The national-state demarcation of Central Asia, carried out about a century ago, set the main trends in the transformation of the ethno-cultural space of the macro-region for almost the entire Soviet period. Some of these trends persisted in the post-Soviet era. To study them, one can rely on modern concepts of Russian cultural geography: geo-ethno-cultural systems, ethno-contact zones, ethno-cultural space, etc. The study identifies the main components of the territorial structure of the ethno-cultural space of Kazakhstan and the Middle Asian republics based on the results of the 1926 All-Union population census. The impact of the national-state demarcation of Central Asia in the first half of the 1920s on the transformation of the ethno-cultural space of the macro-region is estimated. The administrative-territorial cells that retained their multi-ethnicity after demarcation were identified, as well as the “disputable” territories that changed their republican affiliation during subsequent stateterritorial transformations.

The concept of the island effect is analyzed. Four variables are proposed for a comprehensive geographical assessment of the island effect: island isolation, the ratio of the perimeter of the island to its area, drainage density, flora autonomy. The island effect is estimated using the point method. All islands were divided into four groups. The first group with the maximum severity of the island effect includes small isolated islands. Most of them are occupied by large colonies of marine colonial birds. Ornithogenic geosystems, forming on such islands, have no analogues in continental landscapes. The fourth group with the minimal severity of the island effect includes large continental islands, located near the coast. The landscape structure of these islands is fundamentally close to the neighboring continental landscapes. Two middle groups combine islands with transitional features.

The main regularities of formation, structure, morphology and composition of sediments of accumulative landforms at the mouths of small rivers on the northern coast of the Kola Peninsula are presented. The mouths of the Teriberka and Voron’ya rivers have been studied in the most detail, where modern sandy terraces of the coastal-marine genesis were formed. In the presence of solid igneous and crystallized rocks and due to active physical weathering, the rapid snow melting provokes flow of fine-grained material (mainly fractions ≤3 mm) from the catchment into the rivers. Alluvium forms terraces. The resultant wind flow vector is directed from the land to the sea (average long-term wind speed ≈8 m/s), and the smallest sediments are blown from the surface of the terraces into the sea. These sediments form sandy tidal sandbanks unlike the eastern shores of the Barents Sea and White Sea where siltbanks dominate, composed of fine-grained material (mainly fractions ≤1 mm). The main part of alluvium with grains ≥1.0 mm is retained in river channels. On the studied coast, an average of 15.36% of these fractions is included into the composition of coastal terraces. The smallest debris and part of the sand go down to a depth along a steep underwater slope (up to i10 ≤ 0.15). On the front surface slope of the terraces, fractions of 0.25–1.0 mm dominate on the beach (of which the content of the fraction of 0.5–1.0 mm = 38.93%). All sand fractions account for 88.78%, including coastal dunes. Small (germinal) dunes are typical for the mouths of some rivers.

The article concerns flotation as one of the processes of lithodynamics in the coastal zone. Flotation has been known for a long time, the first information about it has appeared at the end of the 19th century, but often had the character of small popular science notes about the phenomenon. In the 1930s V.P. Zenkovich noted the importance of this process in the lithodynamics of the coastal zone. However, there were few detailed works devoted to the causes of flotation, the features of the manifestation, and the size of sediments until the end of the 20th century. There are several results based on a detailed approach to the study of this process in foreign publications. But even after the works, the descriptive part of this process is far from complete. The lithological characteristic and description of the hydrological conditions of the manifestation of flotation near Mulovsky cape on Sakhalin are given. The dimensional characteristics of flotated and beach sediments are presented and compared: coefficients of flatness and sphericity of fragments, kurtosis and skew of grain size distribution, and roundness of fragments. The flotted fragments are better flatteny and less spherical in comparison with beach sediments, and their roundness is slightly better than that of beach ones.

This paper presents the results of geomorphological, geological and archaeological research of the Kudruküla Palaeospit (Narva-Luga Klint Bay) which is the largest Holocene accretion formation in the Eastern Gulf of Finland. It has been ascertained that the barrier formation appeared as a result of glacio-fluvial delta erosion; it was settled by ancient people after the Littorina transgression maximum. In the studied part of the palaeospit, which separated the palaeolagoon from the open sea, the Neolithic – Early Metal Epoch sites existed between 5600 and 4200 cal. BP. Active dune formation began on the marine terrace surface about 3500 years ago (OSL date), when the vast coastal plain areas, covered with sands, were dried due to relative sea-level decrease.

The article presents the first results of expeditional explorations of the perennial ice in two of the most famous caves of the Southern Ural: Askinskaya and Kinderlinskaya, located at a distance of 10 km from each other within the mountain range Ulutau. For the first time in Russia, the ice cave explorations were realized with a sampling at different depths. The field works were carried out using the manual ice drill PI-8 (130 mm in diameter), which allowed to research cave ice to a depth of 2 m. A comparative description of the conditions of cave ice formation in studied underground cavities is given, the results of its laboratory studies obtained by the mass-spectrometry methods are analyzed as well. Oxygen isotope values for the ice of the Askinskaya cave are given. The existence of anthropogenic disturbances in the Askinskaya cave ice at a depth of 70 to 110 cm is noted.

The article briefly highlights the main life events of Grigory Efimovich Grumm-Grzhimailo (1860–1936) – a traveler, naturalist, entomologist, historian, and honorary member of the Russian Geographical Society. His expeditions covered the Pamir, the Eastern Tian Shan, Nanshan, Western Mongolia, and the Uryankhai area (Tuva). It is noted that his various activities made an extensive contribution to the study of the nature and history of the peoples of Central Asia. The whole life of Grumm-Grzhimailo was associated with the Russian Geographical Society, of which he was the vice-chairman in the 1920s. During that time, he developed a close friendship with Yu.M. Shokalsky, the chairman of the Society, who greatly appreciated his contribution to the knowledge of the Asian continent. The published here letters of Shokalsky to Grumm-Grzhimailo reflect the nature of their relationship, complement the biographical outlines of Grumm-Grzhimailo and Shokalsky with new facts, and appear to be a valuable source of the history of the Russian Geographical Society.

The article provides arguments in favor of the fact that geography is a fundamental science. They are as follows. The main method of research, which has no analogues in other fundamental sciences, is travel. The map is an absolutely unique language in which the results of geographical research are presented. In the epistemological sense, geography has the status of a natural-humanitarian science. Its discourse and paradigms cannot be reduced to either natural (including exact) or social sciences, they are completely original. Among the fundamental sciences, geography is located between history and biology. In geography, the possibilities of precise symbolic (mathematical) formalizations in heuristic and practical terms reach their limit. The subject of research and methods of geography can be partially formalized, partially can not be formalized in principle. And this is a distinctive feature of geography. The ontological specificity of geography as a fundamental science is due to the fact that the main object of study is the landscape. These theses are supported by a corresponding philosophical and methodological justification.