In this paper, read at the Fifth National Conference of Landscape Science in Moscow in August 1961, the author defends his concept of landscape as a basic category of natural areal units against the view that the term landscape should be applied to any natural areal unit on the earth's surface. He discusses the origins of landscape science in Russia, the problem of new terminology designating the various morphologic units of landscape, the need for studying processes in the landscape and the question of landscape classification. The author holds that the geological-geomorphic foundation is dominant among all landscape components and should be used as the basis for classification. For another view on the meaning of the landscape concept, see Yu. K. Yefremov, “The concept of landscape and landscapes of different orders,” Soviet Geography, December 1961, pp. 32–43.