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Chapter 5 Lecture
World Regional
Geography
A Developmental Approach
11th Edition
Northern
Eurasia

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Chapter Learning Outcomes
• Outline how the opportunities and constraints of Northern Eurasia’s resources
and environment affect development.
• Describe how the history of Russia and the Soviet Union has shaped the
context of development today.
• Explain how the “transition” from Communism diverged from expectations and
led to the current situation.
• Account for the significance of “the power vertical” and “crony capitalism” in
Northern Eurasian development.
• Characterize Russia’s relationships with its neighbors and the rest of the world.
• Understand Ukraine’s predicament, located between Europe and Russia and
divided internally between east and west.
• Identify the significance of oil and gas, both for the “haves” and the “have-nots.”
• Explore the reasons why development is a spatially uneven process in which
some areas excel, while others flounder.

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The Map

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The Countries of Northern Eurasia

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The Countries of Northern Eurasia

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Countries of Northern Eurasia
• Russia
• Belarus
• Ukraine
• Georgia
• Armenia
• Azerbaijan

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Landforms
• West
– Immense Eurasian landmass
– No obstacles to movement of air masses or intrusion of cold air from
Arctic or Siberia
– Ural Mountains
• Up to a maximum of 6,250 feet in remote north
• Rarely exceeds 5,000 feet in settled areas.
– As a result, fairly uniform climatic conditions
• South
– Caucasus Mountains
– Between Black and Caspian Seas and Transcaucasian lands to the
South
– Highly diverse
• East
– Rugged, eroded plateaus
– River valleys
– Most of the area east of the Yenisey River is isolated and inhospitable.

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Natural Regions of Northern Eurasia

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Natural Regions
• Exceptionally large bands of essentially uniform
vegetation and natural regions
• Tundra
• Taiga
• Mixed forest
• Deciduous broadleaf forest
• Forest steppe
• Steppe
• Semidesert
• Desert

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Tundra, Permafrost, Taiga
• Tundra
– Region stretches across Russia’s Arctic shore.
– In places, extends southward to hundreds of miles in
Siberia
– No trees grow in the tundra because of the short growing
season, infertile soil, and shallow active layer insufficient
for tree roots.
• Permafrost—Permanently frozen Earth
• Taiga
– Russian word for boreal forest
– Northern forest dominated by conifers, which Russia has
more than any other country.
– Covers much of Northern Russia west of Urals
– Most of Siberia

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Steppe and Chernozem
• Steppe
– Areas below Baltic states
– Bordering Central Asia (dominates much of
Kazakhstan)
– South of mixed forest region
– Low levels of variability of precipitation makes
agriculture difficult.
• Chernozem—“black earth”
– Soil rich with organic matter
– Appears as dark as compost

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Climate
• Formidable mountain systems
– Rise to the South in Central Asia and in the East
– Blocks Pacific’s influence from all but a small area of the
Russian Far East
• High-latitude location
– Little isolation in winter
– Long days in summer
• Great size of landmass
– Stretches 6,200 miles (10,000 km) west to east
– 1200 miles (2000 km) north to south
• Region marked by long, relatively dry, and very cold
winters and short, but surprisingly warm, summers.

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Agricultural Zones

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Environmental Challenges
• General pollution
• Disasters such as Chernobyl and
Chelyabinsk
• Oil pipelines and production
• Natural gas production

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Chernobyl
• Major nuclear disaster
• A 30-km radius of Chernobyl, Ukraine was
abandoned.
• U.S.S.R. took 20 days to formally
acknowledge the disaster.

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Natural Resources of Northern Eurasia

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Major Language Groups of Northern Eurasia

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Industrial Regions and Selected Cities

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Russian Empire
• Big in landmass, but backward in trade, technology, and modern culture
• Tsar—“Caesar”
• Tsar Peter
– Introduced new ideas and technology from the West
– Retained fundamental principle of service to the state
– Modernized the army
– Created the navy
– Canals and St. Petersburg
• Catherine “the Great”
– Nurtured arts and education
– Did not allow ideas and technology from West to affect governance
– Acquired land through conquest
• Defeated in Crimean War in 1853
• Rural population more than doubled in 50 years.
• Industrial work and living conditions were harsh.
• 1860s—Embarked on Trans-Siberian Railway
• 1905 revolution
– Tsar allowed a Duma as a representative body.
– But overcame through further repression and violence

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Russia Through the Ages

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The U.S.S.R.
• Created as a result of 1917 revolution
• Bolsheviks, led by Lenin
• Initially led to chaos
• Leadership to be exercised by a hierarchy of “Soviets,”
but was dominated by the Communist Party.
• 1920s—New Economic Plan (NEP)
• Stalin
– Emphasized heavy industrial production
– Control from the center by Great Russians (white Russians)
– Fomented discontent amongst non-Russian ethnicities
– Led U.S.S.R. through World War II

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Cold War U.S.S.R.
• East/West global divide
• Soviet “client states”
– Eastern Europe
– Cuba
– Parts of Africa
• Major production of “arms race”—Essentially made the
U.S.S.R. go broke.
• 1980s—Veneer begins to break.
– Gorbachev brings new attitude.
– Glasnost
– Perestroika
– A desire to preserve, not destroy, the U.S.S.R.

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Gorbachev Reforms
• Attempts at “reform” within the Communist
system spurred by Gorbachev.
– Glasnost (openness)
– Demokratia (democracy)
– Perestroika (restructuring)

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Disintegration of the U.S.S.R.
• Attempt to retain some measure of union
through the creation of the Commonwealth
of Independent States (CIS)
• Loose confederation
• U.S.S.R. breaks up into over two dozen
countries broken down along ethnic lines.
• Some countries form unions with Russia
afterward.
• Some areas resist (Chechnya).

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Breakup into Separate Countries
• The Russian Federation
• Ukraine
• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Belarus
• Georgia
• Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,
and Kyrgyzstan
• Baltic states—Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania
• Moldova

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Russia Today
• Created in 1991
• Wide swath of territory, ethnicities, cultures, and
languages
• Strong support from International Monetary Fund (IMF)
– Slow recovery in mid-1990s
– Crash in 1998
– Ruble devalued
• Yeltsin is the first president.
• Vladimir Putin is successor.
– Not party affiliated; a party formulated around him.
– There is some suggestion that he is moving Russia back
toward autocratic rule.
– Appointment of governors to maintain local control

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North Caucasus / Problems

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Ukraine
• Almost as big as Texas and larger than any country
in Europe
• Mostly consists of rolling steppe land with extremely
fertile chernozem soil.
• Continental climate similar to the upper Midwest of
United States.
• A century ago, called the “breadbasket of Europe”
• Better suited to grow wheat than Russia due to
sufficiently mild climate to permit fall planting.
• Industry was world-renowned before breakup of
U.S.S.R.
• Coal, iron ore, and manganese—All essential for steel
production

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Russia Influence in Ukraine
• Russians are the largest minority.
• Russian language is the most common
language.

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Belarus
• Two-thirds as large as neighboring Poland
• About the size of Kansas
• Soviets systematically developed Belarus for
industry.
• Country remained dependent—especially for
industry.
• Lukashenko election in 1994
– Hostile to West
– Deals with countries deemed rogue states by
United States
• 1999—Russia and Belarus agreed in principle to a
union of the two, but Russia has neither repudiated
the agreement nor moved to implement it.

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Armenia
• Nearly as large as Maryland
• Population of 3 million
• On a plateau with a dry, continental climate
• Armenian ancestral homeland lies in
Turkey, so there is a strong connection
there.
• Much of Armenia relies on investments
from abroad.

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Azerbaijan
• Close in size to Armenia
• Population is predominantly Turkic
Muslim.
• Karabakh War has taken a great toll.
• Current economic growth is because of
petroleum.
• Even as far back as 1900, it accounted for
half of the world’s oil production.

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Georgia
• Approximately the same size as Belarus
and Armenia
• 2003 “Rose Revolution” ousted former
Russian ally.
• Economy growing at acceptable rate
• Ossetia has been a problem region, where
a separatist movement is occurring. Mass
violence is occurring.
• Many bitter feelings across country

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Summary of Chapter
• The formidable physical conditions found in
Northern Eurasia and the remoteness of most
locations inevitably add to the costs of development.
• Northern Eurasian countries have yet to complete
the dual transition that has been expected of them—
to become democracies with market economies.
• Georgia and Armenia still have a long, hard climb to
attain prosperity, and both must avoid future violent
conflicts if they hope to succeed.
• Russia’s course will be crucial for the whole region.