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Boris Borisovich Rodoman (born, Moscow) – Soviet and Russian geographer, geography theorist; publicist.

He initiated a new direction of theoretical geography, reflecting the unique features of the USSR and Russia. He was the author of the concept of the “polarized biosphere” (1970), the creator of his version of the language and rules for the compilation of cartoids. He made important contributions to recreational geography. It proposes to turn most of Russia into a natural park-reserve.

B. B. Rodoman was once called the “legend of national geography”.

Biography

Childhood
Born in Moscow, on the Arbat. His father is an actor and director of drama theater. The mother is a garment factory worker, after the birth of the child became a housewife. As a child, he traveled a lot with his parents. The evacuation from Moscow to Western Siberia in 1941, after the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, was perceived as a journey:
I was standing on my suitcases, looking through the window of the freight car for 12 days. The landscape replaced me with film and fiction. I do not consume art because it imposes emotions and distracts from the independent perception of reality, which is always more interesting than any fiction.

At the age of thirteen, he regularly traveled to Moscow by tram. At the age of 17 he traveled around Moscow, passing a day up to 30 km. School was difficult, but willingly engaged in self-education. He read popular science books on natural science, the history of technology and architecture, universal history, various encyclopedias. He studied maps and atlases, loved dictionaries and reference books.

Teachers and classmates seemed to me superfluous for study, and the yard and boys - a hostile environment. No one was for me a leader, a favorite hero, an idol, an authority. The memories of high school are particularly painful. By the age of 14, I had fallen into anger and pessimism, but at the age of 18 I decided to rebuild and embrace the world around me. My rebirth was going to university.

Studying at Moscow University
In 1953, in the 3rd year, a term paper was written on the types of rural settlements in the Volga Delta.

Geography and postgraduate studies

In 1955-1959 he worked in the State Publishing House of Geographical Literature, where he edited mainly scientific publications, including the collections “Questions of Geography”, in the editorial board of which he was at one time a scientific secretary. In 1959-1962 he was a full-time graduate student of the Department of Physical Geography at the Institute of Geography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR; participated in the work of the Polar-Ural expedition of this institute and the Dnipropetrovsk expedition of the Geographical Faculty of Moscow State University. Since 1962 he again worked in Geogorghiz, which since 1963 became the geographical editorial office of the publishing house “Thought”.

Work at the Geographical Faculty of MSU

In 1965-1984 he worked in the laboratory of economic zoning at the Department of Economic Geography of the USSR of the Geographical Faculty of Moscow State University, where he began to deal with geographical problems of recreation and tourism, defended his PhD thesis in 1966 and wrote a number of fundamental articles on theoretical science