-----Original Message-----
From: Geoff Forbes [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 1:05 PM
To: 'Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship'
Subject: RE: Lying Maps
Dear Christopher, Robert, et al:
It is interesting analyzing some of these "lying maps." I recall studying a
Soviet topographic map on which a railroad led from a city center, several
kilometers away into the middle of nowhere and then it abruptly stopped. It
doesn't require an imagery analyst to deduce that there is probably a
military airfield or some such installation there. Interestingly, it's
quite possible for this type of paranoia to backfire on the country of
origin. Some large-scale maps have so many void areas, that it would be a
very quick and easy task for an adversary to create a vector layer from them
called "voids" which could be treated as "possible military targets". No
wonder this practice is typically avoided by the West. USGS maps usually
depict military installations, but simply avoid including street-level
detail.
Best regards,
Geoff
Geoffrey A. Forbes, M.S.
Director of Sales
LAND INFO Worldwide Mapping LLC
Tel: +1.763.428.4129
Fax: +1.303.790.9734
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Web site: www.landinfo.com
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: Lying Maps
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 10:42:28 -0600
From: Hadden, Robert L AGC <[log in to unmask]>
To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
<[log in to unmask]>
CC: <[log in to unmask]>, <[log in to unmask]>
References: <[log in to unmask]>
Dear Christopher Suri:
You may have some problems with lying and inaccurate maps. When the
German armies swept through the Eastern countries during WWII, they stole
the
maps from private homes, offices and libraries and used them against the
local populace. Since then, there have been many maps printed in Eastern
Communist countries that have distorted, removed or edited the information
on
the maps they produced. See: Monmonier, Mark, 1996, How to Lie with Maps.
Page 117. And: Postnikov, Alexey V., 2002, "Maps for ordinary consumers
versus maps for the military: double standards of map accuracy in Soviet
cartography, 1917-1991." Cartography and Geographic Information Science,
July
2002 volume 29 (3) pages 243-261. And: Colitt, Leslie. 1975. "Nazi Rocket
Base Still Secret." Washington Post. November 20, 1975. Page B14.
"Inaccurate records complicate matters. From 1953 to 1990, Soviet
maps--printed without latitude or longitude readings--were regularly and
randomly falsified. Militarily sensitive places were moved, or left out
altogether. For instance, Nevel, a strategic railway junction in
northwestern
Russia, was shifted by several miles in each successive edition of the
official map of the area... Western cartographers... have had access to
accurate maps of the former Soviet Union since at least 1945, when the
western powers captured them from the Germans at the end of the Second World
War." "All over the map." The Economist (US), July 11, 1992 v324 n7767 page
83 (2).
Even today, I suspect that some hesitation is still there about
giving out accurate information of military bases by some of these
countries.
Military information that is shared with the allies today, also may be
classified or at least marked "For Official Use Only." You may end up
spending more time rectifying the information than in finding it.
Good luck in your endeavors.
Lee Hadden
R. Lee Hadden
Geospatial Information Library (Map Library))
U. S. Army Geospatial Center
ATTN: CEAGS-WSG (Hadden)
7701 Telegraph Road
Alexandria, VA 22315-3864
(703) 428-9206
[log in to unmask]
"Curiosity is not a nice virtue- and it never leads to innocence." -Donna
Haraway
See some of my writings, both online and on paper, at my author page at:
http://www.librarything.com/author/haddenrobertlee
-----Original Message-----
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2010 08:16:57 -0600
From: Angie Cope <>
Subject: Mapping post-Cold War military sites in Eastern Europe,
1955-2010: Sources
Forwarded so reply to sender, not the list.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Mapping post-Cold War military sites in Eastern Europe,
1955-2010: Sources
From: Chris Suri [] Date sent: 27 Feb 2010 Forwarded by: Dmitrii Sidorov
[[log in to unmask]]
Mapping post-Cold War military sites in Eastern Europe, 1955-2010: Sources
I am an MA student in early stages of designing my thesis project and need
help with identifying available cartographic data sources on military land
use in Eastern Europe in the end of the Cold War and now, two decades later.
I plan to apply GIS (geographic information systems, or computer-assisted
cartography) and need to collect data that would allow me to catalog, map,
and study former Soviet military bases as of 1991 and 2010.
More specifically, I need to collect, for Hungary as well as for the other
former Warsaw Pact countries (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany,
Poland,
Romania), the following:
A. all names and/or aliases and/or installation identifiers (such as
numbers) of the Soviet military bases, before 1991 and now;
B. specific general-scale locations of sites in respective countries
(e.g.,
address, geographic coordinates, basic maps) before 1991 and now;
C. detailed large-scale visual representations of these sites (such as
topographic maps, aerial photography, remotely-sensed imagery and all other
sources that allow analysis of changing land use patterns), before 1991 and
now;
D. any other sources revealing the contemporary land use status of these
sites (e.g., abandoned, in-use, re-used etc.)
In summary, I hope to find institutions, agencies, universities, NGOs and
other organizations (in Eastern Europe, the European Union, Russia, and the
United States) that might have collected such information and/or hold it
currently.
In general, are there any studies of the former Cold War Eastern Europe from
the military cartographic land-use perspective(s)?
Any leads would be greatly appreciated!
Chris Suri
MA student in Geography
California State University, Long Beach
Email address: [log in to unmask]
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