-------- 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 Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2010 17:32:15 -0700 From: Otterstrom- HistGeog <[log in to unmask]> Reply-To: H-Net Network for Historical Geography <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] 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] ------------------------------