----------------------------Original message---------------------------- During the war, 1939-1945, the Soviet army's military officers experienced great difficulties with their field maps. Russian maps were not very accurate and even the maps they used were not very helpful. The Soviet officers preferred to utilize German maps which they took from German captives or the bodies of deceased military officers. In post-war years, the Soviet Union made an effort to become the strongest military country. The cartographic industry was under the NKVD, then under KGB power. The most skillful specialists and the best investments were put into the development of this industry. However, the printing industry was not as developed as in western countries. At the same time, the cartographic industry, surrounded by secrecy, developed very successfully with the assistance of generous military investments. This industry's strength was so great, the USSR was able to offer assistance to developing countries. Thus, arrived maps of Cuba and other nations. Almost the entire territory of the world was covered by military maps, but, still, they remained top secret. Now, after the disintegration of the USSR, most of these maps are available. We can now view almost all of the European countries covered by Soviet Military Maps. The common name for these is GENERAL STAFF. There are not only buildings and trees shown on these maps, but they also display especially flammable & inflammable objects, communication devices, government buildings and military settlements. Included in the information attached to every map, there is a note detailing the width of roads, materials used in rooftops of houses, types of river surfaces, etc., everything which cannot be photographed from satellite or airplane. A set of maps were developed of North America, showing the location of all airports, including the landing places of farmer's private planes. This part of the maps was labelled "The Net Of Military Anti-Air Defense". Only specialists could understand these labels. It was absolutely clear that in Soviet cartography, information was used of all kinds of reconnaissance and a large number of scientific institutes. In the opinion of one of the specialists who spend his entire life collecting maps and working with them: "There is no country in the world which could spend so much money for making maps of foreign countries." There are entire sets of maps which the USSR is producing for its allies, ie. "The Capital Atlases of Cuba & Mongolia". It is quite apparent that these countries could not produce this size of work without the assistance of the USSR. Perhaps, due to prestige purposes, after a few years, large atlases of the oceans were published, each of them 5-7 kilograms in weight. These unique publications can be a beneficial addition to any library. They were preferably published in the Russian Language, sometimes with a small note in English. In 1989/1990, the "International Geological/Geophysical Atlas of the Atlantic Ocean" was published in Russian & English equally. This became possible only because of Gorbachev perestroika. Even in the USSR, that mechanism continues to work. The larger part of cartographic production remains secret, but at the same time, in the former Soviet Union, they published a large variety of tourist maps based on the very accurate topographic information. There are also digital maps on diskette. The scientific institutes have gradually reopened their secrets in cartography. The Scientific Searching Institute Of Geology Of Foreign Countries (Russia), for the first time in history, is prepared to publish a unique tectonic globe in 1996. With a diameter of 127,5 cm, this globe has a 40 page English language legend attached. The estimated cost of this globe will be more than $3000 U.S. Four One Company Limited will regularily inform everyone interested in learning more about Russian maps. If you are interested in obtaining additional information, please let us know via phone/fax/mail/e-mail. For details, see below: PHONE: (519) 433-1351 FAX : (519) 433-5903 E-MAIL: [log in to unmask] ADDRESS: FOUR ONE COMPANY LTD. 523 HAMILTON ROAD LONDON, ONTARIO N5Z 1S3 CANADA