The Unknown Heritage of the Russian City Economic Geography (about the book ‘The Industrial Geography of St. Petersburg’ by V.V. Pokshishevsky)

The article presents a review of the book ʻThe Industrial Geography of St. Petersburg: Territorial Conditions for the Formation of the Industrial Complex of St. Petersburg-Leningradʼ written by V. V. Pokshishevsky (2024). This unknown work of the classic of Russian economic geography was devoted to the formation of the territorial structure of St. Petersburg under the industrial revolution influence. The monograph was completed in 1941, but was considered lost; it had been discovered in an archive just recently and then was published for the first time. Based on a huge array of factual (historical, statistical, cartographic) data on the industry development and extensive information on the natural features of the Neva Delta region, V. V. Pokshishevsky traced the transformations of the urban space of St. Petersburg through two and a half centuries – since the city foundation till the beginning of World War II. As a result, the scientist made fundamental conclusions about the geographical patterns of the industrial placement, the development of transport, trade and logistics infrastructures, as well as the city planning and development. He also developed an industrial zoning grid. The advanced nature of V. V. Pokshishevsky’s work had been expressed in an interdisciplinary approach and the discovery of processes and phenomena that were ʻrediscoveredʼ at a later time (clustering of industry, formation of a transport framework, contact zones, etc.). The publication of this book marks the continuity of scientific ideas in the domestic economic geography and provides theoretical and methodological basis for modern studies of the cities industrial geography