Whenever the writer has asked anyone within the Soviet Union as to the functions of geography, the answer has invariably been “to develop the productive resources of the state.” Geography has proceeded along the lines of Marxian theory with especial emphasis on economic problems. Thus dozens of geographers are employed in the planning commissions of the U.S.S.R. and the constituent republics. Not only should these plans be in harmony with the natural environment, they are also the geographer's instrument for periodically changing this environment. Elsewhere the emphasis is equally on the political-economic side, with especial interest in people and their welfare, working conditions, and past relations to economic feudalism and imperialism. Those aspects of geography which deal with mere description, or with fields such as geomorphology or human ecology, are regarded as intellectual luxuries which must be postponed until some future date.

Every educational system, whether extant or planned, is an inseparable part of the social structure of the country in which it is, or it is to be, applied. Education is dependent much more than is generally realized upon prevalent political, economic and cultural trends and in turn, reflects these trends. This means that while it is possible to describe an educational system as an isolated cultural phase, it is not possible to understand it properly apart from the total social context. It must be seen and evaluated as a part of a whole.