BRIEF EVALUATION OF TRANSPORTATION MAPS OF THE USSR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-01617A000300220001-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: November 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 21, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: January 13, 1949
• Content Type: IM

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE 11 ENCY
13 Janney 1949
INTELLIGENCE 11(E1110RAN 1M M. 121
SUBJECT: Brief Evaluation of Transportation Maps of the USSR
This memorandum presents a brief summary and evaluation of
Soviet maps submitted in answer to a specific request for pub-
lished map information on railroads, roads, waterways and pipelines
of the USSR.
1. B,al gads
Adequate railroad data in map form for the Soviet Union are not
available. Soviet security has reduced the variety and completeness
of unclassified railroad maps. Those available are generally re-
liable in what they show but they do not give the complete picture
for the date of publication. A Soviet security instruction was
published in 1939 which assigned security classifications to certain
features shown on maps. Railroad lines and spurs not sham in the
timetables and gazetteers of the Peoples Commissariat for Communica-
tion were classified secret and were to be shorn only on maps at a
scale of 1:100,000 or larger. Other features given a secret
classification were large railroad junctions with warehouses, work-
shops, unloading depots, water reservoirs serving settlements and
railroads, termini of railroads, and zones along railroads. Important
economic features (not specified) were to be excluded from all maps
at a scale of 1:400,000 or larger that were made available to the
general public. The maps described in this section are at small
scale and show the railroad pattern for the whole or parts of the
USSR. large-scale topographic maps ranging in scale from 1:25,000
to 1:500,000 should be consulted for additional data on railroad
features. Areal coverage is limited to European USSR and to a few
scattered areas in Asiatic USSR. The map libraries of the Arun Map
Service and the Central Intelligence Agency should be consulted in
order to obtain the available coverage.
The latest and best map for railroads of the entire USSR is
te)d i hSoteiaisticheskilh. Reeout 3 ik. 1:4s 000, 000, compiled
in 1945 and. printed in 1947 CIA Call No. 36179). Although the map
shows more information than any other Soviet map to date, it is not
complete. The line from Alapa evsk to Soo Iva. (east of north of
Sverdlovsk), shown as in construction, is now completed.
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A schematic map of railroads is Skhema Zheleznodoroz h I.
Y Pute Soobshche a So a SS RP 1:2#0 3 &0 ~all
No. map is obsolete but useful because of the numerous
stations and stops identified. An OSS map, Railroads of Western USSR
in two sheets (CIA 6173 and 6174), is a carem compilation base on
extensive research, but is now obsolete.
The Soviet railroad program wider the Fourth vivo-Year Plan for
the reconstruction of damaged lines and the construction of new ones
is shown in part on map CIA 10763. The information on this map copied
from a recent Soviet map is not included on the OSS inap (CIA 6173 and
6171:) or on the Soviet map of 1940 (CIA Call No. 3216). Although map
CIA 10763 does not cover the entire USSR or show the complete program
for the part of the USSR it covers, it does indicate the importance of
some lines in the western area, new lines to be built, existing elec-
trified lines, and additional lines to be electrified.
Bridge data for railroads and roads are shown on the German
Verkehrskarte, 1:1,000,000 (CIA Call No. 9335). The information is
no compete The set apparently contains data held by the Germans
late in 19111 and early in 1942. The set also is valuable because of
other road and railroad information. Unfortunately, available sheets
cover only portions of European USSR.
maps of railroads and railroad facilities of southeastern Siberia
(CIA 5901 and 5902) were prepared by the OSS f or JANL studies and are
the best map sources available for railroads of the area.
A Polish study of communications in the European USSR, dated March
1939 (CIA uncataloged), gives a variety of informations particularly
on railroads. Some of the maps may be of value for information on
junctions, track capacities, loading regions, fortified points, traffic
density, etc. The data are obsolete but generally reliable for the date
of publication.
Density of freight traffic on railroads and waterways is shown
on a 'map entitled Density du Traffic tMarchandises (CIA Call ilo. 37b46).
It is the only Soviet map o its type av a e. Although it is out
of date, the basic information is still useful. Movement of passenger
traffic is shown on Department of state maps CIA 10673 and 10674.
Maps 18, 19, and 20 in the Ekonomichesk Atlas Murmansk. o Okruga
(CIA uncataloged) show traffic movement quantity for ere types
of comnodities. The most detailed treatment of traffic flow and density
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is in Atlas Moskovsk Oblasti (CIA uncataloged), published in 1931
when the last waslargertian it is at the present time. Perti-
nent plates are the back of page 33, the inset of page 37, the back
of page 39, the front and back of pages 43944, the front and back of
page 45, pages 46-47, and page 148.
2. Roads.
Road maps of the USSR are generally unsatisfactory. Many show
meaningless classifications of roads while others are based on
reliable sources.
So Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Res ublik 1:4,000,000
(CIA. 11021 no. ,sows The s coverage of the entire USSR,
based on a more meaningful classification of roads than is usually
employed. Here again information is withheld and sows of the princi-
pal Soviet highway connections with the west are not given. The map
CI 10774 provides some of this missing information.
German maps of the area are generally no more reliable than other
maps. Most of the small-scale maps are overgeneral.ized or carry in-
correct road classifications. However, a German set, Durc angigkeit
des Kaukasuss, 1:500,000 (CIA Call No. 38702), shows excellent road
e descriptions of bridges, road--cuts, grades, etc. Similar
but less reliable information is given on Verkehrskarte, 1:1,000,000
(CIA. Call No. 9335). r.rrrr+.rrs rrrr.r
Maps of road traffic flow are available for only two small areas,
the Buryat-Mongolian ASSR (CIA Call No. 20014) and the Nizhegorodskaya
Guberniya --- now Gor'kly Oblast' -- (CIA Call No. 23275). Both show
points of origin and destination of freight moving over roads.
Some additional road information may be found on OSS map CIA 7149
and on a map of the Caucasus (CIA Call No. 37210).
3. Waterwayys .
Soviet security regulations restrict the information on waterways
that may be shown on maps. Soviet maps published after 1929 show less
than do the earlier maps. The Soviet map Karta Vnutrennikh Vo h
Putey Yevrope koy Chian SSSR, 1:19,500#000011 Gall ,soars
tics of waterways but is dated 1929 and
covers only the European part of the USSR. No Soviet map of comparable
scale published since then has incorporated as much detail. A later
map, Karta V h Puts Soobshcheni. Aziatsko ChastiSSSRI 1:5,000,000
(C- No. , p is no as erehens3ve. Never-
thelesa, both maps are important basic sources on waterways.
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Another less well-knosn Soviet source of information on waterways
is a Soviet regional hydrologic study called S ravochnik o Vo
Resursan SSSR (Handbook on Water Resources of-5 consisting
o =a ou voluTnes. Each volume contains maps classifying important
rivers on the basis of their suitability for different forms of river
transport. This classification of rivers may reveal points where
breaks in transportation take place. Unfortunately, a complete set
of the study covering the entire USSR is not available in the United
States. The largest collection of volumes is in the Library of the
U. S. Geological Survey. Individual volumes are held by CIA, the
Department of State (DRE,/EE), and the Library of the Department of
Agriculture.
German map studies do not add much new information. The Mil-Geo
studies show very few data that are not generally available on other
maps. One map, hotirover, entitled Europaischas Russland, Gewasserkarta,
l :2, 500, OOO (CIA Call No. 39873 ), in - ". i rirgeoograp .sc Angaben fiber
dos Europ~aische Russland Allgemeiner Uberblick", gives river depths
and widths. Regional maps in each of the regional studies give river
depths and widths at larger scales. Some of the maps are less re-
liable than others; for example, the map in folder (Ma M) Die
Volga biete 1941, shows the Volga-Don canal which eoday is far
rora completion.
The t" dehrgeographischer Atlas der Union der Sozialistischen
Sowjetre iu n ..__ ava a e a C ~fap rary, on p ate
177 shows Waterways with transshipping points identified. Plate 182
shows in chart form, the length of artificial waterways in 1936. The
economic importance of the inland waterways is given in a German atlas,
UDSSR Wirtschaftsatlas Verkehr Sinnenschiffahrt, which is dated 1944
an sows orma on for . y pages o bar graphs present an
analysis of Soviet inland waterway traffic by river and by commodity
carried. Eleven maps cover rivers of the European USSR and give freight
movements by commodity and the administrative divisions of shipping
areas. All of the maps are schematic. The atlas is not available in
the CIA Map Library, but the A?S or the German Military Document
Section, Pentagon, may have copies.
There are few maps of individual canal systems of the Soviet
Union. The Soviet map (CIA Call No. 23313), mentioned earlier, gives
excellent detail for canals existing in 1929. The Moscow--Volga canal
system is shown at the scale of 1:500,9000 on plate 23 of Bolasho
Sovetskiy Atlas Mira (Great Soviet Atlas of the World), o . . The
i Sea-Baltic Canal is shown on p ate 30 at a scale of 1:750,000,
but only the northern half of the canal is given in detail. Additional
installations and details are shown on a map of the Moscow-Volga, Canal
(CIA Call No. 40229).
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Navigability of the Don is shown on a German map (CIA Call No.
371498)? Some additional information for the entire country may be
found on a Soviet map (CIA Call No. 23495)-
4. Pipelines
Pipeline data have been classified secret under Soviet security
regulations since 1939, and probably for sate time before. The
latest Soviet maps of pipelines are in the Great Soviet Atlas of
the World, Vol. II. Only petroleum lines are shown. These appear
on plates 57?58, 59-60, 111, 113, and 117. There is some reason to
believe that not all pipelines are shown. A grandiose network of
petroleum pipelines. appears in a 1910 pictorial cartogram (CIA Call
No. 32356) published to propagandize the Third Five-Tear Plan (1938-
19422). It does not, however, distinguish between existing and pro-
jected lines. A few details on pipeline installations appear on some
German reprints of Soviet topographic maps at scales of 1:200,000.
These are available at the Army Map Service and CIA Map Library
(CIA Call No. 9626).
The Germans compiled several maps showing pipelines in the Cau-
casus. These are on file in the "Heringen Collection", Military
Geology Section, U. S. Geological Survey. (The maps are uncataloged
and no file numbers are available.)
No Soviet maps have been found that show gas lines. All major
pipelines in prewar USSR were oil lines. The first gas line in the
USSR was built during World Tar II.
Three American maps or map series show gas and petroleum lines.
USSR k'i a Lines appears in the USSR Strategic Intelligence Digest,
o . Ills opposite p. 14--4. The map, however, does not show all of
the lines described in the text. A series of maps appears in the
World Oil Atla,, 19147, published by the Oil Weekly (pp. 265289).
They show some of the lines not shown on the SID map and omit others.
A copy is available in the Library of Congress. An older OSS Map
(CIA 693) shows pipelines in the Caucasus based on the Vol. TI of the
Great Soviet Atlas of the World. Production data were obtained from
v ous sources available a date of publication.
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