ИСТИНА

The long-standing appeal of the Smolensk land for researchers of various kind is largely explained by the fact that its territory has at all times had an exceptional importance in the history of the formation and development of the Russian state. Based on the analysis of archival materials using the comparative historical and geographical method an evaluation of the "intensity" of research in different times has been made. The application of the diachronic method has allowed to make a detailed scheme of the periodization of the geographical study of the Smolensk province, and the historical and typological method has allowed to streamline the scientific and geographic events that took place on the territory of the given region in selected periods. Special attention has been paid to different scales of historical and geographical mapping on several hierarchical levels (regional to local), which made it possible to trace the history of the formation of the borders of the Smolensk province and to determine the degree of scrutiny and features of "coverage" of the Smolensk land by geographical research. Three periods of geographical studies which were carried out on the territory of the Smolensk province have been identified. The first period–the initial geographical study of the territory (XII-end of XVIII centuries) includes four stages: 1)the appearance of the first data about the city of Smolensk, 2)descriptive geodesic (the beginning of XVIII century-1745), 3)academic research (1745-1765), 4)the stage associated with the conduct of general land surveying. The second period is divided into two stages: 1)the beginning of the XIX century-1860s.-pre-reform research, 2)1861-the end of the XIX century-post-reform large-scale field studies, including works by Dokuchaev, Tillo and others. The third period is a period of complex geographical research of the territory of the Smolensk province in the early XX century. Geographical work conducted on the territory of the Smolensk province makes outstanding scientific and cultural heritage of Russia and is a major scientific research of world importance.