BOOK REVIEWS BOLSHOI SOVETSKII ATLAS MIRA (GREAT SOVIET WORLD ATLAS). VOL. I. Editors: A. F. Gorkin, 0. Y. Shmidt, V. E. Motylev, M. V. Nikitin, B. M. Shaposhnikov. Director of the Institute: V. E. Motylev. Moscow: Scientific Publication Institute of the Great Soviet World Atlas. I937. R. 200. $40.00. lHE Institute which publishes the Great Soviet World Atlas, and its Director, Dr. Motylev, have been closely associated with the Institute of Pacific Relations. Through this point of contact the Institute has had access to the whole world of science and research in the Soviet Union. PACIFIC AFFAIRS has had in the past less discussion of the Soviet Union than of other countries with interests in the Pacific region, and it therefore especially welcomes the appearance of the first volume of this Atlas, which has been in active preparation since I935. An opportunity is presented here not only to review and discuss important aspects of the Soviet Union, but to study them in bold comparison with the rest of the world. A common modern tendency of sciences like geography, history and anthropology is to invade each other's fields. Historical geography is indisseverable from history. Human geography overlaps into sociology and anthropology. Economic geography merges into political economy. Geology, meteorology and other special studies form additional provinces of geography as an inclusive science. With this diversification there goes a tendency toward dissension between schools of geographers. Where should the "philosophical" emphasis lie? There are, for instance, several schools of geographical materialism, such as the highly Fascist Geopolitik of Germany and the more vague environmental geography which is widely supported in Western Europe and America. Even the less political schools of geographical materialism develop, at times, bizarre results. Environmental and climatological theories, especially, can be and are fre- quently embroidered on their strictly geographical margins into doctrines of "superior" and "inferior" races and societies. Does this mean that any "materialistic" treatment of geography must necessarily result in elaborate but rigid doctrinaire theories? Because of this latent question, a major geographical work infused with the spirit of Marxist historical materialism cannot fail to challenge the interest of geographers all over the world. It will have to be studied in connection with Soviet Communism as a whole, for an inclusive world atlas cannot <<383 > This content downloaded from 65.88.89.49 on Fri, 01 May 2026 06:59:19 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Pacific Affair.s be isolated like "pure" mathematics. It will not only reveal whether a Communist-guided state and culture can produce, after a couple of decades, competent technicians in cartography, printing and color work. The whole intellectual climate and cultural environment of the Soviet Union will pass under the judgment of those who study the maps in this Atlas. From it we shall be able to satisfy ourselves whether the Soviet Union permits original and genuinely scientific enquiry into real geographical problems, or whether it confines even scientific thought within dictated channels. Do Soviet geographers merely asseverate the wickedness of the capitalists and the nobility of the proletariat, thus laying themselves open to comparison with the sterile Nazi dogma of the wickedness of Jews and the nobility of the supposititious Aryan, or does their work reflect a vigorous, growing, experimental society, alive to new discoveries, inventive and creative? The tone of the Atlas is set by a letter from Lenin, written in i92i, that is characteristic of Lenin's greatness of mind. In this year of appalling difficulty, with the Soviet Union abjectly poor, largely starving and just struggling free of foreign invasion and foreign-subsidized civil war, Lenin found time to prompt the teaching of the kind of geography that his people needed, in order to show them the kind of world in which they were living. He wanted maps to illustrate the history and growth of imperialism; to show the investing countries of the world and those in which the investments are placed; the ownership of railways all over the world; the distribution of raw materials, and the struggle for owner- ship and control of them. These maps are in the Atlas, but they are placed in a setting wider than just the struggle between imperialism and socialism. Volume I is divided into two parts, one dealing with the world as a whole and all countries except the Soviet Union, and one devoted to the Soviet Union. The treatment of the two parts is roughly parallel. First (in the world section), there are the sky and the solar system. Reproductions of ancient maps then show the stages by which knowledge of the earth grew. This historical treatment is carried further by maps of the progress of exploration and discovery from the thirteenth century to the present. This section is rounded off by a valuable map showing the relative closeness with which different parts of the earth and the oceans have been mapped and charted. It is noteworthy that the survey net is as close in India as in Europe, closer than in the United States as a whole, and far closer than in Canada and Australia. Japan is equal to Europe. The scale in the Soviet Union ranges from that of Europe (i:i26,720 or <<384 >> This content downloaded from 65.88.89.49 on Fri, 01 May 2026 06:59:19 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Book Reviews better) to that of China, most of which has been mapped on a scale of from I::253,440 to I:I,000,000. Then there follows the material setting in which man lives: physical maps of the hemispheres and of the oceans and the Arctic and Antarctic, and a whole series of maps of magnetic variations, graphimetric maps, maps of volcanoes and seismic regions, geological and mineral maps, maps of atmospheric pressures, temperature, precipitation, frost-free periods, climates, soils, vegetation and animal life. Only at this point does the mapping of man begin; density of population; migrations from Europe, between i88i and I933, and countries to which the migration was di- rected; distribution of nations, national groups, peoples and tribes; religions. The economic activities by which man lives in his different environments are then treated: electrification, production of oil and coal; of aluminum, pig iron, steel, copper, lead, zinc, tin and nickel; ma- chinery; chemical production in the capitalist countries; artificial silk; rubber and chemical raw materials; wood and paper; textile raw materials; agriculture (with inset maps of wheat, rice and irrigation); fishing; air routes; railways and water routes. Political geography is thus deferred until after environment and eco- nomic use of the environment have been dealt with. This section begins with maps of the export and investment of capital and export markets of the products of capitalist countries. Then comes a political map of the world in I783 (the acquisition of colonial empires), followed by a map of the period from I784 to i876 (political transformation of the world by the industrial revolution and the age of steam), and another of the period from i877 to I914. Lenin set the year i876 as marking "the culmination of pre-monopolistic capital," so that this map can be taken as illustrating the development of political imperialism energized by finance capital, as distinguished from trading and industrial capital, and the dividing up of the world into regions of privilege and monopoly. The idea is followed out in detail in maps of the export and import of capital, raw materials and manufactured products, and charts and graphs of the production of pig iron and steel, the growth of mercantile and naval tonnage, and so forth. Maps of the Great War ("the Imperialist World War") follow, which are a marvel of condensation. They not only demonstrate the logical implications of the previous maps of eco- nomic and political rivalry, but show the proportions of the war as a real world war, without overemphasis of the military importance of France and Flanders. A characteristic detail is the notation of submarine sinkings, which brings out the importance during the war of communi- << 385 >> This content downloaded from 65.88.89.49 on Fri, 01 May 2026 06:59:19 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Pacific Aflairs cations and access to raw materials. The world section of the Atlas is then brought to a conclusion with contemporary political maps, including a double-page map of the Pacific, and another excellent map of "Eco- nomic Rivalry of the Imperialist Powers in the Pacific." This catalogue of the contents of the first part of Volume I reveals, I think, the working of a mature concept of the proper scientific uses of geography. A future volume of text, to accompany the Atlas, is promised in the Introduction; but even without this it is evident that Marxist historical materialism, as practiced by the scientists of the Soviet Union, is not a crude materialism. On the contrary, there is over- whelming evidence of a subtle and accurate perception of multiple processes of interaction. Modern societies are not treated as the product of environment and nothing else. Instead, two main categories of en- vironment are clearly differentiated: simple or natural environment, and environment as exploited and modified by the action of man. Historically, man's ability to use the latent resources of the environ- ment begins with weak forms of enterprise and organization. Eventually, this ability develops not only progressively but cumulatively, multiplying itself as well as adding to itself. Various geographers have remarked on the rise of the major civilizations in favored geographical regions. Quite different schools of thought can be based on this simple observation. A naive but still surprisingly common line of argument is that the favorable environment does not directly produce a superior culture, but first creates or molds a superior race, which thereafter duly evolves the superior cul- ture. The dogmatists of "race" appeal to this assumed historical se- quence in developing one theory after another of bias and special justifica- tion. For instance, what we call "modern civilization" originated in Europe. It rules the world today, while all the other great civilizations are either dead-like that of Egypt-or in process of being transformed-like that of China-by contact with Western civilization. Therefore, it is argued, Western Europe must have produced a race superior to all other races. Therefore the "white man" is divinely ordained to rule the "native." This kind of argument can be varied at will to glorify the "Aryan" German, the Italian Fascist as the heir of Rome (or of the mysterious Etruscans; it makes no difference which), Kipling's English- man as the ruler of India (although without India there would be no Aryans), or the "Nordic" American as the superior of the Negro and the American Indian. Races can even be transposed; the Japanese can be made "honorary Aryans," as in Germany, and the Slavs demoted to servile Asiatic status. <<386 > This content downloaded from 65.88.89.49 on Fri, 01 May 2026 06:59:19 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Book Reviews The very fact that such theories can be varied, in detail, to any extent, and yet remain essentially the same, indicates that they are faulty somewhere. The fault lies in a too shallow understanding of the way in which environment conditions history. Primitive man can only adapt himself, at first, to the particular environment in which he finds himself. The ability to transport "environmental" necessities (as the Pilgrim Fathers did when they brought their limited but essential stock of equip- ment and knowledge to America), or to transform the "environment" to suit the society (as when foreigners build quasi-Western cities like the International Settlement at Shanghai), comes much later. Therefore the origins of cultures are associated with particular regions; but from this point on, while the environment continues to act on the society, the society also works on and alters the environment. The possibilities of action, reaction and interaction become infinite. A society may grow, remain static, degenerate or turn into something quite different-as an airplane, after gathering a certain minimum speed on the ground, lifts itself into the air, transforming one kind of locomotion into another. This was the way in which the precapitalistic society of Europe trans- formed itself into a capitalistic society, and flew all over the world. This only meant, however, that a degree of human control over environment had been attained which could henceforth be adapted and applied by any people, anywhere. The fact that these immense modern powers are applied in some parts of the world independently, but in other parts by "ruling races," is not inherent in either race or local environment, but is a historical question of the methods by which men conquer and rule other men, or emancipate themselves from the control of other men. This, if I am right, is the kind of geographical-historical outlook which has guided the makers of this Atlas. Of course, I have stated the argument crudely; but I think it goes a long way toward explaining, for instance, the very heavy emphasis of this Atlas both on natural resources and on the degree of technical exploitation of the resources in different parts of the world by different societies, under different forms of organization and government. The historical method, in short (of which special mention is made in the introduction), is extended to demonstrate the superiority of Socialism, as practiced in the Soviet Union, with the deliberate purpose of arriving at a future Communism, over the Capitalism of the rest of the world. The method, it must be conceded, is formidable; it is not vulgar "propaganda," but scientific argument on a plane that commands full intellectual respect. The second section of Volume I, devoted to the Soviet Union, will in- <<387 > This content downloaded from 65.88.89.49 on Fri, 01 May 2026 06:59:19 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Pacific Affairs terest many who are not especially concerned with geographical thought and method. The passionate addiction to statistics of all Soviet citizens is well known-statistics of both quantity and quality, but especially statistics of size and speed. In this part of the Atlas the confusing wealth of Soviet statistical material is not only compressed into forms that are easily understood, but set out in such a manner that the maximum comparative use can be made of it. Indeed, the whole design of the Atlas challenges both geographical and historical comparison between the Soviet Union and all other countries. There is, as I have said, a general parallel between the series of world maps and the maps of the Soviet Union, but there is also some extra material, such as the maps of permanently frozen zones and Quaternary geological deposits in the Soviet Union; a special and very interesting profile relief map of the whole Union; geological, geo- morphological and mineral maps of special regions; maps of typical soil regions, in addition to the general soil maps; maps of mineral springs; a map of autumn bird migrations, in addition to the zoogeographical map; a map of economically productive hunting; important maps of the growth of cities and of municipal enterprises and improvements; maps of electrical, fuel, machine, metallurgical and light-industry re- sources and production. The data are then presented afresh to compare the productivity of Tsarist Russia in I9I3 and the Soviet Union in I935, together with a map of such improvements as drainage and irrigation under the Tsars and under the Soviets; maps of important "technical" crops (especially cotton); maps of collectivization (for the periods I928, 1930, 1933 and 1936), and of machine and tractor stations and sovkhozes. The section closes with maps of all kinds of communications and of ex- port and import trade, and a supplementary map of administrative di- visions in 1914, which may be compared with the political and administra- tive map of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the section. Throughout this section many of the maps of the Union as a whole are supplemented by maps of the European and Asiatic sections of the Union, and maps of special regions. In view of the emphasis on imperial and colonial relations in the first section, it is a pity that there is not a map expressly delineating the metropolitan and "colonial" regions of the Tsarist empire, and showing the manner of transformation under the Soviet Union. The information is there, it is true, but has to be extracted by reference to a number of maps. Probably such a map is to be expected in Volume II. The very great importance of the rate of growth (as brought out in 4 388 o This content downloaded from 65.88.89.49 on Fri, 01 May 2026 06:59:19 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Book Reviews Mr. Canniff's debates with Mr. Hubbard in PACIFIC AFFAIRS), providing a dynamic index to supplement factual but static data about the Soviet Union, is here recognized. Charts are added to many of the maps, to show for instance that between I932 and I936 the Soviet Union jumped from seventh to third place in world production of electrical energy, displacing England and Canada. By I935 it shared second place in pig iron and copper, and third place in steel and aluminum. Between 1928 and 1935 it rose to second place in production of machines (25.2 per cent of world production), displacing Germany and Great Britain. In 1913 organized industry accounted for only 40.6 per cent of Russia's total production, and village industry for 59.4 per cent. By 1935 or- ganized industry produced 75.6 per cent and village industry only 24.4 per cent. By 1936 the Soviet Union was producing nearly eight times as much as Russia produced in 1913. Neither Germany, England nor France was producing a significantly greater amount in 1936 than in 1913. America was producing over 50 per cent more, as compared with the nearly 8oo per cent of the Soviet Union. Throughout the Atlas, the type of projection used for most of the maps is stated, and projections have evidently been carefully selected to suit the emphasis needed, and the distortion to be avoided, for the particular map. For these and similar questions, however, I have neither the space nor indeed the technical competence to go into detail. Naturally, these are matters which will be keenly scrutinized by geographers in every part of the world. The technical excellence of the printing and binding; the striking coloring of the maps, neither beauty nor clearness being sacrificed in the vividness of presentation-these are details which the layman will recognize and appreciate. I have here been concerned mainly with an attempt to appraise the general quality of a major geographical project backed by a new and growing institution. The importance of the Institute of the Great Soviet World Atlas will evidently increase. Two more volumes are projected. Volume II will deal with the separate Republics and other subdivisions of the Union, and will also contain historical maps. Volume III will be devoted to physical, political and economic maps of the continents and of countries other than the Soviet Union. O. L. July 1938 (389 o This content downloaded from 65.88.89.49 on Fri, 01 May 2026 06:59:19 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Great Soviet World Atlas II

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