Development of Atlas Cartography in the USSR

Summary

This paper surveys atlas cartography in the USSR as of August 1991, tracing its connections with prerevolutionary Russian traditions of comprehensive mapping. Beginning with the Atlas of Asiatic Russia (1914), the authors review early educational atlases, economic and regional atlases associated with industrialization, and the Great Soviet Atlas of the World. They describe the shift in industrial mapping from schematic statistical cartograms to symbols locating enterprises and indicating output, while noting limitations such as imprecise localization, overcrowded maps, and missing summary maps. The postwar survey covers world, oceanic, polar, republic-level, and regional atlases, including the work of Salishchev, universities, and research institutions. The authors emphasize expanding thematic coverage, coordination among maps, and integrated representation of natural and socioeconomic phenomena. They also discuss resource, ecological, geological, agricultural, and health-resort atlases, together with international collaborative projects. The closing discussion distinguishes atlases nearing completion from proposed publications and identifies prospects for satellite imagery, computerized cartography, mathematical cartographic modelling, and automation, alongside increased attention to system structures, interrelationships, dynamics, and resource and ecological assessment.