Russian Geosociology of the 19th – Early 20th Centuries and Modern Sociology of the Region: The Continuity of Ideas

The article presents the results of an original study aimed at examining the legacy of the Russian geosociological school of the 19th – early 20th centuries as a theoretical source of modern regional sociology. The relevance of the problem is associated, on the one hand, with the need to assess the contribution of Russian sociologists of the past to Russian science, and on the other, with the current problems of the formation of regional sociology as a branch of knowledge. The article analyzes the views of a number of the most significant represent-atives of Russian geosociology (L.I. Mechnikov, S.M. Solovyov, V.O. Klyuchevsky, P.N. Savitsky, G.V. Vernadsky, and N.S. Trubetskoy) and concludes that the latter served as a preparatory condition for the sociological study of the region in a number of aspects. In particular, it is recognized that geosociology, which studies the role of the geographical factor in public life, has made a definite contribution to the development of a methodology for the sociological study of the influence of the geographical factor and the future problems of regional sociology (its dif-ferentiating and integrative role, determination of economic, political and spiritual-cultural activities, public con-sciousness and spiritual culture, etc.