Soviet Cold War Maps: Examining the Organization and Practices of Production Through the Case of Denmark

Abstract

ABSTRACT During the Cold War, the Soviet military carried out an ambitious mapping programme, which resulted in a global series of topographic maps. Although recent advances in scholarship have increased our knowledge of the production of these maps, we still know little about the organization behind them. Based on information from a set of 466 1:50 000-scale Soviet military topographic maps of Denmark, this article examines the Soviet mapping practices related to the large-scale mapping of Denmark. Results show that the Soviet military compiled large-scale topographic maps of Denmark between the 1950s and the 1980s. The maps were initially based on Danish maps, but later the Soviets began to prefer remote-sensed data from satellite imagery. This allowed the Soviets to capture information about concealed military infrastructure. The article also shows the potential for using information from the map sheets in a transnational analysis of the Soviet mapping during the Cold War.