Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Geographischen Gesellschaft Band 159/2017, pp. 55-81, 2019/05/24
159. Jg. (Jahresband), Wien 2017
The mountain regions on the territory of the former Soviet Union (including Caucasus, Ural, Altai, Tian Shan, Pamir) are underrepresented in international research. During the block confrontation, the mountains beyond the Iron Curtain were less accessible and found little consideration in Western high mountain research. Since the political transformations in 1989/91, more studies have taken place in post-Socialist space, especially in the Caucasus, Pamir and Tian Shan. The aim of the present study is to provide a brief overview of some of the peculiarities of (post)Soviet mountains, to show the lack of publications related to mountains of the former Soviet Union, and to present a brief survey of human geographical studies during the Soviet period and since 1991 focusing high mountains of the Soviet Union and their successor states.
Keywords: Human geography of high mountains, history of geographical research, former Soviet Union
