ABSTRACT
Great political upheavals in the former USSR resulted in its break-up in 1991 after more than seven decades of existence. Fifteen new sovereign states replaced the former Soviet Socialist Republics. Political changes and more gradual economic developments have, however, left many of the main features of the human geography unchanged. Economic activities are modified or cease in some places while new ones emerge elsewhere, but even if the dominance of the public sector is reduced by privatisation, the distribution of such features as cities, railways and factories will alter only gradually. It is therefore appropriate to start this account of the former USSR by describing the main geographical features of the country as it was around 1990, for which period data still referred to the whole of the USSR. Table 7.1 contains basic data for the Soviet Socialist Republics of the USSR and Table 7.2 for the regions of the Russian Federation.
