The first Soviet atlas of a capitalist country

Summary

The reviewer evaluates the 1966 Atlas of the USA, the first volume in the Main Administration of Geodesy and Cartography’s planned series of atlases of countries and world regions, as a possible model for subsequent publications. More than fifty scholars participated in its preparation, consultation and review through cooperation among the cartographic administration, research institutes and Moscow State University’s geography faculty. The reviewer praises this arrangement and recommends planned cooperation and acknowledgment of participating institutions. The 72-page atlas emphasizes socioeconomic geography, drawing chiefly on US statistical sources for 1962–1964 and, where necessary, the 1958 industrial census. The reviewer finds its treatment of industry, agriculture, population and transport detailed and manageable, including unemployment and immigration. Praise centers on maps of population distribution and urban growth, employment, freight flows, industrial sectors, agriculture, economic regions and foreign economic relations. Shared scales for freight flows, concentric rings for large industrial centers, contrasting black, and accompanying tables and graphs are judged effective. Criticisms concern insufficient general geographic maps, inadequate coverage of major cities and their internal structures, and the absence of culture, historical geography and US history. The reviewer also questions ambiguous industrial classifications, especially the combined mapping of aircraft and missile production, and notes uneven historical statistics and the omission of employment change from the manufacturing-output map. Overall, the reviewer considers the atlas a successful contribution to economic cartography, suitable for educational, scholarly and general use, and recommends that subsequent atlases retain its production quality while addressing these shortcomings.