1.
The Soviet Union is located north of Mongolia, China and Iran. It is located
west of Japan. It’s absolute location is between 80oN and 40oN, 20oE and
180oE.
2.
Some physical characteristics of the USSR are:
Great
Russian Plain
- largest
area
- roughly
70% lives there
- used
for agriculture
West Siberian
Plain
- very
few people
- swamps
in low-lying areas
- oil
and natural gas
Central
Siberian Plateau
- very
few people
- major
industry lumber
- relatively
unexplored
Caucasus
Mountains
- highest
mountain in Europe, Mt. Elbrus
- suited
for grazing and fruit
Turan
Lowlands
- grazing
grain and cotton
- roughly
10% of pop.
Ural Mountains
- less
than 700m high
- hills,
plateaus and mountains
- steel,
mining and lumber
- considered
boundary between Europe and Asia
Far eastern
highland and Southeastern Mountains
- steep
mountains know as the Pamirs in SEM
- mining,
lumber
- very
few people
Some human
Characteristics:
Population
- 65%
Europe
- 35%
Asia
- 66%
Urban
- 44%
Rural
- people
prefer warm, wet climates over dry, cold climates
Beliefs and Ideas
3.
Body’s of water and rivers were important in the development of industry
because they provided for the community. Most of the cities are concentrated
around bodies of water. the water was also used for fishing and other primary
industries that make up 20% of the total. Also water was a good source
of transportation, making it easier to trade with different countries that
aren’t neighbors.
4.
The climate, vegetation and soils affected people’s lives. The climate
varied greatly between summer and winter. Winter was were very cold, summers
very hot and spring, fall were very short. There were seven major climate
regions. The main natural vegetation was the coniferous forest. Evergreen
forests covered almost one half of the country. The other forms of natural
vegetation were the mixed forest, grasslands, desert. There were two kinds
of desert, the hot desert and the could desert, called tundra. The grasslands
were also called the steppes. A lot of the Soviet Union was covered with
gray woodland soils which were not good for farming, The rich, fertile,
black and brown soil that was good for growing crop was found in a narrow
band of land form western Ukraine, to northeast Kazaskhstan. This
area was very populated. The only other major soil was the desert soil.
This soil was used to raise livestock and to pasture.
5.
The population patterns that were evident were that the majority o f the
people lived in Europe. It was also evident that the cities were all near
or on rivers and bodies of water. If you look on pg. 14 of the textbook
Russia: then and now, and you look at where the Amur river was, you can
see a lot of little cities spread out down the river.
6.
The country’s largest cities are Moscow, They are important in the
country’s economical growth because that’s where most of the people live.
7.
The four types of industry in the Soviet Union are primary (20%), secondary
(40%), tertiary (35%) and quaternary (5%). Primary industry were farms,
mines, fishing, lumber. The secondary industries were iron, steel, metal
products, machinery, trucks, chemicals, cement. Tertiary industries are
transportation, retail trade, health, and government services. Quaternary
industries, scientific and research institutes.
8.
The physical and human geography of the country affected the movement of
people, products and ideas. There were three main movements of people:
to the cities, to other regions, and to other countries. In 1913 17.9%
lived in the city. In 1990 66% then lived in the cities. The movement of
products depended on who the goods were shipped. They were shipped either
by water, land or air. But there were also transportation problems. Because
there were many physical regions and different people, it was hard to interact
and have the movement of people, products and ideas.