well as methodological overviews for interpreting aerial photo-
graphs. Speci
fic mention should also be made of the composition of
a whole series of maps of traf
ficability or accessibility with
accompanying texts. These were designed to give the military
detailed descriptions of the terrain by, or close to, the front and its
suitability for various kinds of military operation. Here, the long-
standing Russian geographical tradition of landscape science was
found to be especially helpful.
39
Much of the work was done in
Moscow under the direction of I.P. Gerasimov.
40
The other signi
fi-
cant
project
was
the
composition
of
detailed
military-
topographical descriptions of Soviet territories and also of regions
beyond the western frontier. According to Abramov, this work
suffered from such shortcomings as lack of data, previous experi-
ence and an agreed methodology.
41
Much of it was done by a
specialized
‘Defence’ group of IGAN, firstly in Moscow and then,
after evacuation, in Alma Ata. In addition to the geographers, other
specialists were also involved, including some from SOPS. General
accounts of these military-topographical descriptions lead one to
think that they probably had much in common with the UK
’s
wartime Naval Intelligence Handbooks, but unfortunately few if
any were printed and they were inaccessible to Abramov in the
archives.
42
In the course of 1943 and 1944, as the German armies retreated
westwards, the Academy of Sciences institutes gradually returned
to Moscow and changed in their orientation. Fersman
’s Commis-
sion for Geological
eGeographical Services to the Red Army was
closed in the second half of 1943 and much of its work transferred
to departments of the military. The attentions of geographers in
IGAN and elsewhere were now redirected towards issues con-
nected to the rehabilitation of war-ravaged regions.
Lev Berg in wartime
Leningrad, the home of Lev Berg, was a city which in 1940 had
contained 146 scienti
fic organizations, including 33 which
belonged to the Academy of Sciences network. No less than 39
academicians and 60 corresponding members of the Academy lived
and worked there. As German forces approached the city in July
1941, it therefore became the focus of a programme of urgent
evacuation. Berg, an important zoologist, ichthyologist, limnologist
and geographer and a corresponding member of the Academy, was
one of the
first scientists to be evacuated.
According to one account, Berg left Leningrad by train on July 22
in a special carriage together with seven academicians and
others.
43
The train was headed for Borovoe, a health resort and
treatment centre for tuberculosis patients in northern Kazakhstan.
Borovoe had apparently long been noted for
‘its superb coniferous
forests set amidst picturesque mountains, its numerous beautiful
lakes, its healing climate
’, and all ‘in the midst of the endless Kazakh
steppe
’,
44
or, in the words of Raisa Berg,
‘one of the most beautiful
spots in the world
’.
45
However, life in Borovoe was not necessarily
as idyllic as these words may suggest. The 200 or so people from
Leningrad, Moscow and other places, crowded together in a single
hostel plus some outbuildings, inevitably suffered the wartime
deprivations, shortages and frustrations of unwelcome evacuation
or exile, even if they were undoubtedly privileged by comparison
with those left behind. The social scene also left something to be
desired. Thus, although the forced coming together been described
as
‘an unrepeatable constellation of Russian scholars’,
46
facilitating
close interaction, for example, between Berg and his former teacher
Vernadskii, the group also included Academician A.N. Bakh, a close
ally of Lysenko and one of the signatories of the January 1939 letter
to Pravda which had resulted in the denial of Berg
’s election to full
membership of the Academy of Sciences.
47
No doubt some in-
teractions were more welcome to the resort
’s denizens than others.
Berg appears to have attracted a good deal of respect not only for
his single-minded dedication to science but also for his integrity
and sel
flessness. His daughter Raisa, referring to her childhood in
the First World War, summarizes his character in the following
way:
‘My father, a follower of Lev Tolstoy, a pacifist and a vege-
tarian, wanted to raise children in ignorance of evil. We were
supposed to know that the life of a person, an animal or a plant was
inviolable. To destroy a plant for the sake of a moment
’s pleasure
was just as reprehensible as torturing an animal
’. She goes on to
assert that the children were never allowed pets or Christmas trees,
were never taken to the zoo, and were forbidden to play with toy
soldiers or toy guns in case they
‘led us to thoughts of war or
murder. We weren
’t supposed to know that there was a war going
on
’.
48
Soon after arriving at Borovoe, Berg was elected by his fellow
Academy members to membership of a committee responsible for
the distribution of rooms, clothes and other necessities. According
to Raisa, this was in consequence of his
‘asceticism and readiness to
serve people
’.
49
He was noted as a peacemaker and for the fact that
his door was always open to those seeking help.
50
But Berg
’s
character did not necessarily attract universal admiration. Raisa, for
example, is extremely critical about her early upbringing under his
stern, unbending principles.
51
Since Berg was already 65 years old by the time he arrived in
Borovoe, he was of course well beyond the age of military service.
Neither does he appear to have been directly involved in
militarily-oriented research. Leningrad University had been evac-
uated to Saratov on the Volga and he was therefore relieved of
39
Shaw and Old
field, Landscape science (note
24
).
40
Abramov, Geogra
fiia voiskam (note
27
), 78; see also Doskach et al., Geogra
fiia (note
33
), 7. IGAN scientists were also involved in weather forecasting, and produced a
particularly signi
ficant work on the landscape effects of snow: G.D. Rikhter, Snezhnyy pokrov, ego formirovanie i svoistva, Moscow, 1945. It should be noted, as suggested above,
that because of the accent on physical geography, Soviet geography developed in close association with other natural sciences like geology, soil science and meteorology, all of
which made important advances in this and the subsequent periods.
41
Abramov, Geogra
fiia voiskam (note
27
), 79
e81.
42
For more details about the UK handbooks, see: H. Clout and C. Gosme, The Naval Intelligence Handbooks: A monument in geographical writing, Progress in Human
Geography 27 (2003) 153
e73; D. Matless, J.D. Oldfield and A. Swain, Encountering Soviet geography: oral histories of British geographical studies of the USSR and Eastern
Europe 1945
e1991, Social & Cultural Geography 8 (2007) 352e372.
43
Nauka i uchenye (note
27
), 24, 27. According to another account, however, Berg left on July 14. See R.L. Zolotnitskaia, L. S. Berg v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny,
Izvestiia Vsesoiuznogo Geogra
ficheskogo obshchestva (1970) no. 1, 85e88 (85).
44
Zolotnitskaia, L. S. Berg (note
43
), 85.
45
Berg, Acquired Traits (note
30
), 75.
46
Zolotnitskaia, L. S. Berg (note
43
), 85.
47
Shaw and Old
field, Totalitarianism (note
24
), 106.
48
Berg, Acquired Traits (note
30
), 2.
49
Berg, Acquired Traits (note
30
), 76.
50
Zolotnitskaia, L. S. Berg (note
43
), 86
e87.
51
Berg, Acquired Traits (note
30
), 1
e5.
D.J.B. Shaw, J.D. Old
field / Journal of Historical Geography 47 (2015) 40e49
45