USSR DEGRADES INTELLIGENCE VALUE OF ANNUAL RAILROAD ATLAS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 27, 2006
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: September 1, 1973
• Content Type: REPORT

a a
Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
Official Use Only
USSR Degrades Intelligence Value
of Annual Railroad Atlas
Official Use Only
CIA/BGI RP 74-4
September 1973
Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
 Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Central Intelligence Agency
Directorate of Intelligence
September 1973
USSR DEGRADES INTELLIGENCE VALUE
OF ANNUAL RAILROAD ATLAS
1. The 1972 Schematic Railroad Atlas of the USSR
(Atlas Skhem Zheleznikh Dor)g SSR omits much valuable
detailed data that appeared in previous editions
of the atlas. This is in line with previous Soviet
measures to generalize and abridge official railroad
timetables and transportation maps of the USSR and seems
designed to reduce the intelligence value of the atlas.
The atlas, which consists of a series of route maps and
a gazetteer of railroad stations, is published yearly in
handbook form for use by the general public. Editions
prior to 1972 are entitled Railroads of the USSR: Routes
and Stations (Zheleznyye Dorogi SSSR, Napravleniya i
Stantsii).
2. The number of railroad stations shown in the
1972 atlas has been reduced by approximately three-fourths,
2,680 stations as compared to some 10,000 in earlier
editions. Between Moscow and Leningrad, for example, only
29 intermediate stations are identified in 1972; in the
1971 atlas 68 stations are shown. (See map, following
text.) In addition, the number of distance measurements
along rail lines has been reduced to less than half by
showing distances for longer stretches along the routes.
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
STAT
Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
 Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
3. Geographic features that serve as reference
points for railroad alignments (tributaries, smaller
streams, and lakes along the route) also have been
eliminated on some route maps and reduced by two-thirds
on others. Thus, along the rail line between Barnaul
and Semipalatinsk, in the Altai and Eastern Kazakhstan,
hydrographic features shown in 1971 -- most of the Ob'
and the Aley, Charysh, and Barnaulka Rivers, as well as
Gor'koye and Gor'koye-Peresheyechnoye Lakes -- have
been removed.
4. In the Soviet effort to degrade information in
the 1972 issue of the railroad atlas, secondary lines,
branch lines, and spurs have been omitted. For example,
between Moscow and Leningrad, all nine branch and spur
lines that were previously shown are now omitted, as are
all three between Achinsk I and Abakan. Loss of this
type of information decreases the utility of the atlas
as a source for confirming or identifying new railroad
lines. In addition, the 1972 atlas does not include the
detailed railroad map of the Moscow region, which in
earlier editions identified all of Moscow's railroad
stations and the outer belt line as well as all primary
and secondary railroads in the area. The 1972 version
of the atlas also fails to provide coverage for Sakhalin
Island. Earlier editions (1968, 1969, 1971) included a
strip map of the railroad network of the southern half
of the island.
5. Individual route maps and the two schematic
orientation maps in the introductory portion of the new
atlas -- one of the European USSR, and one covering the
Urals, Siberia, Central Asia, and the Far East -- no
longer identify rail lines as routes for fast passenger
trains (trassy skorykh poyezdov), routes for slow
passenger trains (trassy passazhirskikh poyezdov), or
routes for freight-passenger and suburban trains (trassy
gruzo-passazhirskikh i prigorodnykh poyezdov). Instead,
trunk lines are merely identified as main routes
(osnovnyye marshruty or osnovnyye napravleniya) and
supplementary routes (dopolnitel'nyye napravleniya).
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
 Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
6. The degradation of information in the 1972
railroad atlas has seriously reduced its usefulness as
a railroad research aid. The atlas was a convenient and
well organized reference. It will be difficult and
time-consuming to compile similar information from other
fragmentary sources. Earlier editions, however, par-
ticularly that of 1971, are still reliable sources for
identifying railroad stations and determining the track-
side location of stations and the accuracy of railroad
alignment as well as locating branch lines and spurs.
Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
 Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
1971
1911;
SOVIET YEARLY RAILROAD
PUBLICATION
"ATLAS SKHEM ZHELEZNIKH
DOROG SSR"
Leningrad-Moscow route map. Branch lines, spurs,
small stations, the trackside locations of other stations,
and hydrographic features have been omitted from the
1972 Schematic Railroad ATLAS.
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
 Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
Official Use Only
Official Use Only
Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
 Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
Official Use Only
USSR Degrades Intelligence Value
of Annual Railroad Atlas
Official Use Only
CIA/BGI RP 74-4
September 1973
Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
 Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Central Intelligence Agency
Directorate of Intelligence
September 1973
1. The 1972 Schematic Railroad Atlas of the USSR
(Atlas Skhem Zheleznikh Dorog SSR) omits much valuable
detailed data that appeared in previous editions
of the atlas. This is in line with previous Soviet
measures to generalize and abridge official railroad
timetables and transportation maps of the USSR and seems
designed to reduce the intelligence value of the atlas.
The atlas, which consists of a series of route maps and
a gazetteer of railroad stations, is published yearly in
handbook form for use by the general public. Editions
prior to 1972 are entitled Railroads of the USSR: Routes
and Stations (Zheleznyye Dorogi SSSR, Napravleniya i
Stantsii).
2. The number of railroad stations shown in the
1972 atlas has been reduced by approximately three-fourths,
2,680 stations as compared to some 10,000 in earlier
editions. Between Moscow and Leningrad, for example, only
29 intermediate stations are identified in 1972; in the
1971 atlas 68 stations are shown. (See map, following
text.) In addition, the number of distance measurements
along rail lines has been reduced to less than half by
showing distances for longer stretches along the routes.
STAT
Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
 Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
3. Geographic features that serve as reference
points for railroad alignments (tributaries, smaller
streams, and lakes along the route) also have been
eliminated on some route maps and reduced by two-thirds
on others. Thus, along the rail line between Barnaul
and Semipalatinsk, in the Altai and Eastern Kazakhstan,
hydrographic features shown in 1971 -- most of the Ob'
and the Aley, Charysh, and Barnaulka Rivers, as well as
Gor'koye and Gor'koye-Peresheyechnoye Lakes -- have
been removed.
4. In the Soviet effort to degrade information in
the 1972 issue of the railroad atlas, secondary lines,
branch lines, and spurs have been omitted. For example,
between Moscow and Leningrad, all nine branch and spur
lines that were previously shown are now omitted, as are
all three between Achinsk I and Abakan. Loss of this
type of information decreases the utility of the atlas
as a source for confirming or identifying new railroad
lines. In addition, the 1972 atlas does not include the
detailed railroad map of the Moscow region, which in
earlier editions identified all of Moscow's railroad
stations and the outer belt line as well as all primary
and secondary railroads in the area. The 1972 version
of the atlas also fails to provide coverage for Sakhalin
Island. Earlier editions (1968, 1969, 1971) included a
strip map of the railroad network of the southern half
of the island.
5. Individual route maps and the two schematic
orientation maps in the introductory portion of the new
atlas -- one of the European USSR, and one covering the
Urals, Siberia, Central Asia, and the Far East -- no
longer identify rail lines as routes for fast passenger
trains (trassy skorykh poyezdov), routes for slow
passenger trains (trassy passazhirskikh poyezdov), or
routes for freight-passenger and suburban trains (trassy
gruzo-passazhirskikh i prigorodnykh poyezdov). Instead,
trunk lines are merely identified as main routes
(osnovnyye marshruty or osnovnyye napravleniya) and
supplementary routes (dopolnitel'nyye napravleniya).
Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825ROO0300080001-2
 Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
6. The degradation of information in the 1972
railroad atlas has seriously reduced its usefulness as
a railroad research aid. The atlas was a convenient and
well organized reference. It will be difficult and
time-consuming to compile similar information from other
fragmentary sources. Earlier editions, however, par-
ticularly that of 1971, are still reliable sources for
identifying railroad stations and determining the track-
side location of stations and the accuracy of railroad
alignment as well as locating branch lines and spurs.
Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
 Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
Official Use Only
Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
 Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
STAT
Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP84-00825R000300080001-2
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