Expeditions of the institute of geography RAS during the 20th–21st centuries (to the 100th anniversary of the institute)

Abstract

In the lead-up to the 100th anniversary of the Institute of Geography RAS, we summarized the salient features and chronology of its field investigations into the country’s nature and resources during the 20th-21st centuries. It is shown that the institute’s history has embodied all stages of evolution of national geography: the traditions of the late 19th century with their departure from the perception of geography as a “descriptive” science and the development of genetic (V.V. Dokuchaev’s) and chorological (A. Hettner’s) approaches, the development of the sectoral specialization of science, the introduction of modern methods: remote sensing, navigation and geoinformation technologies, and the formation of the geography of the 21st century as a philosophical phenomenon and a synthetic discipline with profound prospects for a better understanding a rapidly changing world