THEODORE SHABAD AND THE STUDY OF SOVIET ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES DURING THE COLD WAR

Abstract

The focus of the article is the scholar and journalistic activities of American geographer Theodore Shabad during the Cold War. It is noted that from the very beginning of his scientific career Shabad was interested in the geography of the USSR, as well as in the current state of Soviet geography. He contributed much to the dissemination and popularization of the works of Soviet geographers among the Anglo-American peers in the 1950s–1980s. Shabad’s main research interest was the study of the industrial localization in the USSR, in particular, on the undeveloped territories of Siberia. Analyzing the Soviet policy of economic regionalization, he emphasized its internal incoherence. On the one hand, the Soviet policy towards regional self-sufficiency of administrative-territorial units led to the shrinkage of interregional economic relations. On the other hand, regional industrial specialization stimulated interregional interactions. The authors conclude that Shabad did much for the development of Soviet-American scientific relations as a journalist as well as a founder of several natural science journals, which in the 1960s–1980s published translations of articles by leading Soviet scholars in various fields of geography.