Г. Н. Саркисян · 1962
G. N. Sarkisyan reviews the Atlas of the Armenian SSR, compiled by the geography sector of the Armenian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Geological Sciences with participating institutions and scholars, under A. B. Baghdasaryan's scientific editorship. Issued simultaneously in Armenian and Russian and dedicated to the fortieth anniversary of Soviet power in Armenia, it contains 182 maps on 120 pages covering natural conditions, population and cultural development, the economy and history. Sarkisyan describes it as the second comprehensive national atlas after the Belarusian SSR atlas and the first relatively large-scale atlas of a country with highly complex mountainous relief. He emphasizes practical maps of agricultural climate, phenology, geological hazards and energy resources; the combination of related phenomena on individual maps; and the use of insets, profiles, diagrams, explanatory texts and generalizing maps. The Sevan–Razdan irrigation and energy complex map integrates water management, electricity supply, irrigation and planned measures. His section-by-section assessment discusses relief shading, vertical zonation, industrial and agricultural development, economic regions, and historical maps compiled by S. T. Yeremyan. Population maps document the catastrophic wartime destruction and displacement of Ottoman Armenians and subsequent repatriation. He also notes six new Armenian cartographic fonts. Although strongly approving of the atlas, Sarkisyan questions the placement of historical maps and recommends maps of synoptic processes and labour resources, frost-probability information, and fuller depiction of industrial raw-material bases. He praises the Minsk Cartographic Factory's printing and regards the atlas as an implementation of Lenin's methodological requirements for a Soviet atlas.
К. А. Салищев · 1962
K. A. Salishchev reviews the Atlas of the Armenian SSR (Yerevan–Moscow, 1961), published in parallel Russian and Armenian editions by the Armenian Academy of Sciences and the Main Administration of Geodesy and Cartography, under chief editor A. B. Bagdasaryan. Its 119 pages include 98 pages of maps and graphics covering natural conditions, population and culture, economy, and history. Although the preface describes a scientific-reference work, Salishchev considers its circulation and substantial cartographic generalization more consistent with a mass-circulation reference atlas.
He praises the extensive physical-geographical coverage, especially climate maps coordinated with relief and supplemented by graphs and informative legends. He also values the agricultural maps, the depiction of revised plans for using Lake Sevan’s waters, and the historical and cultural-monument maps. Population coverage is comparatively weak, and some agricultural overview maps are missing. His criticisms concern scale relative to information density, agricultural mapping by administrative units, inconsistencies between maps, inadequate legends, and errors in symbolization and visual design. He regards the atlas as meeting national-atlas recommendations overall and judges these shortcomings secondary to its scientific, cultural, and practical value.
C. J. F. Dowsett · 1962
This is an academic review of the Atlas of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (1961, Erevan–Moscow), compiled by a team of geographers under the Armenian Academy of Sciences. Covering an area of 29,800 square kilometers with about one hundred maps, the atlas is divided into four sections: physical, demographic, economic, and historical. The review praises its comprehensive content and technical quality, particularly the historical maps spanning from Urartu to the Soviet period, and the economic and demographic maps illustrating Armenia's rapid transformation from an agrarian society to an industrialized state. It also criticizes the small scale of some maps and the omission of the Nakhichevan region, while affirming the atlas's significant value for students of Armenian history, geography, and culture.
