This paper aims to explore the activities of the Permanent Commission for the Study of the Natural Productive Forces of Russia (KEPS), which was established in 1915, and its links with the development of Russia’s geographical sciences during the late tsarist and early Soviet periods. The natural philosopher Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadskii [1863-1945] was a key figure behind the establishment of the Commission which was broadly concerned with establishing the extent of Russia’s natural resources via extensive expeditionary activities. A range of scientific institutions emerged in tandem with the work of KEPS. For our purposes, it was the foundation of the Department for the Industrial-geographical Study of Russia (DIGS) in 1918, following the proposal of the geographer A.A. Grigor’ev [1883-1968], which forms a key focus. Grigor’ev’s rationale for promoting this departmental specialisation was predicated on his belief that for the ‘correct and rationale organisation of the economy, it was necessary to create not only a clear picture of the natural, domestic and economic conditions of the country but also to explain the causal dependencies between them’ (Kotlyakov, 2008, p. 12). Such concerns echoed, at least in part, the debates at the time over the nature and focus of geography within Russia. Furthermore, Grigor’ev’s initiative would lay the foundations for the later establishment of the Institute of Geography, Academy of Sciences USSR, in the 1930s. After outlining the general work of KEPS, the paper reflects on the activities of DIGS as well as its broader role in the development of Soviet geography. It also explores the links between the rationale underpinning the activities of DIGS and broader trends within Russian geography concerning natural physical systems and ‘ecological’ thinking traceable to the late nineteenth century.