The Important Role of the Rivers in Russia

Rivers had been playing an important role in the life of Russian cities since olden times. It served as the main transport and trade routes, sources of water and food for the population. Novgorod got a worldwide reputation as a center of medieval trade precisely because of the Volkhov River, which was an important link in trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks". This historical era of Veliky Novgorod enough detail in the scientific literature, but it can not be said about the history of Novgorod as a provincial city in the period of development capitalist relations in the Russian Empire. Especially, there is deficiency historical information about interaction between nature and urban dwellers in the study period. Perhaps the only published work characterizing the sanitary condition of Novgorod, the degree of contamination of its territories and environmental policies of the city government at the early 20th c., is a brochure of MD Alexander G. Kurkutov, published in 1915 . Author critically and in negative tones described the city with its problems of sanitation improvement, the main causes of which he had seen in inefficient policies of the city government and inadequate funding appropriate expenditure of the city budget. The emergence of research similar subjects was due to the manifestation of scientific interest by medicine representatives to the sanitary condition of Russian cities and counties of the second half of 19th - early 20th centuries . It were sanitary doctors, who first attracted public attention to the negative effects of water pollution, accumulation urban garbage, poor water supply and other problems of the urban environment. In addition, the monograph by V.P. Semenov-Tian-Shansky was devoted to the proc...

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...s in the last third of the 19th - early 20th cc., using case-study of the relationship of the Novgorod inhabitants and the Volkhov River. It is planned to investigate the influence of geographic, demographic, economic, social and cultural factors on the process of pollution in urban areas, water bodies and reaction of city government to it. Appeal to the public perception of the problems of water pollution through retrospective analysis of everyday practices of Novgorod citizens in interaction with the Volkhov River and other bodies of water will allow reveal the conditions of formation of environmental policy in the provincial towns and determine problems related to its implementation. Using of mapping method will make of demonstrative an overall picture of pollution urban areas, will help determine the extent and spatial arrangement of the most contaminated areas.