Borders of the Union Republics of the USSR: Analysis and Visualization

In the modern world, there are many examples of how the borders of states have changed as a result of various historical events. Over time, territorial changes contribute to the development of tension between countries or peoples, which can escalate into an armed conflict that will not end until an event occurs that determines the belonging of the territory to a certain people or state. Such territorial changes took place in the USSR, where there were several republics with a special status and autonomy. As part of the USSR, these republics underwent internal and external changes, exchanging geographical spaces with neighboring republics. The analysis and visualization of the borders of the Union republics will help to understand some modern conflicts of the studied geographical space, which can practically help in their resolution. Also, the analysis will help to substantiate the territorial claims of countries and peoples on the internal divisions of common territories or refute such. The novelty of the research is the creation of the first visualization of changes in the territories of the Union Soviet Socialist Republics and the subsequent publication of this visualization on the website of the dynamic map "Borders of Russia (850-2020)", which is available to a wide range of users. The object of the work is the borders of the republics of the Soviet Union for the entire existence of the country. The subject is changes in the borders of the Union SSR. The purpose of the study is to analyze changes in the borders of the Union republics and prepare additions to the dynamic map "Borders of Russia (850-2020)". To carry out the research, the method of analysis and historicism, as well as cartographic, descriptive, comparative methods were used. To carry out the study, official documents, maps and resources regulating the creation of the USSR and all changes in the country's territory were collected, a database of all border changes from 1922 to 1991 was created. Also, when preparing the project, the authors relied on the developments of the Laboratory of Historical Geoinformatics of the IVI RAS. The researchers identified the main changes and their causes and created a visualization of the collected data on the QGIS platform. Further, a comparison of border changes was carried out, during which the periods in which the greatest number of changes occurred, territories and borders that remained unchanged throughout the existence of the USSR, as well as the republic that transferred the largest number of its territories to other union republics were identified. The visualization was prepared for transmission to the team of the project "Borders of Russia (850-2020)" for further publication on the website. A presentation was also prepared on the Tilda platform, which reflects some of the results of the study. The researchers confirmed the hypothesis that was put forward at the beginning of the creation of the project – the borders of the Union republics have undergone many changes throughout the existence of the USSR. The practical significance of the final qualifying work is to create a map of changes in borders, which will be available to a wide range of users on the website of the project "Borders of Russia (850-2020)", as well as to create a database of changes in the borders of the Union republics, which can be used in further historical and geographical studies of CCCP. This research can be continued: the techniques that were used in the preparation of the project can be applied for further preparation of visualizations of historical changes in various territories in different time periods. For example, the project "Borders of Russia (850-2020)" can be supplemented with visualization of changes in the borders of the provinces of the Russian Empire, etc.