“Polarized Landscape”: Half a Century Later

Abstract—The article is devoted to the polarized landscape concept (also known as the polarized biosphere concept), developed by the author in 1970. The socioeconomic conditions for implementation of the conceptual project are considered, as well as changes in these factors and corresponding fundamental concepts over the past half century. It is demonstrated how the ideal model of the territorial structure of the cultural landscape is related to the lifestyle of its creator; how his ideas about work and leisure formed the pattern of a regular network of cities surrounded by buffer functional zones with decreasing population density from the center to the periphery, occupied by natural parks and reserves. The big city and wildlife are considered the equivalent poles of the biosphere. The author traces how Russia’s transport infrastructure has changed and how modern transport policy, at least in Moscow and Moscow Oblast, contradicts the ideas of a polarized biosphere. At the same time, the growth of territorial contrasts of socioeconomic development leads to growth of the so-called inner periphery, where the processes of restoration of natural landscapes proceed spontaneously as the anthropogenic load decreases. Some polarization of the landscape favorable for the biosphere, occurs by itself, and this process should not be hindered. The author traces the relationship of his concept with classical works on theoretical geography, in particular, with The Isolated State by I. von Thünen; he talks about the history of penetration of the polarized biosphere into the national geographical science, and outlines paths for further development of this project.