We often tend to look on maps, and by extension all other forms of art or literature, as a finished thing. This is done without any thought but in doing so we miss out on the skill and work that goes into the making. We’ve blogged about the making of maps, the science of cartography, by both the Austrian military and the Soviet cartographic department before, and a recent donation to the library has added more material to this fascinating field.

Some map-makers maps are distinctive due to style or choice of colours, and that is certainly the case with this set of four educational maps at different scales, published by the Glavnoe Upravlenie Geodezii i Kartografii pri Sovete Ministrov SSSR, (Main Directorate of Geodesy and Cartography under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, otherwise known as the GUGK). The use of soft pastel colours is instantly recognizable as from the GUGK and seems in contrast to the impression we have of a Soviet style of brutalist architecture and politics, but does allow for a beautiful map design (more on Soviet mapping can be found here and here).

Of the four maps in the pamphlet, the one at 1:50,000 is the most informative. Around the edge are instructions on surveying, depicting relief and profile and making grids. Part of the relief instructions shows heights above sea levels in profile.

The maps date from 1987, an important time in the history of the Soviet Union. Despite the appointment of Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 and a new era of openness and more freedom than previously allowed under the concept of glasnost, the explosion and release of a radiation cloud over northern Europe from the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in 1986 showed how weak and secretive the Soviet Union was (we blogged about Chernobyl here). Four years later, the Soviet system collapsed, bringing in a new, post-communist, Russia.

Despite the convincing topography these maps show imagined locations. The maps start at 1:100,000 then gradually focus on a smaller area as you go down through scales, like a cartographic set of Russian dolls. So the town of Snov (Снов) gets gradually bigger with each increase in scale down to 1:10,000 (1:100,000 top, 1:50,000 2nd, 1:25,000 3rd, 1:10,000 bottom).

This set will go into the O section of the map storage area, drawers full of maps of imaginary lands. Produced by the Soviet State to help their cartographers make maps of both the Soviet Union and many other countries, this set will lie in a drawer with maps of Middle Earth, the Island of Sodor and Ambridge.

Uchebnye topograficheskie karty, 1987. O1 (42)

On the reverse of a map of Minsk from 1991 there are some interesting and unusual sections. As well as including instructions on measuring distances there are also examples of the same area at different scales (1:1,000,000 going down to 1:10,000 and centring on the village of Borovsty). Shown here are the 1:1,000,000, 1:500,000 and 1;200,000 scale maps as well as two pictures about orientation

Map reading instructions and examples of different scales aren’t uncommon features, what makes this particular map stand out is the little diagram showing the process of making a map, from planning (ПроеКт) through surveying (aerial as well as ground-work) to drawing

and production and finishing with sales. Can the whole exercise be included as proof that the Soviet system still worked despite the Union breaking apart?, the Byelorussian SSR itself declared independence the same year the map was made, becoming Belarus.

The end result of all this work is the main map, made by the Soviet Cartographic Department, the Glavnoe upravlenie geodezii i kartografii, more commonly known as the GUGK (Main Directorate of Geodesy and Cartography). The use of oranges and greens here is a common feature of Soviet maps, immediately recognizable as a product of the GUGK.

Mинск и окрестности (Minsk and surroundings) 1991. C40:12 (40)

Published in Moscow in 1987 by the Main Directorate of Geodesy and Cartography of the Council of Ministers of the USSR this atlas of the USSR includes the usual topographic and

thematic maps you’d expect, including this physical map of the USSR.

The treats inside though are the pages Immediately after this physical map. Over the next 17 pages, following an organizational chart showing how all the states are joined to the Soviet

system with the flag and emblem of the  Soviet Union there follows flags and emblems for, amongst others, Belorussia and the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic

and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic.

 The flag and emblem for Latvia features the sea, befitting for a country that has some of the busiest sea ports onto the Baltic and with an important fishing industry

 while the colourful flag and emblem for Kirgiz Soviet Socialist Republic (Kyrgyzstan) shows the mountainous nature of a country where 80% of the land is part of a mountain chain.

The similarity of the flags and emblems shows an obvious central party influence. All feature the Hammer and Sickle, symbol of solidarity between the agricultural and the industrial worker as well as the Red Star, which for the Soviets was a symbol of the Red Army.

Atlas SSSR (атлас ссср), 1987. C40 e.4

Physical features rarely change. It takes something pretty spectacular, a volcanic eruption or large-scale mining say, to make a difference to the surface of the earth. Maps reflect this, hardly changing apart from the style of printing or colours used. What does change though are names, particularly names in countries which go through political or military upheaval. Stalingrad is one of the more famous cases in point.

Sheet M38, Saratov, G.S.G.S. No. 2758. c1920. B1 (41)

Originally called Tsaritsyn the city changed its name to Stalingrad in 1925 to honour Joseph Stalin, who had been the chairman of the local Military Committee during the Russian Civil War in 1919. After Stalin’s death and re-evaluation of his time the city changed its name for a third time in 1961 to Volgograd, the ‘town on the River Volga’.

Blatt-Nr M 38, Ssaratow, Generalstab des Heeres, 1943. B1 (41)

These maps come from the International Map of the World, one of the most ambitious and celebrated of all map series. The scheme was originally proposed at an international Cartographic Conference in 1891 by a German cartographer called Albrecht Penck with the intention of covering the whole of the Earth with maps at a scale of 1:1,000,000.  The suggestion ran into immediate problems, both technical and political, not least of which was determining the meridian used. Meridians are crucial in the making of maps, especially a global series as this would be, as they set the degrees used. French cartographers wanted to use their Paris-based meridian, English cartographers pushed for Greenwich.

NM 38, Volgograd, Army Map Service, 1965. B1 (41)

For Penck the benefits of such a scheme were numerous but the two most important were that the maps would produce a general cover of the Earth at a scale detailed enough to be of use and that a large area of the Earth had already been mapped at this or a similar scale so the scheme was already, unofficially and without been called as such, partly in place. Penck set out the rules by which his maps would be made. Latinized names and the use of as few colours as practical were intended to give the maps as uniform a look as possible. It took until 1904 before numerous issues were resolved, and for the first maps to be produced, with French, German and English military cartographic groups publishing maps of areas of colonial interest (Germany maps of Eastern China, France maps of Persia and the Antilles and the English Africa). Eventually the entire globe was covered by 2,500 sheets, sheets which often had numerous editions and published by countries with opposing political views. For example during the period of the Second World War different editions of the sheet covering London and the Channel were  published by the cartographic departments of the British, Soviet and German military.

German (1941), English (1944) and Russian (1938) versions of sheet M30, from the International map of the World series. B1 (41)

Stalingrad is of course most famous as one of the major battlegrounds of the Second World War. Situated on the western bank of the Volga River, with a large industrial output and a key strategic position controlling the river traffic to central Russia, the battle for the city started in August 1942 and lasted 5 months. After initial heavy losses Russian troops were able to re-group in the country to the east of the river and in a large pincer movement encircle German troops in November. This map of the city is printed on the reverse of a general series of maps of Eastern Europe published in 1942 by the German Army. The main map features, as well as the map itself, a large amount of text on the landscape, transport network and population of the area shown on each sheet. On reverse the town plans has further text on the city shown, with an index of crucial points.

Umbegungsskizze von Stalingrad, on reverse of sheet D49 of Osteuropa 1:300,000. 1942. C40 (72a) [D49]