration, directed in the period from 1990 to 2013, mainly from rural areas, small and medium-sized cities to the largest centers, confirm the hypothesis about the continuation in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus unfinished in the Soviet time urbanization. It is possible to ascertain two main spatial directions of migration in the post-Soviet period: from periphery to the capitals, their suburbs and in major cities, and for Russia and Ukraine (until 2014) – from the East to the Central and Southern areas.

In last years, a lot of studies dealing with international electricity trade in the post-Soviet space were published, but they had not examined regional specificity of this phenomenon. The aim of this work is to identify the regional characteristics of development and degradation of international electricity trade in the post-Soviet space in 1990–2015. The work was performed using the comparative-geographical, historicalevolutionary and cartographic methods. The directions of building and dismantling cross-border transmission lines, cross-border power flows and the load factor of cross-border transmission lines were analyzed. The analysis of these parameters showed that the general trend for post-Soviet space is the degradation of international electricity trade and service infrastructure despite of high potential of international cooperation in the industry. The exception is the Baltic States, which have formed a holistic energy association by unifying the parameters of electric power markets. The construction of cross-border transmission lines in the Baltic countries is made due to the imbalances associated with the closure of the Ignalina nuclear power plant and active commissioning of wind power plants, and the requirements of pan-European strategies. Assessment of prospects showed that after resolution of a number of foreign policy problems it is possible to create energy associations based on the use of hydro-generated electricity in the East of Central Asia and in the West of Transcaucasia. Many countries are characterized by the build-up of electricity exports to Asian countries (China, Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey). The main prerequisite for the development of international trade in electricity is an imbalance between the growing consumption in some regions and the availability of cheap energy in others. Exchange rate fluctuations, the foreign policy phenomena, and the development program of national power systems are less important.

Article is devoted to problems of association of models of settlement pattern and production. The authors propose an integral spatial model of production and settlement pattern which allows quantitatively estimating the territorial differences both in the hierarchy of settlements by federal subjects and parameters of their economic activity depending on the place in the territorial hierarchy and specialization of areas. The model is rather flexible and can account for both the influence of scientific and technical progress on labor productivity and the ratio of factors of production and cycles of the conjuncture.

Article is devoted to the analysis of structure of territorial policy and a place of regional policy in system of territorial strategies of various actors. The question of influence of “failures of the state” on realization of its spatial strategies in the market conditions is investigated, a number of vectors of optimization of the state regional policy are offered.

Analysis of changes in actual evaporation from natural green land from 1960 to 1986 is carried out for the European territory of Russia. Regions of specific changes in evaporation value are selected. It is shown that evaporation increase is observed over the whole territory under the study. Evaporation increase intensity is maximal in the forest zone and in the meadow steppe zone. Actual evaporation changes from 1987 are assessed using observations on pan evaporation and precipitation for the warm season of the year. It is shown that suggested empirical method allows to obtain sufficiently realistic estimates of actual evaporation from natural green land at least for the warm season. Analysis of observed and restored actual evaporation showed that small increase of its values from 1966 to 2010 is observed over European Russia despite its little decrease from 1987.

The concept of development of snow cover structure based on its crystal morphology, as well as the fundamental laws of natural symmetry is presented. Deterministic and stochastic empirical models describing the sublimation-metamorphic cycle of snow cover as an evolutionary biosphere process have been developed. The stadiality of forms of crystal growth and polymorphic self-development of snow horizons were identified. It is shown that snow cover is a natural model for the study of a number of evolutionary processes which were in the geological and historical past and occur today as in inorganic nature, so and in the biotic environment.

In the natural reserve “Belogorie” at the Yamskaya Steppe site, located in the south of the Central-Russian Upland, a wide range of subjects were studied aiming identification and analysis of paleo-pedological and paleobotanical indicators of environmental change in different historical periods of the Holocene. The study subjects included paleosoil buried under the earth mound of the Bronze Age, background virgin Chernozem near the mound, soil buried under the cast of marmot, and the soils in the ravine-gully deposits on bottom of gully. Using a complex of methods, including soil-archaeological, palynological, microbiomorphic, pedoanthracological, radiocarbon and paleogeographic reconstructions, was allowed to reveal a complicated combination of natural and human-induced changes in the meadow and meadowsteppe landscapes of the Yamskaya Steppe site in the Holocene. Watershed spaces were characterized by contrasting changes of vegetation types during studied period. The high degree of natural afforestation was observed for 6000−6500 yrs BP. Later, up to nowadays, on the watersheds the meadow-steppe type of landscape was dominated. The phase of increased afforestation was also observed in the beginning of the Subboreal period of Holocene (before 4600 years ago), but this time the development of forests was limited by their spread in the ravines. The Late Holocene was heterogeneous in relation to bioclimatic conditions with alternating wet and relatively dry phases, but their exact identification is complicated by the increasing of anthropogenic impacts on vegetation. Starting with the Subboreal period of Holocene the anthropogenic disturbance of landscapes became apparent, first in the form of periodic burning of steppes, and in the Sub-Atlantic period of Holocene – as a combination of burning and cultivation of agricultural crops on individual plots within the study area. Thus, the meadow-steppe environments in the south of the Central-Russian Upland, preserved nowadays only in the reserves, had a complex history of development in the past including climatogenic and anthropogenic transformation of soils and vegetation.

The objective of work is to study the influence of quasi-biennial oscillation of atmospheric processes on precipitation and frequency of the spring-summer drought against the background of the statistics of cyclonic and anticyclonic activity in different phases of the quasi-biennial oscillation and, consequently, on the yield of wheat in the European part of Russia. The area of the study is the grain zone of European Russia including the North Caucasus, Central Chernozem zone, Volga region and Southern Urals. The timeseries of values of speed and direction of zonal wind on an isobaric surface of 30 hPa for the period 1953–2011 was accepted as data characterizing the “classical” quasi-biennial (Data of Free University of Berlin, https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu). Decadic precipitation totals, indices of PDSI and SPI, snow depth in March, the frequency of centers of cyclones during the period of vegetation classified by phases of quasi-biennial. The increase of snow depth in March is revealed, as well as significant increase in precipitation and a reduction in the frequency of severe droughts in May associated with the intensification of cyclonic activity during the Western phase in relation to Eastern on a vast territory: the western region of Central Chernozem zone, Rostov region and Krasnodar krai. As a result of changing agro-climatic conditions depending on the phase of the quasi-biennial in the territory, it is found a significant excess of productivity of spring wheat during the Western phase against the Eastern phase. The yield of winter wheat was less sensitive to the quasi-biennial. The results of the study can be used to adequately address the problem of increasing the sustainability of harvests in Russia (improvement of agrometeorological practice, including prognostic aspects, and agroinsurance).

The article considers the triad of the major concepts in geographical onomastics in a consistent manner: “name – geographical name – geoconcept”. If a toponim and a geographical name can be considered as traditional geographical categories, the geoconcept represents a new theoretical concept initiated and developed by the author. It reflects a qualitatively new situation in the geography associated with the cultural turn and the information revolution. The conceptualization of geographical space takes place through the empowering individual places and areas with higher cultural status, for example, in connection with significant historical events or as a result of connection of places with outstanding cultural figure. The problem of interaction of geographical names belonging to different pictures of the world, is considered as a problem of intercultural and interdisciplinary communication. The article analyzes different types of problem situations – from “peaceful coexistence” beetwen the two geographical names in the same area to the conflicts of geoconcepts belonging to different cultural traditions. In this regard the most striking examples are associated with the post-Soviet space.

С 18 по 21 мая 2015 г. в г. Санкт-Петербурге состоялась V международная конференция “Историческая география России: ретроспектива и современность комплексных региональных исследований”, посвящённая 100-летию публикации серии П.П. Семёнова-Тян-Шанского “Россия. Полное географическое описание нашего отечества” (1899–1914).

Сразу скажу – осуществить замысел книги со столь обязывающим названием авторскому коллективу профессиональных географов удалось. Удалось показать и разнообразие, и своеобразие природы российских регионов, их городов и сел, этносов, культуры, традиций хозяйствования. Конечно, не с исчерпывающей полнотой исполнения темы. Тема ведь почти необъятная. Другие авторы нашли бы, вероятно, иные объекты и аспекты для описания огромной страны, у которой, как сказал Федор Иванович Тютчев, “особенная стать” и которую “аршином общим не измерить”.