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As a historian of cartography, map librarian, and Having been in the US Army (1983-86) and having also trained with the British Territorial Army in the late 80's I find this article distinctly lacking in any real research. I think that if one was to compare this map to a British army mapping or a US Army map of this same region you will find that the Russians just reprinted one of these maps with Cyrillic text and captions. The most of the maps of Germany that they had, used German or US army maps as a base for their own. Though US army maps were considered “classified”, access to them was so sloppy that anyone could obtain a sheet or for that matter a who map set with ease. I know of geography departments both here in the US and in Germany that had US army map sets in their map rooms, and there was no restrictions on their use. I think that as Tony said there is a lot of journalistic hyperbole involved. If we were to use the same conclusions for every map in the Russian map set for British Isles then the Russians also had their eyes on the little village of Flaxby in Yorkshire - yes it is on a Russian map and a US map. What would be more interesting would be what is missing rather than what is there. To end this I think they should have compared their map of Manchester to the US army 1:50,000 map of the same region. George -----Original Message----- >From: Tony Campbell <t.campb...@ockendon.clara.co.uk> >Sent: Aug 26, 2009 12:26 PM >To: *MapHist <maphist@geo.uu.nl> >Subject: [MapHist] 'Guardian' piece about a detailed Soviet map of Manchester > >This is a MapHist list message (when you hit 'reply' you're replying to the >whole list) >o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + > >'Guardian' piece about a detailed Soviet map of Manchester. There is perhaps >a little journalistic hyperbole involved. I rather doubt the Soviets had >specific plans to capture Manchester. If they had, I imagine the tank crews >would have insisted on stopping off first to kiss the turf at Old Trafford >[a soccer reference for those from other cultures] > >August 26. < >http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/aug/25/ussr-planned-invasion-manchester-exhibition > > > >'Tank tracks to Trafford: how USSR planned to invade Manchester. As Edward >Heath wrestled with the oil crisis and three-day week more than 40 years >ago, Soviet spies were mapping the UK' (by Martin Wainwright in the London >Guardian). > > The full-page article illustrates and discusses a single map in an >exhibition which had opened on 25 June 2009 (not 'tomorrow' as stated). This >is a detailed Soviet map (the scale is not given) dating from 1974. > > Much of it comprises quotes from the exhibition's organiser, Chris >Perkins, e.g. "The Soviet military used everyday UK Ordnance Survey maps and >publicly available road atlases and trade directories. But they supplemented >it with aerial sources, such as spy planes and satellite imagery. And >there's so much extra information, that it would be fair to assume that they >were able to gather a considerable amount of intelligence on the ground." > >Tony Campbell > >i...@tonycampbell.info > >** extract from: 'Latest News' - for the full story see the link above >http://www.maphistory.info/newslatest.html >[Note. Most news entries are NOT posted to MapHist] > >_______________________________________________ >MapHist: E-mail discussion group on the history of cartography >hosted by the Faculty of Geosciences, University of Utrecht. >The statements and opinions expressed in this message are those of >the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the University of >Utrecht. The University of Utrecht does not take any responsibility for >the views of the author. >List Information: http://www.maphist.nl > >Maphist mailing list >Maphist@geo.uu.nl >http://mailman.geo.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/maphist gcarh...@earthlink.net _______________________________________________ MapHist: E-mail discussion group on the history of cartography hosted by the Faculty of Geosciences, University of Utrecht. The statements and opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Utrecht. The University of Utrecht does not take any responsibility for the views of the author. List Information: http://www.maphist.nl Maphist mailing list Maphist@geo.uu.nl http://mailman.geo.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/maphist
