FOREWORD
There are at present several thousands soil names in world pe­
dology which are in use of various scientific schools* The simple 
translations of these names from one language to another do not 
usually give a correct understanding of a soil to which this or 
that name corresponds* Even such classical names as "podzol" or 
"chernozem” have different interpretations and meanings in diffe­
rent pedological schools of the world* More over* till present 
there are no standard translations of soil names from one language 
to another*
The existing position in soil nomenclature» when different 
authors understand different soils under one and the same name» and 
vice versa» one and the same soil is often described under diffe­
rent names» leads to very great difficulties in scientific collabo­
ration and mutual understanding among the pedologists of various 
countries» especially at present time with the increasing of inter­
national cooperation in the world* The language barriers are too 
often misleading in international cooperation.
The above said is a base of urgent necessity for creation of 
multylingual encyclopedic dictionary of soil nomenclature with the 
purpose of uniform understanding and utilisation of those or those 
soil names existing in the soil science» and of uniform translati­
ons of soil names*
The present dictionary contains 2800 soil nomenclature terms» 
used by the largest pedologloal schools of the world» namely Russi­
an» Franco-Belgian» German» Canadian» of the USA and of the 
FAO/URESCO* Besides» there are numerous terms of other national 
schools» whidely utilised in soil literature*
The dictionary is composed by the following way*
In the alphabetical order the terms in Russian are given» 
which are partly» the terms of Russian school and partly Russian 
translations of the terms of various national schools» The transla­
tions into English» French and German consequently are given to 
each of the Russian terms with several synonima or variants of trans­
lations if any* Then the etimology of each term for its original lan­
guage form follows* In the characteristics (interpretation) of each 
term its history (national school) and the short definition of the 
soil concerned is given* The synonima If any are given in a aonclu-
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