The Red Atlas: How the Soviet Union Secretly Mapped the World by John Davies and Alexander J. Kent James Risen (review)

Abstract

SEER, 98, 1, JANUARY 2020 186 the relations between the wartime leaders of the Grand Alliance. The work complements the publication of the three-volume journal of the Soviet ambassador in London, Ivan M. Maiskii. It is an important contribution to understanding the Soviet point of view during World War Two, undistorted in the present period of so-called ‘new cold war’. Département d’histoire Michael Jabara Carley Université de Montréal Davies, John and Kent, Alexander J. The Red Atlas: How the Soviet Union Secretly Mapped the World. Foreword by James Risen. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL and London, 2017. xiii + 234 pp. Maps. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Appendices. Indexes. $35.00. In the old Soviet Union maps were secret. The present writer well remembers how, in the 1970s, his desire to look at detailed eighteenth-century cadastral maps of a part of central European Russia for purely academic purposes was frustrated by the caution of archivists. Whether the authorities believed that such maps, somehow secretly copied, might be used by Western intelligence agencies for some nefarious purpose was unclear. It later transpired that even Soviet scholars often had difficulty accessing such materials. With respect to the general public the modern maps of towns and cities available for purchase were usually deliberately distorted. If access to maps of the USSR was restricted, Soviet maps of foreign countries or regions were generally unavailable with the exception of those at smaller scales. Western maps were, of course, available in the West and these were used by the Soviets to compile their own maps of Western countries and of other parts of the world. Between 1950 and the end of the Soviet period the Military-Topographic Directorate of the Soviet General Staff (that part of the Soviet military responsible for mapping) conducted a secret mapping project covering the whole world at a variety of scales and in several series. According to the authors of this volume, this constituted ‘the most comprehensive global topographic mapping project ever undertaken’ (p. 11). Estimates vary, but according to one, in excess of a million maps were produced. The authors group them into, firstly, topographic maps or topos (military and civil series), secondly city plans (military and civil series) and, thirdly, special maps of various kinds. Whilst most such maps were regarded as state secrets during the Soviet era, the breakup of the USSR in 1991 radically changed the situation. Many maps were deposited in newly-independent states such as the three Baltic states and REVIEWS 187 became available to view and copy. Others entered the market illegally or by other means. Many are now in private collections. The present volume, written by two self-confessed ‘map enthusiasts’ (one a retired Information Systems specialist, the other an academic specialist in cartography) gives a brief account of the history of Russian and Soviet mapping followed by a detailed discussion of the style, content and symbology of the Soviet maps, the cartographical methods employed and the story of how the maps entered into the public domain. The target readership is ‘the general reader’. It has to be said, however, that the authors occasionally allow their evident enthusiasm to overwhelm them. For example, their discussion of the technicalities of the map making methods used, beginning on page 19, seems likely to exhaust the understanding and the patience of many a reader. The real highlight of the book is the maps themselves. Liberally scattered through the text, and with an appendix of nearly sixty examples in Appendix 1, the full-colour map extracts give a vivid impression of the detailed analysis which went into the compilation of the maps and of their sheer aesthetic quality. Soviet maps have long been known for their ability to present enormous detail even at smaller scales. What is amazing is the range of data covered including, in some cities, building heights, road widths and bridge capacities, and, for selected water bodies, channel depths and navigability. Clearly the Soviets used not only Western maps and satellite imagery but many other sources, in all probability including feet on the ground. The fact that some militarily sensitive objects were not depicted on Western maps, but appear...