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You might check the map collection in the bookstore to see if you can put
your hands on a personal copy of a good, large-scale map of Eurasia or a good
reference atlas, generally useful just to read the newspaper with understanding.
#1 Russia now |---|
#2 Eurasia outline |---|
#3 Northern hemisphere snow now |---|
#4 global tetrahedral

GEOGRAPHIC TABLE::
Russia and its "Near Abroad":
HIGH POINTS, LOW POOLS,
THE WATERS THAT
FLOW BETWEEN,
CONCENTRATED POPULATIONS (CITIES),
& OTHER FEATURES
In the table below, the central organizational principle, defining each row at column 2, is
the river. The table as a whole features 27 Eurasian river systems, their origins,
course and destinations. There are 17 rivers (top 17 rows) in what is called
"European Russia" (which includes some rivers in non-Russian territories which
have been frequently in the orbit of Russian power). On any row, from column one (far left) to column five (far right),
you take an imaginary river trip from highlands to various seas, from the high points to the low pools.
Obviously this works best if you have a map at hand to give spatial
identity to the imaginary river trip.
The six most important high points, with their most important watersheds
(entered here roughly SW to NE) are =
1) Caucasus Mts. (Mt. El'brus
= 18,500)
GO
Kuban and Kura
rivers
2) Valdai Hills
(1138 ft.,
this the highest spot in European Russia)
GO
Dnepr [Dnieper, rises at 830 ft above sea level],
Vistula, Western.Dvina,
Velikaia, Volkhov, and Volga
[730 ft.]
3) Ural Mts. (Urals; 6214 ft maximum height in the far
north, but few
points above 4000 ft.
The Trans-Siberian Railroad crosses the Urals at 1345 ft. Mt. Tom in the Coburg
Hills = 3100 ft.)
GO [Pechora],
Kama, Ufa, Ural,
Northern Dvina, Tobol, and
Tavda rivers
4) Tien Shan Mts., dividing China's
Sinkiang border from Central Asia
(Mt.Communism = 24,600)
GO
Amu Darya, Syr Darya,
Ili rivers
5) Lake Baikal (6365 ft. deep) and the western
slopes of its high west bank
GO Angara and
Lena rivers
6) Altai highlands of western Mongolia (15,266 at
highest peak)
GO
Ob - Irtysh [not unlike forked Missouri
- Mississippi], Yenisei, Amur,
Argun and Shilka rivers
Column 4 indicates the destination of rivers and other significant regional
features. Column 5 is alpha-coded to identify the seven major low
pools =
(A) Black Sea
(B) Caspian Sea
(C) Baltic Sea
(D) White Sea
(E) Aral Sea
(F) Arctic Sea [or Arctic Ocean], and
(G) Sea of Okhotsk
The first four low pools (A-D) are the destinations of what we conventionally
call "European" rivers, the last three (E-G) are "Asian" (Siberian). Notice how
a number is attached to each alpha-coded drainage region to specify individual
river systems. E.g., The great Volga River is in the (B) Caspian Sea region and
is coded "B1".
Column 5 might contain two hypertext hop-points = [map]
and [MAP]. These indicate maps to which you might hop, better to
situate yourself. The first, [map], hops to an outline map of the region
of the given low pool. The second, [MAP], hops to a standard map of
"Russia/USSR/Russia" as a whole. These maps facilitate imaginary river trips,
a good way to gain mastery over this river-centered table of Russian and
northern Asian geography. Here in river-city Eugene, river consciousness is a
mind-expanding experience.
* NB! two mountain cities [ bracketed in column 1], and seven coastal cities in column 4
|
1. High Points
(w/alt. in feet) |
2. Rivers |
3. Cities* |
4. Low pools
&
other features |
5.Code
&maps |
|
Alps,
then Balkans(9500)
on right bank of the = |
Danube River |
Vienna (OST)
Bratislava (SLO)
Budapest (HUN)
Belgrade (SRB) |
Black Sea
Constantinople-Istanbul
Dardanelles & Bosporus
(tight straits into Aegean
& Mediterranean Seas) |
A1
[map]
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Carpathian
Mts. (N) Slovak/Poland |
Dnestr R. |
|
Black Sea
[
Odessa ]
[map] |
A2
[map]
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Valdai Hills
1138 ft. |
Dnepr
R.
830 ft. |
Smolensk
Kiev
[map] |
[ Kherson ]
Black Sea
[Crimean Peninsula] |
A3
[map]
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Steppes of Central
Eur-Rus |
Don
River |
Khar'kov
Rostov |
Sea of Azov
Black Sea
[Novorossiisk] |
A4
[map]
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Caucasus
Mts. |
Kuban
R. |
Stavropol |
Black Sea
|
A5
[map]
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Valdai Hills |
Volga
R.
730 ft. |
Tver
[map]
[map]
Yaroslavl
[map]
[pix]
Nizhnii-Novgorod
[map]
Kazan
[W]
Saratov
Volgograd
[map]
Astrakhan
[map]
|
Caspian Sea
[
Baku ]
[map]
Rostov Velikii [pix] [pix] [pix] [pix]
Valdai & north Volga =
South Volga &Caspian= |
B1
[MAP]
[map]
[map] |
|
Valdai Hills |
Oka etc. |
Moscow
Vladimir
Riazan |
Volga |
B2
[MAP]
[map]
[map] |
|
Urals, w-central
|
Kama etc. |
Perm |
Volga |
B3
[MAP]
[map]
[map] |
|
Urals, w-central
|
Ufa River |
Ufa |
Kama
River |
B4
[MAP]
[map]
[map] |
|
Urals, south
|
Ural River
|
Orenburg |
Caspian Sea |
B5[MAP]
[map]
[map]
|
|
Caucasus |
Kura
R. |
Tbilisi |
Caspian Sea |
B6[MAP]
[map]
[map] |
|
Turkey, east. highlands |
Araks
R. |
Yerevan |
Kura River |
B7[MAP]
[map]
[map] |
|
Valdai Hills |
Vistula
R. |
Warsaw |
Baltic Sea
(Skagerak; Kattegat)
North Sea
Atlantic Ocean |
C1
[map]
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Valdai Hills |
W. Dvina |
Riga
[map] |
Gulf
of Riga
Baltic Sea |
C2
[map]
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Valdai Hills |
Velikaia |
Pskov
[map]
Narva (port city) |
Lake
Peipus
Baltic Sea
Narva River
Gulf
of Finland |
C3
[map]
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Valdai Hills |
Volkhov
R |
Novgorod
[map#1]
[map#2] |
Lake
Ladoga |
C4
[map]
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Ladoga, Lake |
Neva
R. |
|
Gulf
of Finland
Baltic Sea |
C5
[map]
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Urals, west-
central |
Northern Dvina R. |
Arkhangel'sk [map] |
White Sea
Berents
Sea
[
Murmansk
(map)]
North Sea
Atlantic Ocean |
D1
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Tien Shan
Mts. |
Amu
Darya
R. |
|
Aral Sea |
E1
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Tien Shan, Fergana Valley |
Syr
Darya |
Tashkent |
Aral Sea |
E2
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Tien Shan Mts. |
Ili
River |
Almaty |
Lake
Balkhash |
E3
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Altai
highlands |
Ob
River |
Novosibirsk
[map]
Kemerovo
Tomsk |
ARCTIC
SEA
Novaia Zemlia Island |
F1
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Urals, southeast [Ekaterinburg] [Cheliabinsk] |
Tobol
R. |
|
Arctic Sea |
F2
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Urals, central-east |
Tavda
R. |
|
Arctic Sea |
F3
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Altai |
Irtysh
R. |
Omsk
[map] |
Arctic Sea |
F4
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Altai |
Yenisei
R |
Krasnoyarsk |
Arctic Sea |
F5
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Baikal, Lake |
Angara
R. |
Irkutsk
[map] |
Yenesei River |
F6
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Sayans |
Tunguska |
|
Yenesei River |
F7
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Baikal Lake, 20 miles from W. shore |
Lena
R. |
Yakutsk
[map] |
Arctic Sea
Verkhoyansk Mts. |
F8
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Yablonovyi mts. |
Vitim
R. |
|
Lena River |
F9
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Stanovoi mts. |
Aldan
R. |
|
Lena River |
F10
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Kolyma range |
Kolyma R. |
Kolyma |
Arctic Sea |
F11
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Altai
highlands (Eastern Mongolia)
|
Amur R. The final four rivers on this table flow
into the Amur |
Blagoveshchensk
Khabarovsk
[map] |
Tartar Gulf
(Sakhalin Island)
Sea
of Okhotsk
[Okhotsk]
[
Magadan]
[map]
Kamchatka Peninsula
Kuril Islands
Aleutian Islands
Bering Sea
(Sea of Japan
Japanese Islands)
Pacific Ocean |
G1
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Altai (above) |
Argun R. |
|
Amur River |
G2
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Altai (above) |
Shilka R. |
Chita |
Amur River
|
G3
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Manchuria |
Sungari
R |
Harbin (Manchu China) |
Amur River
|
G4
[map]
[MAP] |
|
Korea, China |
Ussuri
R. |
|
Amur River
[
Vladivostok]
|
G5
[map]
[MAP] |

MAP WEBSITES
Websites

Bibliography of Atlases
EUROPE AND THE WORLD
(Russia and Eastern Europe at the bottom)
with Locations
(MAP = Knight Library Map collection
REF = Knight Library Reference Room)
The most useful atlases of Russian history are listed in the GLOSSARY
<>Atlas zur Zeitgeschichte : Europa im 20. Jahrhundert
<>Cassell atlas of world history
| On 20th-c world, see scts 5.05, 5.06, & all of sct 6
<>Collins atlas of twentieth century world history
<>Collins atlas of world history
<>Hammond atlas of the 20th century
<>National Geographic atlas of world history
| On 20th century world, see pp. 302-79
<>Natkiel, Richard, et al.
Atlas of the 20th century
<>Oxford illustrated history of modern Europe. Edited by T.C.W. Blanning
<>Palmowski, Jan.
A dictionary of twentieth-century world history
<>Rand McNally Historical atlas of the world
<>Times atlas of European history
| On 20th century world, see pp. 164-91
<>Times atlas of the 20th century
<>Times atlas of world history
<>Wheatcroft, Andrew.
The world atlas of
revolutions
Russia and Eastern Europe
Burdett, Anita L. P., ed.
The historical boundaries between Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia
: documents and maps 1815-1945
Landscape Atlas of the USSR
| Maps #6-30 = close-ups of strategic points in Western European
Russia, from Baltic shores, over the central plains, down to the Black Sea Coast. See the
good outline maps, pp. 19 and 37
|