Soviet Military Maps: How to Use and Where to Find (Map)

Soviet Military Maps: How to Use and Where to Find

Description of Soviet Maps; how to use; where to find

As the Army Technical Manual, TM 30-548 of 1959 describes, the Soviets followed the International Map of the World Numbering system, otherwise known as the “millionth,” because of its scale 1:1,000,000. As seen in the сборная таблица (table reference), the Soviets did not change the Roman alphabet and Arabic Number system developed by the United Nations after WWII. As the TM describes, “In the Northern Hemisphere the numbering system begins at the Equator and the 180" meridian with sheet number A-1. Sheet numbers progress northward and eastward in letters and numbers respectively. The individual sheets cover 4" of latitude and 6" of longitude.” The 1:200,000 maps that cover most of the world, are based off of this system. The Soviets divided the segments of the millionth map in several manners, but the one used for the Maine maps that I studied divided the 1:1,000,000 sheet area into 36 1:200,000 sheets. The sheets are labeled with appropriate Roman letter, followed by an Arabic numeral, than a Roman numeral, shown on the attached 1:200,000 key.

With knowledge of Russian language, the maps are easy to understand and look quite similar to the USGS maps’ layouts. Otherwise, the Book, “Russian Military Mapping: A Guide to Using the Most Comprehensive Source of Global Geospatial Intelligence” offers a useful guide to understand the map symbols and layouts. A copy of this book can be found in the Harvard Map Collection.


Researchers may find the Soviet maps in a variety of places, but so far, no public access exists for the digitized versions. Aivars Beldavs, owner of the Latvian map shop, Jana Seta, claims to own the vast majority of the printed pages, but only distributes them for a price. Other collections exist, including John Davies and other map shops in Eastern Europe, but until the maps are put on a public server, with an easy to use automated navigation tool, large scale efforts to analyze the complete collection will be limited to the select few owning their own materials. Until some brave soul ventures forth to digitize, map the metadata, and establish a public server, interested historians can find some of the maps on the Red Atlas website, the small collection in the Harvard Map Collection, and scattered throughout the internet, in varying degrees of completeness and authenticity.

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/pdf/soviet.pdf

https://redatlasbook.com