The ‘route from the Varangians to the Greeks’ is widely known and often mentioned in research, popular science and educational literature. Much less often is it mentioned that the existence of the trade route is seriously doubted and needs additional evidence. The discussion about the actuality of a ‘route from the Varangians to the Greeks’ has intensified in the recent decade; it mostly involves historians who draw on chronicles, archive materials and literary sources. Although relevant geographical studies focus on small territories and have a limited scope, only they can give a definitive answer to the question of whether it was possible to sail the rivers of the East European Plain between the Baltic and Black Seas in the 8th-11th centuries AD. Of particular importance are studies on the watersheds marking the principal legs of the route. If the watersheds were traversable, the ‘route from the Varangians to the Greeks’ was navigable, and the impassability of watersheds would preclude navigation along the route. Methodologically, the study employs methods and approaches used in physiographical field studies, which have not been applied earlier to the watershed sections of the ‘route from the Varangians to the Greeks’. The central result of the research is the reconstruction of the hydrological features and hydrographic situation of the watershed between the basins of the Neva (River Lovat) and the Western Dvina (River Usvyacha) during the existence of the ‘route from the Varangians to the Greeks’. This reconstruction and the study of the watershed territories, the system of land communication routes and toponymic features of this territory conclusively demonstrate that the ‘way from the Varangians to the Greeks’, or the Baltic-Black Sea waterway, could actually exist.

This work aims to identify fundamentally new features in the spatial organization of e-grocery and ready-made food trade in a Russian city, distinct from those typical of traditional food retail enterprises. Focusing on St Petersburg, the article describes the emergence of a completely different system of requirements imposed by new forms of online food retail in the space of a large Russian city, compared with traditional industries and retail organization methods. The spatial and temporal parameters of the new shopping model are considered, and a comparative analysis of its spatial competition with already established models is presented. The spatial organization of new online food retail is demonstrated in the context of the placement system of new types of offline objects, the emergence of new flows, their impact on urban development and the effect on the outdoor and transit advertising markets, as well as on the labor market. Based on this analysis, it is concluded that new-type physical objects such as distribution warehouses, warehouse stores (fulfilment centres) and dot-com objects are placed according to entirely different principles. If the location of a service point is no longer a competitive advantage as seen by the buyer, faster delivery, hidden from the consumer, emerges as a critical factor in new competition. The paper also analyses the significance of spatial organization principles associated with this factor.

This article tracks how relations between two neighbouring states of the Baltic region, Po­land and Lithuania, developed over the last decades. These relations cannot be described in unambiguous terms. On the one hand, common aspirations for European integration created conditions for rapprochement and cooperation. On the other, the partnership has been complicated by disagreements and mutual claims. The main problem is the situa­tion of the correspondent ethnic minorities in the two countries: Poles in Lithuania and Lithuanians in Poland. According to the Polish authorities, the interests of Lithuania’s Polish residents are not safeguarded, and their rights are infringed. Similar complaints are voiced by Vilnius regarding the situation of ethnic Lithuanians in Poland. These contradictions are partly smoothed by common political interests: cooperation within the North Atlantic Alliance, defiance of the notorious ‘threat from the East’ and joint support for the pro-­Western opposition in the neighbouring Belarus.

The formal indivisibility of security, which theorists in the field of international relations speak of, is an indisputable thing. Although the development of military technology, the format of globalization, a critical attitude towards classical geopolitics have led to an underestimation of the spatial factor, regionalisation has once again proved that it is an integral part of globalisation and its alter ego. At the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century, political developments in Europe are closely connected with military security. Although this interdependence is not new, the regional security system has been relatively stable for quite some time. The steadily, albeit gradually aggravating situation around the Kaliningrad region and the Republic of Belarus has caused a response — co­ordinated cooperation in the framework of the Union State. The consequence of which was the formation of a sub-regional security complex (SRSC), which includes the Republic of Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad region. And a theoretical justification for the formation of this complex is the focus of this article. The authors determine the floating boundaries of the SRSC, where spatial effects of military-political ties take on a special character. This study aims to apply and adapt the concept of regional security complexes to the military-political space of the eastern part of the Baltic Sea. The practical implica­tions of this research include substantiating the interconnectedness and interdependence of security doctrines and practices in a troubled region of Europe.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a serious challenge to the entire global community. Globally, countries were forced to introduce restrictive measures to contain the infection, inevitably causing popular discontent. Germany introduced some of the most painful restrictions. In times of crisis, timely and reliable information is a prerequisite for public motivation to comply with restrictive measures. Thus, it seems essential to retrace how the German leadership tried to contain citizens’ dissatisfaction with the restrictions, using information campaigns and strategies. This theoretical work aims to systematise available data on how Covid-awareness was raised in Germany, compare them with data from the Russian Federation, and identify the most successful communication strategies and weaknesses. It is clear from the findings that the channels of communication between the government and society should be diversified using all available means, and experts and opinion leaders, who are more trusted than politicians, should be recruited. In addition, there is a need to combat misinformation and dispel unproven facts. The data obtained can be of value in conducting information campaigns during future global crises.

The Kaliningrad region’s attractiveness to migrants results in increasing external (interna­tional) and interregional migration. The interregional flow is a major contributor, accounting for approximately 60 per cent of the net migration gain. However, the age composition and pro­fessional qualification of migrants from other regions of Russia do not fully agree with the specifics of the region’s labour market and its strategic socio-­economic development priori­ties. This lends urgency to a selective regional migration policy aimed at prospective internal migrants. Yet, the picture of pull, push and hindering factors remains incomplete, being limit­ed to generally accepted drivers such as coastal location and proximity to EU countries. This article aims at a detailed analysis of reasons to migrate to the region, an assessment of the re­strictions and difficulties faced by relocatees and migrants’ satisfaction with the new place of residence. Method­ologically, the study uses a mixed strategy: formal data collection methods are combined with respondent selection techniques peculiar to qualitative or expert methods. The authors draw on the results of an exploratory survey conducted in December 2021 with a view to analyse migrants’ perception of the Kaliningrad region before and after their arrival and assess how their ideas change. The survey applied mixed research methods: respondents were recruited via social media and relocatee groups. The data analysis reveals a gap between migrant expectations and reality, identifying the causes of inconsistency between the incoming migration flow and the region’s development objectives and labour market needs. Based on the findings, the authors provide recommendations for a migration policy based on an accurate picture of the region and aimed at attracting the required workforce, as well as at migrants’ adaptation and support at the new place of residence.

Based on an analysis of leisure and consumer practices of students of two leading Kaliningrad universities, this paper attempts to reconstruct the actual space of Kaliningrad youth lifestyles, as well as to identify and describe groups following these lifestyles in socio-­economic and demographic terms. Five style groups are identified: the party people who prefer to spend their free time in bars and clubs; the hipsters who frequent theatres and lecture halls, whilst being staunch upholders of the consumerist culture promoted via social media; the ‘normal’ young people choosing physical exercise and standard weekend leisure activities; the young adults combining Soviet leisure heritage with creative and do-it-yourself practices; the homebodies opting for stay-at-home entertainment. Drawing on the discussion about the significance of lifestyle for modern society, the author concludes that lifestyles do not replace the usual socio-­economic stratification markers, and their capacity to differentiate youth groups with unequal access to economic and cultural resources of youth is also limited. Youth leisure lifestyles form an independent system of stratification, which partially coincides with existing social boundaries and partially overlaps with them. The main dividing line runs between the young people who can afford to choose from a ‘supermarket of styles’ and those deprived of such an opportunity.

This article aims to identify the main demographic development trends and features observed in the Kaliningrad region from a historical perspective and assess the extent to which the region’s demographic development corresponds to the national model accepted in contemporary historiography. The empirical sources used in this study include demographic statistics from published and archival materials; theoretically, it draws on the concepts of demographic and epidemiological transitions. Analysis of statistics and historiography is employed along with the comparative historical method. The migration factor had the leading role in the emergence of the regional specifics of demographic development. Migrants from the regions of the USSR that were deeply involved in demographic modernisation before the war formed the resident population of the Kaliningrad region. The gender and age profile of the migrants ensured the prolonged post-war demographic compensation and secured fertility and marriage rates above the RSFSR average. The regional fertility rates converged towards the national average in the second half of the 1950s; from the late 1970s, the region had a fertility rate below the national average. Overall mortality rates remained significantly lower than the RSFSR average until the mid-1990s. The changes in the regional population replacement model that took place in the region during the Soviet period and at the turn of the 21st century generally corresponded to national trends. Therefore, the concept of Russian demographic development proposed by Russian researchers is directly applicable to the exclave of Kaliningrad.

This article offers data that can be used in comparative studies of research and technology capacity at the level of Russian regions. The database comprises six indicators of the development of personnel-related and financial components of a national research and technology system and research results as evinced in research publications and advanced manufacturing technologies that appeared in 2010—2020. This set of interconnected indicators makes it possible to evaluate Russian regions’ research and technology capacity and research output, which affect the degree of development of the innovative environment. The data on regional research output may be of assistance to further regional socio-economic research. The data set includes statistical indicators for 85 Russian regions for 2010—2020, as reported by ROSSTAT. The data on the number off publications and variations therein were obtained from Scopus, the largest unified curated multidisciplinary abstract and citation database. The results are presented as tables and cartographical materials (three tables and six map charts).