Hot geospatial intelligence from a Cold War: the Soviet military mapping of towns and cities

As part of its secret military mapping program the Soviet Union produced large-scale maps and plans of hundreds of towns and cities around the world. The end of the Cold War and the subsequent fall of communism saw the eventual closure or transformation of cartographic factories in the former Soviet...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cartography and Geographic Information Science 2013, Vol.40 (3), p.248
Main Authors: Kent, Alexander J, Davies, John M
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
Geospatial data
Maps, Military
Military intelligence
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
cited_by
cites
container_end_page
container_issue 3
container_start_page 248
container_title Cartography and Geographic Information Science
container_volume 40
creator Kent, Alexander J
Davies, John M
description As part of its secret military mapping program the Soviet Union produced large-scale maps and plans of hundreds of towns and cities around the world. The end of the Cold War and the subsequent fall of communism saw the eventual closure or transformation of cartographic factories in the former Soviet republics, and, for the first time, these highly detailed products of geospatial intelligence became available to a wider audience. This paper focuses on maps and plans of non-Soviet towns and cities that were produced from the 1940s to the 1990s. Through a comparison of their style and content with contemporary cartographic and documentary sources, it aims to examine the key questions of how and why they were made, before exploring their possible strategic value. Keywords: Soviet military mapping; Cold War; geospatial intelligence
doi_str_mv 10.1080/15230406.2013.799734
format report
fullrecord <record><control><sourceid>gale</sourceid><recordid>TN_cdi_gale_infotracacademiconefile_A339527395</recordid><sourceformat>XML</sourceformat><sourcesystem>PC</sourcesystem><galeid>A339527395</galeid><sourcerecordid>A339527395</sourcerecordid><originalsourceid>FETCH-gale_infotracacademiconefile_A3395273953</originalsourceid><addsrcrecordid>eNqVy01KxEAQBeBeKDj-3MBFXWBidXpmYtzJoMzeATeCFEl1LOl0hXSheHsz4AXkwXvwwXPu1mPl8R7v_LYOuMFdVaMPVdO2TdicudWJ1ye_cJelfCLiLvhm5d4OajCwlolMKIFk45Rk4NwxxFlHINhr6uGV5gewD4YX_RI2GCWJ0fwDI02T5AE0gul3LkC5h05MuFy780ip8M3fXrnq-em4P6wHSvwuOarN1C3peZROM0dZ_DGEdls3S4V_H34B0ldQWg</addsrcrecordid><sourcetype>Aggregation Database</sourcetype><iscdi>true</iscdi><recordtype>report</recordtype></control><display><type>report</type><title>Hot geospatial intelligence from a Cold War: the Soviet military mapping of towns and cities</title><source>Taylor and Francis Science and Technology Collection</source><creator>Kent, Alexander J ; Davies, John M</creator><creatorcontrib>Kent, Alexander J ; Davies, John M</creatorcontrib><description>As part of its secret military mapping program the Soviet Union produced large-scale maps and plans of hundreds of towns and cities around the world. The end of the Cold War and the subsequent fall of communism saw the eventual closure or transformation of cartographic factories in the former Soviet republics, and, for the first time, these highly detailed products of geospatial intelligence became available to a wider audience. This paper focuses on maps and plans of non-Soviet towns and cities that were produced from the 1940s to the 1990s. Through a comparison of their style and content with contemporary cartographic and documentary sources, it aims to examine the key questions of how and why they were made, before exploring their possible strategic value. Keywords: Soviet military mapping; Cold War; geospatial intelligence</description><identifier>ISSN: 1523-0406</identifier><identifier>DOI: 10.1080/15230406.2013.799734</identifier><language>eng</language><publisher>Taylor &amp; Francis Group LLC</publisher><subject>Geospatial data ; Maps, Military ; Military intelligence</subject><ispartof>Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 2013, Vol.40 (3), p.248</ispartof><rights>COPYRIGHT 2013 Taylor &amp; Francis Group LLC</rights><woscitedreferencessubscribed>false</woscitedreferencessubscribed></display><links><openurl>$$Topenurl_article</openurl><openurlfulltext>$$Topenurlfull_article</openurlfulltext><thumbnail>$$Tsyndetics_thumb_exl</thumbnail><link.rule.ids>776,780,4476,27902</link.rule.ids></links><search><creatorcontrib>Kent, Alexander J</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Davies, John M</creatorcontrib><title>Hot geospatial intelligence from a Cold War: the Soviet military mapping of towns and cities</title><title>Cartography and Geographic Information Science</title><description>As part of its secret military mapping program the Soviet Union produced large-scale maps and plans of hundreds of towns and cities around the world. The end of the Cold War and the subsequent fall of communism saw the eventual closure or transformation of cartographic factories in the former Soviet republics, and, for the first time, these highly detailed products of geospatial intelligence became available to a wider audience. This paper focuses on maps and plans of non-Soviet towns and cities that were produced from the 1940s to the 1990s. Through a comparison of their style and content with contemporary cartographic and documentary sources, it aims to examine the key questions of how and why they were made, before exploring their possible strategic value. Keywords: Soviet military mapping; Cold War; geospatial intelligence</description><subject>Geospatial data</subject><subject>Maps, Military</subject><subject>Military intelligence</subject><issn>1523-0406</issn><fulltext>true</fulltext><rsrctype>report</rsrctype><creationdate>2013</creationdate><recordtype>report</recordtype><sourceid/><recordid>eNqVy01KxEAQBeBeKDj-3MBFXWBidXpmYtzJoMzeATeCFEl1LOl0hXSheHsz4AXkwXvwwXPu1mPl8R7v_LYOuMFdVaMPVdO2TdicudWJ1ye_cJelfCLiLvhm5d4OajCwlolMKIFk45Rk4NwxxFlHINhr6uGV5gewD4YX_RI2GCWJ0fwDI02T5AE0gul3LkC5h05MuFy780ip8M3fXrnq-em4P6wHSvwuOarN1C3peZROM0dZ_DGEdls3S4V_H34B0ldQWg</recordid><startdate>20130601</startdate><enddate>20130601</enddate><creator>Kent, Alexander J</creator><creator>Davies, John M</creator><general>Taylor &amp; Francis Group LLC</general><scope/></search><sort><creationdate>20130601</creationdate><title>Hot geospatial intelligence from a Cold War: the Soviet military mapping of towns and cities</title><author>Kent, Alexander J ; Davies, John M</author></sort><facets><frbrtype>5</frbrtype><frbrgroupid>cdi_FETCH-gale_infotracacademiconefile_A3395273953</frbrgroupid><rsrctype>reports</rsrctype><prefilter>reports</prefilter><language>eng</language><creationdate>2013</creationdate><topic>Geospatial data</topic><topic>Maps, Military</topic><topic>Military intelligence</topic><toplevel>online_resources</toplevel><creatorcontrib>Kent, Alexander J</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Davies, John M</creatorcontrib></facets><delivery><delcategory>Remote Search Resource</delcategory><fulltext>fulltext</fulltext></delivery><addata><au>Kent, Alexander J</au><au>Davies, John M</au><format>book</format><genre>unknown</genre><ristype>RPRT</ristype><atitle>Hot geospatial intelligence from a Cold War: the Soviet military mapping of towns and cities</atitle><jtitle>Cartography and Geographic Information Science</jtitle><date>2013-06-01</date><risdate>2013</risdate><volume>40</volume><issue>3</issue><spage>248</spage><pages>248-</pages><issn>1523-0406</issn><abstract>As part of its secret military mapping program the Soviet Union produced large-scale maps and plans of hundreds of towns and cities around the world. The end of the Cold War and the subsequent fall of communism saw the eventual closure or transformation of cartographic factories in the former Soviet republics, and, for the first time, these highly detailed products of geospatial intelligence became available to a wider audience. This paper focuses on maps and plans of non-Soviet towns and cities that were produced from the 1940s to the 1990s. Through a comparison of their style and content with contemporary cartographic and documentary sources, it aims to examine the key questions of how and why they were made, before exploring their possible strategic value. Keywords: Soviet military mapping; Cold War; geospatial intelligence</abstract><pub>Taylor &amp; Francis Group LLC</pub><doi>10.1080/15230406.2013.799734</doi></addata></record>
fulltext fulltext
identifier ISSN: 1523-0406
ispartof Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 2013, Vol.40 (3), p.248
issn 1523-0406
language eng
recordid cdi_gale_infotracacademiconefile_A339527395
source Taylor and Francis Science and Technology Collection
subjects Geospatial data
Maps, Military
Military intelligence
title Hot geospatial intelligence from a Cold War: the Soviet military mapping of towns and cities
url http://sfxeu10.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/loughborough?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&ctx_tim=2025-02-23T20%3A18%3A45IST&url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=infofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rfr_id=info:sid/primo.exlibrisgroup.com:primo3-Article-gale&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:book&rft.genre=unknown&rft.atitle=Hot%20geospatial%20intelligence%20from%20a%20Cold%20War:%20the%20Soviet%20military%20mapping%20of%20towns%20and%20cities&rft.jtitle=Cartography%20and%20Geographic%20Information%20Science&rft.au=Kent,%20Alexander%20J&rft.date=2013-06-01&rft.volume=40&rft.issue=3&rft.spage=248&rft.pages=248-&rft.issn=1523-0406&rft_id=info:doi/10.1080/15230406.2013.799734&rft_dat=%3Cgale%3EA339527395%3C/gale%3E%3Cgrp_id%3Ecdi_FETCH-gale_infotracacademiconefile_A3395273953%3C/grp_id%3E%3Coa%3E%3C/oa%3E%3Curl%3E%3C/url%3E&rft_id=info:oai/&rft_id=info:pmid/&rft_galeid=A339527395&rfr_iscdi=true