Abstract

This article examines the principal stages in the development of Russian historical geography. It traces the formation of the field as a branch of scholarship and shows how it gradually took shape as an academic discipline. Particular attention is given to the contribution of scholars at Moscow University to this process. The article offers an overview of the emergence of historical geography as an auxiliary historical discipline in the curriculum of Moscow University from the late 19th century to the mid-20th. The long and complex path of establishing historical geography as a field of study was conditioned by the specificity of its subject matter and by the inherently interdisciplinary character of historical-geographical knowledge. The delineation of a distinct disciplinary domain for historical geography required considerable time. The essay discusses the contributions of major 18th- and 19th-century scholars — including V.N. Tatishchev, M.V. Lomonosov, N.I. Nadezhdin, S.M. Solov'ev, and V.O. Kliuchevskiy, among others — to the development of the field. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the cumulative results of research in historical geography had led to the introduction of the subject into Russian higher education, where it acquired the status of a formal academic discipline. The teaching of historical geography in Russia thus extends back little more than a century. With specific reference to Moscow University, the article identifies several distinct stages in the development of historical geography as a university subject. It emphasizes the role of D.N. Anuchin as the initiator of the first course in historical geography at Moscow University. The institutionalization of the discipline in the 20th century was associated above all with M.K. Liubavskiy and Yu.V. Gautier, and later with V.K. Yatsunskiy. The article also underscores the importance of the Department of Source Studies in the Faculty of History at Moscow University, and of the Academy full member M.N. Tikhomirov personally, in advancing the field and organizing its teaching, thereby laying the foundations for its modern form within the Faculty of History. Today, various aspects of historical geography are represented in the curricula of numerous academic units at Moscow State University.