The Contribution of A.E. Sluka to the Development of Russian Human Geography of the Foreign World

The authors analyze the contribution of the Honored Professor of Moscow State University A.E. Sluka to the development of the Soviet and Russian school of socioeconomic regional studies of the foreign world. It is possible to distinguish three key areas in the studies of the scholar, who relied on the works of his teachers–the founders of contemporary national human geography N.N. Baranskii and I.A. Vitver: geography of France, demogeography of Europe, and geography of the Greater Paris. From today’s standpoint, the significance of A.E. Sluka publications on France consist in the accuracy of the characteristics of its regions as a basis for understanding the territorial shifts and the social situation, and the evolution of regional politics in the country and other European countries. A.E. Sluka believed that the experience of regional policy in France (in French terms, aménagement du territoire) is important for Russia. The scientist was a leading Russian specialist in demogeography and one of the first to draw attention to the relation between the population dynamics of the region and its main structures with the migration component. He made a considerable contribution to the comparative study of the natural movement and mobility of the population in the countries of Western Europe by regions. A significant place in the work of A.E. Sluka belonged to the Greater Paris. In the author’s works, the periods of prosperity and decline of the city are linked with world events, its functions, and the emergence of global economy. A multiscale approach was applied, which made it possible to identify the place of the Paris urban agglomeration in the settlement systems of different levels, the economy and political life of the region, the country and Europe as a whole. The studies of A.E. Sluka created a basis for many academic courses and was developed in the works of his students and the scholars of the Institute of Urban Economics, the Institute of Demography and the Institute of Urban Studies of the HSE University, the Faculty of Linguistics and Regional Studies and the Institute of Social Sciences of Moscow State University and other institutions.