Population Geography as a Specialization Area of the Department of Economic and Social Geography of Moscow Pedagogical State University

Abstract

The authors have collected and analyzed sources of information containing details on the main area of scientific research of employees of the Department. A generalization of analytical and statistical materials allows to supplement and expand the aggregate picture of the development of national geography. The purpose of the study is to identify features and establish a thematic sequence of economic and geographical research of the Department of Economic and Social Geography of the Moscow Pedagogical State University. The main research method is historical: the authors have collected and analyzed the sources containing information about the main areas of scientific research of the department. Analytical and statistical materials are summarized, they allow us to supplement and expand the overall picture of the development of the Russian geography. Results. During the second half of the 1920s and in the 1930s the population geography was arising within the framework of the regional direction of the Soviet economic geography. In the 1940s-1960s the department became the leading one in population geography in the USSR. At the end of the 1960s the population studies had been changing the direction “from” the USSR to foreign countries. At present, the department is one of the main Russian centers conducting research in the field of ethnogeography and geography of religions. Conclusion. Despite the fact that a third of all the department's PhD theses had been defended on the population geography, and two thirds – on the economic geography, the population geography was the main area of its specialization – its “face” in the Russian geography.