The Great Soviet World Atlas

This article describes the background, content structure, and methodological foundations of the Great Soviet World Atlas. Compiled pursuant to a resolution of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated December 17, 1933, the atlas aimed to present, for the first time, a true picture of the world based on the Leninist-Stalinist analysis of global economic and political relations. The atlas was planned in three volumes: the first covering world maps and maps of the USSR as a whole, the second devoted to maps of republics, krais, and oblasts of the USSR, and the third covering foreign states. The article emphasizes that, unlike capitalist atlases serving imperialist expansion and masking exploitative relations, the Soviet atlas employed a unified legend and hypsometric layer tinting to systematically present physical, economic, and political elements, highlighting the advantages of the socialist economic system. The first volume, exceeding foreign atlases in both scope and scientific rigor, was hailed as an outstanding achievement of Soviet science.