Smirnyagin Readings at the Higher School of Economics

On the birthday of the prominent Russian geographer Leonid Smirnyagin, his former students and colleagues discussed the topics of electoral geography, federalism in modern Russia and the role of metaphor in the study of the cultural landscape.

Ruslan Dokhov

Last Saturday, April 4, on the basis of the Faculty of Geography of the Higher School of Economics, a conference dedicated to issues of public geography Smirnyagin Readings was held.

In an informal atmosphere geographers discussed the role of metaphor in the study of the cultural landscape, tried to answer the question of how to revive the electoral geography of our country, and also discussed the territorial and political structure in modern Russia.

Lectures were given by Olga A. Lavrenova, PhD in Geography, Doctor of Philosophy, Irina Busygina, Professor, doctor of Political Sciences, and Alexei Titkov, Ph.D in Economic, Social and Political Geography.

Smirnyagin Readings is an annual informal conference on the birthday of Leonid Smirnyagin (1935–2016), the legendary Russian geographer, expert in political and cultural geography and urban studies. This year the conference was organized jointly by the Department of Socio-Economic Geography of Foreign Countries of Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Faculty of Geography and Geoinformation Technology of the Higher School of Economics.