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

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Remote sensing
• satellite imagery
• military maps
• Warsaw Pact
• topographic maps
• geospatial intelligence

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the two anonymous referees for their valuable comments and suggestions for the manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The topographic maps were preceded by the city plan of the town of Frederikshavn in northern Jutland ‘План г. Фредериксхавн’ (O-32-94), which was printed in 1951.

2 The German military compiled maps of Denmark in scale 1:25 000 based on Danish large-scaled topographic maps at 1:20 000. Also, Danish army maps (M814) were printed at 1:25 000 based on the photo-enlargement of the map of 1:20 000 during the 1950s as a gap-filler until the new 1:25 000 series was produced.

3 This map was printed in black and white and was intended as a gap-filler before the proper edition printed in colour could be introduced. Such interim maps were often issued for urban areas with ongoing development.

Additional information

Funding

The Research Council of the Danish Ministry of Culture funded this research [grant number FPK.2017-0066].

Notes on contributors

M. L. Perner

Stig Roar Svenningsen holds a MSc in History and Geography and a PhD in Geography. Currently he is a senior researcher at the Special Collections, Royal Danish Library. He is responsible for the national collections of maps and aerial photographs at the Royal Danish Library. Current research focuses on historical cartography in relation to digital humanities and Cold War geospatial intelligence.