Ein neuer tschechoslowakischer Nationalatlas

Summary

This article reviews the National Atlas of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, published in 1966. As the first representative work of its kind in a socialist state, the atlas comprises 58 map sheets with approximately 440 individual maps, comprehensively depicting the country's natural conditions, population and social structure, and national economy. The review examines the atlas's design features, including the primary scale of 1:1,000,000, the combination of supplementary maps at various scales, and bilingual legends. It evaluates in detail the cartographic methods and expressiveness of thematic maps covering geology, geomorphology, hydrology, vegetation, population, industry, agriculture, and transport. The author concludes that the atlas represents an outstanding achievement of Czechoslovak geosciences and cartography, while noting areas for potential improvement, such as the static nature of statistical maps, the legibility of complex synthetic maps, and the limited use of large-scale topographic insets.