Vladimir L. Kagansky
Forgotten hearts of Russia: Azonal areas in the historical and cultural landscape of European Russia
Annotation:
The article characterizes the widespread (main) picture of space in Russia, mainly its European part. The picture is corrected and supplemented from the point of view of historical and cultural landscape. To consider non-trivial aspects of the correlation between zonal and azonal components of the cultural landscape of European Russia, the author focuses on opol’e. which is treated as a special type of historical and cultural landscape with a specific natural foundation. Other significant azonal components of the landscape, such as opol’e-like landscapes, steppe pine forests (bor), etc., are considered. Such azonal components of the cultural landscape are much more significant than predominantly zonal pictures of the cultural landscape usually demonstrate. It is these azonal areas that naturally, historically, genetically and structurally, turn out to be the cores of the cultural landscape. Attention is drawn to the ratio of zoning / azonality in the landscape picture, depending on the scale of consideration. An ambiguous relationship between opol’e and suburban areas is indicated. The cultural meaning of the transformation of the opol’e from the ruins of a historical landscape to a full-fledged modern landscape is underlined.
Keywords:
Azonality, anthropogenic zoning, bor, landscape boundary, landscape zone, zoning, picture of Russia, cultural landscape, landscape, scale, opol’e, poles’e, suburban zone, natural zoning, characteristic landscape component, Vladimir-Suzdal opol’e, European Russia, Northern Russia, Central Russia