ABSTRACT
One of the most difficult and yet fundamental problems to a proper understanding of Soviet society and affairs is to appreciate in real terms the geographical environment in which they exist. The shift of military interest to the Arctic Ocean since the end of the Second World War has greatly increased the significance of these frozen outliers of Soviet territory. In the vast Soviet territory, the well-developed system of rivers and waterways has played an important role in Russian history. Fundamentally, Russia is composed of two large, ancient platforms, partly exposed and partly covered to varying depths by later deposits. On the west is the Russian Platform, and to the east the Central Siberian Platform. Throughout European Russia and in modified form in the permanently frozen ground of Siberia, normal 'humid' subaerial denudation is characteristic. Between the Russian Plain and the West Siberian Lowland lie the Ural Mountains.
