GEOGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE REVIEW NUMBER 59

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79-01005A000300100002-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 29
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 30, 1999
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: September 1, 1959
• Content Type: REPORT

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DEMURfj N? 281
GEOGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Number 59
CIA/RR MR 59-3
September 1959
CONTENTS
Railroads of Poland . . . . . . . . 1
Motorability of Rumanian Roads . . . . . . . . . 5
Variant Spellings of Rumanian Place Names . . . . . . 13
West German-Belgian Boundary Settlement . . . . . . 15
New Atlas of the Soviet Republic of Belorussia . . . . 19
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
OFFICE OF RESEAR AND REPORTS
DOCUMENT NO.
OSrHANGE IN CLASS. LI
ECLASSIFIED
LASS. CHANGED TO: TS S C
NEXT REVIEW DATE:
AUTH: HR 0
DATE. REVIEWER: 372044
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WARNING
This material contains information affecting
the National Defense of the United States
the meaning of the espionage laws,
18, USC, Secs. 7$3 and 794, the trans-
miss'on or revelation of which in any manner
to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
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GEOGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
CIA/RR MR 59-3
Office .of Research and Repor r?,
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Page
Railroads of Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Motorability of Rumanian Roads . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Variant Spellings of Rumanian Place Names . . . . . . 13
West German-Belgian Boundary Settlement . . . . . . . . 15
New Atlas of the Soviet Republic of Belorussia . . . . 19
Maps
Following Page
Poland: Railroads, July 1959 (27054) . . . . . . . . . 3
Rumania: Road Motorability (27662) . . . . . . . . . . 11
Rumania: Place Name Reference Map, 1958 (27592) . . . 14
West German-Belgian Boundary Rectifications (27967) . . 17
* The individual classification of each article in this Review is
given at the end of the article.
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RAILROADS OF POLAND
The railway system of Poland is of considerable international
importance because it furnishes the main routes through the only
broad, unobstructed land passage between the USSR and Western Europe.
The railroads are also of some importance as routes between Baltic
ports and the more southerly satellite countries of Eastern Europe.
Locally, they are the chief means of transport serving a nation of
some 30 million people.
The accompanying Map 27054 reflects a part of Polish history in
that the fairly dense western and northern network, in former German
territory, contrasts sharply with the relatively sparse track pattern
in areas that were Russian until 1918. Changes in international
boundaries have required many changes in the railroads of present-day
Poland. Lines have been abandoned; new links have been built to adjust
track patterns to current boundaries; former secondary lines have been
rebuilt into high-capacity main lines; and new gauge interchange points
have been established. Despite considerable postwar construction and
redevelopment, however, the railroad system of Poland is still not
entirely suited to the needs of the country. On the whole, railroads
are oriented toward past sovereignty patterns, rather than current
ones. For example, WrocXaw (former German Breslau) in southwestern
Poland has good connections to the west and south, but poor ones to
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the heart of the country. Good direct routes from north to south
are scarce and, in the east, feeder lines are inadequate. Polish
efforts to correct the north-south deficiency have been adversely
-affected by Soviet strategic interests that call for improvement of
east-west lines connecting Germany with the USSR, via Poland. The
longest new postwar line (the tukow-Skierniewice line south of Warsaw)
is an east-west railroad primarily serving Soviet strategic require-
ments, whereas a new north-south line would have been of greater
economic value to Poland.
Recently, some progress has been made toward improving the
capacity of main north-south lines, chiefly through electrification
and double tracking. Electrification of the Krakow-Katowice-
Czestochowa-Warsaw route was completed in 1959. The line running
northeast of Warsaw eventually will be electrified as far as Nasielsk
but, apparently, electrification of the stretch from Nasielsk to Tczew
(near Gdansk) is not planned. Present plans call for electrification
of the Katowice-Kalety-Zdunska Wola-Bydgoszcz-Gdansk line in the
period 1960-62. The Katowice-Kgpno-Poznan-Szczecin line, already
double tracked, is to be electrified 1963-65.
The change from Soviet broad gauge to Polish standard gauge,
which necessitates cargo transfer or a change of "bogies" at points
all along the Poland-USSR frontier, is a significant hindrance to
rail transport between the USSR and Germany via Poland. The vulner-
ability of the transshipment points, and, indeed, thewhole rail
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system of eastern Poland, is accentuated by a paucity of rerouting
possibilities. Sustained attacks on transloading stations would
materially restrict the interchange of traffic. Also vulnerable
are the large number of river crossings in Poland. As was proved
during World War II, the destruction of bridges over the Vistula
and Oder-Niesse Rivers, in particular, can seriously disrupt east-west
traffic.
Map 27054 depicts the Polish railroad net as of July 1959. The
map is essentially a revision of part of Map 12336, Railroads of
Eastern Europe-1952, originally published in 1953. Although the
scale is too small to show alignment in detail, Map 27054 fills a
need for up-to-date coverage of the main features of the Polish
railroad system. Correction data for the map were drawn from the
1958/59 edition of the Polish State Railways timetable, press
releases, recently published maps, and a wide range of intelligence
reports.. These are the best available sources. In general, however,
source materials on the railroads of Poland leave much to be desired
since there are few current maps that show alignment and trackage
correctly, and official Polish sources have a tendency to report
lines. that are merely planned or under construction as operational.
(CONFIDENTIAL)
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 STANDARD-GAUGE (48W')
Triple track
Double track
------- Double track, second track under construction
Single track
- - - - - - - Single track, under construction
--------------? Single track, dismantled or out of operation
STANDARD-GAUGE ELECTRIC(4r8SY1)
Double track
~T- Single track
NARROW-GAUGE
Single track
............ ?------ Single track dismantled or
out of operation
BROAD-GAUGE (5r011)
r-r-.-r Double track
Single track
Modoe power is steam, diesel, u- 0 more, unleoc orhenaise indi,ofed.
Railroads outside Poland are selected main ones.
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MOTORABILITY OF RUMANIAN ROADS
A long-standing gap in intelligence on Rumanian roads has been
lessened considerably by the recent acquisition of a new Rumanian
map and a series of reliable intelligence documents. In 1958, the
Rumanian National Tourist Office, Carpati, published a map of
Rumania at a scale of 1:1,000,000 that shows the basic highway
network. Although necessarily generalized at this scale, the network
appears to be complete for the three categories of roads shown:
(1) national, (2) regiune (1st-order administrative division), and
(3) raion (2nd-order administrative division). Intelligence docu-
ments received during 1957 and 1958 provide detailed first-hand
observations on motorability for most of the national and several of
the regiune highways. Motorability data from these documents have
been overprinted on the Carpati tourist map and the resultant map
issued as CIA 27662, Rumania: Road Motorability.
The data presented on the CIA map (following page 11 ) have been
organized according to five categories adapted from the official
Rumanian standards used to determine consumption norms for motor-vehicle
fuel, lubricants, and tires. Motorability categories are as follows:
1. Asphalt- or concrete-paved roads in
good condition
2. Roads paved with stone blocks or
graveled roads in good condition
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3. Asphalt or graveled roads in poor
condition (with holes) and dirt roads in good
condition, which require changes of gear or
reduced speed on 20 percent of the route
4. Graveled roads in bad condition, which
require changes of gear or reduced speed on 40
percent of the route; and dirt roads in poor
condition, the bad parts of which comprise 50
percent of the total route
5. Roads in extremely bad condition --
Jeepable, but generally not passable by
passenger cars
Since motorability data are not available for all the roads, Map
27662 is intended in part for use as a worksheet for recording
additional data. The map is so designed that as further reports on
progress in road modernization are received, an analyst can easily
convert the map symbols for motorability categories 2, 3, 1, and 5
to symbols for higher categories.
Roads in Rumania are also classified by type of administration
as national highways, regiune highways, raion highways, comunll
(3rd-order administrative division) roads, industrial and agricultural
roads, or streets. The classifications are defined as follows:
a. National highways or routes (N.R.) are
those roads which connect Bucharest and the
regiune capitals with one another and with the
important economic or industrial centers, ports,
health resorts, and tourist centers of the country.
b. Regiune highways are those which connect
the capital of each regiune with neighboring
regiune capitals, with the raion administrative
centers, and with economic or industrial centers,
health and tourist resorts within the regiune;
and connect the raion centers with one another.
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c. Raion highways are those highways other
than national or regiune highways which connect
the raion centers with each other; connect each
raion center with the other towns or centers of
economic importance within the raion; and ensure
traffic to civil airports.
d. Comuna roads are those roads of local
interest, not belonging to any of the above
categories, which connect the comuna centers
and villages with one another, with the railroad
stations, and with the national, regiune and
raion highways, and with industrial and agricul-
tural centers.
e. Industrial or agricultural roads serve
the transport requirements of individual enter-
prises and economic organizations.
f. Public roads within towns and villages
are classified as streets.
In a speech delivered on 26 November 1958, Gheorghiu-Dej (First
Secretary of the Communist Party in Rumania) stated that the road
network totalled 76,000 kilometers (47,225 miles). An analysis of
available intelligence data on the road network, however, indicates
that less than half of this total mileage can be considered as
all-weather roads, and only about one-eighth as roads in the first,
or highest, category of motorability. Most of the raion and comun
roads are little more than dirt tracks suitable only for animal-drawn
vehicles. Motor-vehicle traffic is confined primarily to the national
highways, which comprise 9,700 kilometers of the total network, although
regiune highways are also used to some extent. Approximately 2,500
kilometers of the national highways are paved with asphalt or concrete
and are in good condition. The remaining national-highway mileage
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consists of roads paved with stone blocks or of graveled roads,
generally falling within motorability category 2 or 3. Although
little information is available concerning regiune highways, they
appear to be either graveled or dirt roads within the 3 to 5 motorability
range.
At the end of World War II, some 1,200 kilometers of national
highway were paved with asphalt or concrete. The remaining 1,300
kilometers included in motorability category 1 have been paved since
1947 as part of the State road-modernization program set forth in
successive Five-Year Plans. Although little information is-available
concerning the specifications established for this program, the
completed roads reportedly have either asphalt or concrete surfaces
7 meters (23 feet) wide. All overhead installations crossing the
road have a minimum vertical clearance of 4.5 meters (approximately
15 feet); and bridges have roadways at least 7 meters wide and a
gross-load capacity of approximately 25 tons.*
The present network of asphalt- and concrete-paved highways
consists essentially of the following national routes (N.R.): (1) the
Oradea-Cluj-Orasu Stalin-Bucharest-Giurgiu highway (N.R. 1 and 5),
which crosses the country diagonally from northwest to southeast
* An unconfirmed report indicates that bridges on so-called strategic
routes are to be constructed according to Soviet specifications as to
capacity -- 60 tons for tracked vehicles and 13 tons for wheeled vehicles.
Assuming that the 13 tons refers to axle load, these specifications would
be compatible with a gross-load capacity of 25 tons.
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connecting important centers of the western plains region and Transylvania
with Bucharest and which serves as an international road link between
the northern tier of Satellites and Rumania and Bulgaria; (2) the
north-south Bucharest-Buzau-Bacau-Roman highway (N.R. 2) and its
Bac u-Bicaz branch (N.R. 15), which connect the principal economic
centers of western Moldavia with Bucharest; (3) the Ploesti-Buz'Au-
Braila-Galati connecting highway (N.R. l/B and 2/B), which funnels
traffic from National Routes 1 and 2 to the main Danubian ports of
Braila and Galati; (4) a series of short highways that radiate outward
from Bucharest, connecting it with the important agricultural and
petroleum centers of Muntenia and also serving as the initial segments
of projected modern highways that will link Bucharest with the
Dobrogea (N.R. 2/A and 3), Oltenia (N.R. 6), and the Banat (N.R. 6);
(5) the Baia Mare-Cluj branch of National Route 1 (N.R. 1/C), which
connects the Baia Mare Basin with Transylvania and Bucharest; (6) highways
within Dobrogea that now serve local industrial and agricultural needs
and those which are planned as links with N.R. 2/A and 3 from Bucharest;
and (7) numerous completed segments of main highways now under construction,
such as sections of the Orsova-Timisoara-Satu Mare-USSR Border highway
(N.R. 69, 79, and 19), the Orasu Stalin-Bretcu-Bacau-Iasi-USSR Border
highway (N.R. 11 and 28), and the Sebes-Deva-Arad branch of National
Route 1. The segments of these highways which have not as yet been
modernized are, nevertheless, serviceable within the limitations of
motorability categories 2 and 3.
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The expansion of the basic network of national highways has been
retarded in part by the difficulties and expense involved in construct-
ing and maintaining roads through rugged mountain terrain and by the
necessity of constructing innumerable bridges on highways crossing
the lowland regions. At present, for example, National Route 1 is
the only highway of motorability category 1 that crosses the Carpathian
Mountain Range; no first-class east-west highway crosses the Wallachian
Plain -- one of the richest agricultural regions of the country; nor
is there a single highway bridge across the lower Danube linking
Wallachia and the Dobrogea. The emerging pattern of new and projected
modern highways is clearly in general conformity with the alignment
of the principal topographic features of the country. The initial goal
of the road-modernization program appears to be the completion of (1) an
outer belt highway along the periphery of the Carpathian Arc, which will
link the main centers of Moldavia, Wallachia, and the western plains
region; (2) an inner belt ringing the Transylvanian Basin; and (3) a
limited number of radial highways extending from the inner belt through
the mountains via natural routes and thence across the lowlands to the
important ports and international border crossing points. In the event
of war, this highway network as planned would be of strategic importance
to the USSR for movement through Rumania westward into Central Europe
and southward to the Balkans and the Turkish straits. At the same
time, the network would be highly vulnerable to interdiction because
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of the few natural passes through the mountains and the large number
of highway bridges in the lowland areas.
Until the initial phase of the road-modernization plan is
completed, the commercial movement of freight and passengers by
motor vehicles in Rumania will probably continue to be small in
comparison with the movement by railroad, even though the number of
automotive vehicles and amount of automotive traffic are continually
increasing. At present the commercial movement of freight by truck
is limited primarily to short hauls that supplement railroad transport,
particularly in areas where no railroad lines exist or where connections
between parallel railroad lines can be made by truck. Animal-drawn
vehicles still outnumber motor vehicles on most highways. In all of
the agricultural regions of the country, wagon traffic is heavy; the
volume is particularly high on the Wallachian Plain and in northern
Moldavia. Once the modernization of the skeletal network of national
highways has been completed, emphasis will undoubtedly be shifted to
improvement of local regiune, raion and comuna roads. If the pace of
recent progress continues, the present road system, which developed
through serving the needs of a backward peasant economy, may eventually
be transformed into a highway network suited to the requirements of a
mechanized era. (CONFIDENTIAL)
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VARIANT SPELLINGS OF RUMANIAN PLACE NAMES
Now that the official Rumanian regulations on orthography that
were introduced in 1953 have been in use for several years, the initial
confusion regarding the application of the new spelling rules to
geographic names has been largely dispelled. With very few exceptions,
the spellings of geographic names used on official Rumanian maps and
publications conform to the spellings given in the 1956 edition of
Indicator Alfabetic al Localitatilor din Republica Popular' Romtna
(Alphabetic Index to Rumanian Localities).* Since many of the reports
and maps on Rumania that are of intelligence value stem from nonofficial
Rumanian sources, however, the spelling of geographic names in materials
received here is still not uniform. Many nonofficial sources both in
Rumania and outside prefer to use names based on the old orthography,
and sources frequently differ in the practice of using the definite
article with geographic names, particularly for names of.geographic
features such as rivers. Since the definite article is enclitic in
Rumanian, variant spellings result when the article is used by one
source and not by another -- for example, Mures and Muresul (the
Mures). Several pre-World War II place names have been changed to
new names honoring Communist heroes or important events -- for example,
* This volume, published by Editura Stiintifica (Scientific Publishing
House) in Bucharest, supersedes the 151+ edition which was reviewed in
CIA/RR-MR-1+7, August 1955?
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