GEOG318 Russia and Its Neighbors EXAMINATION#3
Study Guide
May 19 W 2:45-4:45 p.m.
In case you miss the test -- there will be no opportunity for making up
the test, you would get an Incomplete and have to wait until the fall.
Bring scantron sheet Form 882-ES.
You will have 97 questions (+ 3 extra) and 120 minute time
period.
True/False ~ 38 questions (1 point each)
Multiple Choice (~ 39 questions + 3 extra, 1 point each): Select
the letter of the best answer to the question.
Map Matching (20 questions): Match the name and its location
on the map (1 point each). [The map with the list of places was distributed
in class.]
17 Post-Soviet Transitions: Culture/Economy
Post-Soviet urban development trends in urban historical conservation,
retailing, housing, office space provision
Yurii Luzhkov, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Manege Sq. complex,
malls, neo-vysotkas, khrushcheby, the Moscow-City complex [Moskva-City]
– basic geographic and social characteristics: underground or above, tall
or not, what social changes these projects exemplify
Moscow subway system, McDonald’s – what is special about them?
Green areas in Moscow: how did the Soviets kept them in the city
# of churches in Moscow before 1917, in the mid-1980s, and 1990s
What are the forces which have been altering the traditional Orthodox cityscape
of Moscow
Territorial mismatch in churches’ location and residential areas
Church of Kazan’ Icon of the Holy Virgin on Red Square (Kazanskii Church),
SS Boris and Gleb Chapel and others – politics behind
Poklonnaia Hill -- everything
# of vysotkas in Moscow
Film: Moscow: From Marx to McDonald’s
18 Nationalities Policies and Federalism
Classification of languages – basic units and their logic (scope)
Languages of Russia – two major linguistic families.
Indo-European family: everything: 5 sub-families and languages in them,
their geography in Russia
Ural-Altaic family: two major sub-families and their basic geography/religious
connection
Finno-Ugrian: major examples of languages
Turkic: all examples
Mongolian: example
Caucasian (Iberian): major examples
Religions in the former USSR: at the level of 15 republics – which are
predominantly: Orthodox, Christian (ancient, monophysite version), Protestant
(Lutheran), Roman-Catholic, Muslim
In Russia, at the level of autonomous republics: which are traditionally
Muslim, Buddhist, pagan, nominally Judaist
Nationalities policy changes: Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Yeltsin
Internationalist vs. nationalist ideology, self-determination, nativization
(korenizatsia), sliyanie, sblizhenie; Soviet identity
Federalism vs. confederation
Federalist arrangement of the f. USSR. Current Russia: autonomous (ethnic)
republics (f. ASSR) vs. Russian provinces (oblast)
Russians in the f USSR (1989) and the Russian Federation (now): percentage
of total population
# of Russian outside of Russia. Major exclaves: Moldova, Kazakhstan, Ukraine:
where?
The Jews in the Imperial Russia before 1917 – where was the Pale?
Right for self-determination
Russification
Perestroyka, glasnost
Nation, state, nation-state, empire, ethnoregionalism
‘Internal colonies’ features
Titular nationality
Near Abroad
Irredentism
Film: Dagestan. Centripetal vs. centrifugal forces inside of the
republic and in its relations with Russia. Physical geography and cultural
characteristics of the area. Chechens in WWII.
19 Russia: identity, geopolitics and homeland
Geopolitics vs. political geography
Mahan, Ratzel, Mackinder, Spykman, De Seversky, Huntington – their basic
ideas/concepts
Sea Power, the Organic State, lebensraium, the Geographical Pivot, the
Heartland, the World Island, the Rimland, Air Power, the Clash of Civilizations
(which of them Russia belongs to and which are bordering it)
Slavophiles vs. Westernizers vs. Eurasianists vs. Neo-Eurasianists: their
basic ideas, their differences and similarities
Eurasianists vs. Neo-Eurasianists: key names. Attitude to empire (imperial
aspirations). Physical geographic arguments in support
Russian identity, homeland and empire. Exclusive or inclusive vision of
non-Russian people?
Lingua franca
Russian Empire vs. the British Empire: basic similarities and differences
Russia’s post-Soviet identity crisis: why?
Eurasian dilemmas
Liberal vs. neo-nationalist vs. neo-Soviet vs. democratic statist: visions
of Russian homeland, key names
Dugin, Solzhenitsyn, Gumilev, Zhirinovsky
Film: Why We Fight (v.5 Battle for Russia) [fragment]: why did in
the past different invaders attached Russia?
20 The Break-Up
of the USSR: A Break in Continuity
Why Did the USSR Break Up?
Devolution
Uniting-disuniting forces in the USSR and the Russian Federation
Irredentism
Russia’s external challenges
Post-Soviet territorial conflicts, their ethnic-geographic nature: Trans-Dnistria,
Kurils, Nagorno-Karabakh, Kaliningrad, Crimea, Chechnya, Bering Sea
CIS – meaning
Russia in its new borders: is it more or less ethnically homogeneous?
Concept of ‘double borders’
21 The
Western Façade: Ukraine and the Baltics
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus – for each:
basic feature, dominant religion, linguistic family/subfamily, relative
population size, relations with Russia
Which have many Russians (%)
Chernobyl, Trans-Dnisteria, Crimea (incl. Sevastopol), Donbass, Trans-Carpathia,
Kaliningrad
Exclave vs. enclave
Russia’s territorial conflicts in North-West and the Arctic: Karelia, dispute
with the US
Films: Ukraine, The Baltic States [Video Visits]
22 The Southern Tier: Caucasus and Central Asia
Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia,
Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan – for each:
basic feature, dominant religion, linguistic family/subfamily, relative population
size, relations with Russia, resources, level of development
Which have many Russians
(%)
Nagorno-Karabakh, S Ossetia, Abkhazia, Adjaria: where? current status
The Armenian genocide
The Caspian: resources
The traditional Silk Road cities
The Aral Sea problem
Intra-Central Asian issues
Forward capital, personality cult
Film: Central Asia [Globe Trekker]: fragment on Kyrgyzstan
23 The Far Eastern Backyard: Siberia and China
Physical regions in Siberia: W, Central, E parts. Central Asian Ranges.
Basic features
Volcanoes: where
Conflict areas with China, Japan, the US
Russia's population worries
Transportation links. Trans-Siberian line, the Northern Sea Route: when,
why important
BAM
Vladivostok, Kamchatka
and Baikal: basic features/lifestyle
Buryatia, Tuva: religious specificity. Separatism
Chinese penetration into Far East.
Films: Post-Soviet Siberia (Vladivostok, Kamchatka and Baikal); The BAM
zone
24 Domestic
Boundaries and the Russian Question
Russia through history: territorial organization and political regime
Continuous empire, colonies, metropolitan area, metropoly,
Authoritarian and totalitarian political regimes
Ethno-egoism, ethnocentrism, and chauvinism centralization, unitarism,. regionalism
The "Russian Question" and the Chances of Ethnic Russian Separatism
Putin’s "vertical power structure"
Russia’s break-up (rumored CIA forecast for 2015)
25 Domestic
Boundaries and the Russian Question
Russia through history: territorial organization and political regime
Continuous empire, colonies, metropolitan area. Authoritarian and totalitarian
political regimes
Ethno-egoism, ethnocentrism, and chauvinism centralization, unitarism,.
Regionalism
Putin’s "vertical power structure"
Non-Russian territorial homelands: Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, N Caucasus,
Kalmykia, Tuva, and Buryatia
The Finno-Ugrian republics
The "Russian Question" and the Chances of Ethnic Russian Separatism
Russia’s break-up (rumored CIA forecast for 2015). Stabilizing factors
Russia and its neighbors: regional trends
Film: The Volga River, The Kuzbass