In other cases, detail may have come directly from sources on the ground. In this map of San Diego, the added detail may have come from satellite imagery, which the Soviets had access to after the launch of their first spy satellite in 1962. To obtain more obscure information, they would have had to get creative. routinely sent someone over to check for new maps). Geological Survey ( legend has it the Soviet embassy in Washington, D.C.
In the U.S., for example, they would have had access to publicly-available topographic maps made by the U.S. Some of it was relatively easy to come by. Very little is known about how the Soviet military made these maps, but it appears they used whatever information they could get their hands on. “There’s an assumption that communism will prevail, and naturally the U.S.S.R. Davies and Kent see the maps not so much as a guide to invasion, but as a helpful resource in the course of taking over the world. Soviet maps contain plenty of strategic information too-like the width and condition of roads-but they also contain details that are unusual for military maps, such as the types of houses and businesses in a given area and whether the streets were lined with greenery.Įxhaustive notes on transportation networks, power grids, and factories hint at the Soviets’ obsession with infrastructure. and British military and intelligence agencies during the Cold War tended to focus on specific areas of strategic interest. Maps for public consumption were intentionally distorted by the government and lacked any details that might benefit an enemy should they fall into the wrong hands.ĭavies and Kent argue that the maps were a pre-digital Wikipedia, a repository of everything the Soviets knew about a given place. Behind the Iron Curtain, ordinary people did not have access to accurate maps.
Most of these maps were classified, their use carefully restricted to military officers.
It’s impossible to say how many people took part in this massive cartographic enterprise, but there were likely thousands, including surveyors, cartographers, and possibly spies.
Unauthorized use is prohibited.īeginning in the 1940s, the Soviets mapped the world at seven scales, ranging from a series of maps that plotted the surface of the globe in 1,100 segments to a set of city maps so detailed you can see transit stops and the outlines of famous buildings like the Pentagon (see above). Much of what’s known about this secret Soviet military project is outlined in a new book, The Red Atlas, by John Davies, a British map enthusiast who has spent more than a decade studying these maps, and Alexander Kent, a geographer at Canterbury Christ Church University. These maps include notes on the construction materials and load-bearing capacity of bridges-things that would be near-impossible to know without people on the ground. The Soviets also mapped American cities in remarkable detail, including some military buildings that don’t appear on American-made maps of the same era. Maps of China include notes on local vegetation and whether water from wells in a particular area is safe to drink.
Soviet maps of Afghanistan indicate the times of year certain mountain passes are free of snow and passable for travel. It was one of the greatest mapping endeavors the world has ever seen. Military cartographers created hundreds of thousands of maps and filled them with detailed notes on the terrain and infrastructure of every place on Earth. During the Cold War, the Soviet military undertook a secret mapping program that’s only recently come to light in the West.