The Soviet mapping of Poland - a brief overview

• Authors: Alexander J. Kent , Martin Davis , John Davies

Abstracts

EN

The Soviet military mapping project was the most comprehensive cartographic endeavour of the twentieth century. The resulting maps have been commercially available to the West since at least 1993, when a Latvian business rfist oefred Soviet plans of Western cities for sale at the 16th International Cartographic Conference in Cologne, Germany. Covering the globe at a range of scales, Soviet military maps provide a fascinating - if disconcerting - view of familiar territory with a striking aesthetic. But they also provide a substantial untapped geospatial resource, often with an unparalleled level of topographic detail. This paper gives an overview of the Soviet global military mapping programme and its coverage of Poland, including the 1:25,000-scale city plan of Warsaw (printed in 1981). By illustrating the extensive topographic symbology employed at various scales of mapping, it suggests how these maps may oefr scope for regional studies and how their cartographic language can provide some solutions for addressing the ongoing challenges of mapping the globe.

Keywords

EN

Soviet topographic maps; Cold War; geospatial intelligence; Warsaw; cartography

• Publisher: Wydział Geografii i Studiów Regionalnych Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
• Journal: Miscellanea Geographica. Regional Studies on Development
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 5-15

Dates

published

2019

Contributors

author

Alexander J. Kent

• School of Human and Life Sciences, Canterbury Christ Church University, United Kingdom

author

Martin Davis

• Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), London, United Kingdom

author

John Davies

References

• Collier, P, Fontana, D, Pearson, A & Ryder, A 1996, 'The state of mapping in the former satellite countries of Eastern Europe', The Cartographic Journal, vol. 33, no. 2, pp.131-139.
• Cruickshank, JL 2007, '“German-Soviet friendship” and the Warsaw Pact mapping of Britain and Western Europe', Sheetlines, vol. 79, pp.23-43.
• Cruickshank, JL 2008, 'Views from Moscow', Sheetlines, vol. 82, pp.37-49.
• Cruickshank, JL 2012, 'Teaching OS map-reading as a foreign language', Sheetlines, vol. 94, pp.23-32.
• Davies, J 2005a, 'Uncle Joe knew where you lived. The story of Soviet mapping of Britain (part I)', Sheetlines, vol. 72, pp.26-38.
• Davies, J 2005b, 'Uncle Joe knew where you lived. The story of Soviet mapping of Britain (part II)', Sheetlines, vol. 73, pp.1-15.
• Davies, J 2006, 'Review of “Russian military mapping: A guide to using the most comprehensive source of global geospatial intelligence”', The Cartographic Journal, vol. 43, no.3, p.259.
• Davies, J 2010, 'Soviet military city plans of British Isles', Sheetlines, vol. 89, pp.23-24.
• Davies, J & Kent, AJ 2017, The Red Atlas: How the Soviet Union secretly mapped the world. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
• Davis, M & Kent, AJ 2017, 'Improving user access to Soviet military mapping. Current issues in libraries and collections around the globe', Journal of Map & Geography Libraries, vol. 13, no. 2, pp.246-260.
• Department of the Army 1958, TM 30-548 Soviet topographic map symbols (Department of the Army Technical Manual) Washington, D.C. Headquarters, Department of the Army. Available from: <https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/ redatlas/TM30-548_1958.pdf>. [16 October 2018].
• Hefernan, M 2002, 'The politics of the map in the early twentieth century', Cartography and Geographic Information Science, vol. 29, no. 3, pp.207-226.
• Kent, AJ & Davies, JM 2013, 'Hot geospatial intelligence from a Cold War: the Soviet military mapping of towns and cities', Cartography and Geographic Information Science, vol. 40, no. 3, pp.248-253.
• Kent, AJ & Vujakovic, P 2011, 'Cartographic language: Towards a new paradigm for understanding stylistic diversity in topographic maps', The Cartographic Journal, vol. 48, no. 1, pp.21-40.
• Lee, KD 2003, Russian data illuminate world mapping. Available from: <http://gis-lab.info/docs/russian-topo.pdf>. [22 April 2015].
• Map Archive of Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny 1919-1939, 2013. Available from: <http://english.mapywig.org/Russian_ and_Soviet_maps_EN.htm>. [5 November 2018].
• Pearson, A, Taylor, DRF, Kline, KD & Hefernan, M 2006, 'Cartographic ideals and geopolitical realities: international maps of the world from the 1890s to the present', The Canadian Geographer, vol. 50, no. 2, pp.149-176.
• Postnikov, A 1996, Russia in maps: A history of the geographical study and cartography of the country, Nash Dom - L'Age d'Homme, Moscow.
• Rondelli, B, Stride, S & García-Granero, JJ 2013, 'Soviet military maps and archaeological survey in the Samarkand region', Journal of Cultural Heritage, vol. 14, pp.270-276.
• Soviet General Staf 1978, Manual for cartography and cartographic reproduction works. Part IV. Compilation and preparation for printing of city plans, Military-Topographic Service, Moscow.
• USGS 2014, USGS projects in Afghanistan. Available from: <https://afghanistan.cr.usgs.gov/geospatial-referencedatasets>. [20 July 2018].
• USGS 2015, Secretly stashed Afghanistan gold maps emerge. Available from: <https://www.usgs.gov/news/secretlystashed-afghanistan-gold-maps-emerge>. [25 July 2018].
• Vereshchaka, 2002, Топографические карты: научные основы содержания [Topographic maps: The scientific principles of their content], М.: МАИК Наука/Интерпериодика [Maik Nauka/Interperiodika Publishers], pp. 319. ISBN 5-7846- 0092-3. Moscow
• Watt, D 2005, 'Soviet military mapping', Sheetlines, vol. 74, pp.9-12.

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/mgrsd-2018-0034

Biblioteka Nauki

2137059