Since 2022, the journal Regional Research of Russia has published special thematic issues on current topics of social geography, regional economics and sociology. This issue is the fifth in a row, and seventh if we also count two issues with extensive special sections—one of which was devoted to problems in the development of the Siberian macroregion and the other to climate policy in Russia. The articles here reflect the results of original scientific research presented at the large-scale International Scientific Conference “Cities on the Path from the Present to the Future,” held in May 2025 at the Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, as part of the V Geourban Readings. Thus, the tradition established just over a year ago in issue no. 5 for 2024 containing the results of the conference within the framework of the IV Geourban Readings was continued. Conference 2025 was dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the birth of V.V. Pokshishevsky (1905–1984), one of the founders of Soviet urban geography, and the issue opens with an article on the evolution of his interests in urban studies from the late 1920s to the early 1980s. The published articles cover urbanization and urban agglomerations, development of cities of different size and intracity development, and the characteristics of rural and urban settlements. They clearly demonstrate that the presented research, both in terms of the studied topics and the applied methods, fits completely in the international context, while at the same time demonstrating distinct national, primarily Russian, and regional characteristics.
Makhrova et al. (2026) studied this question.