For a progressive national atlas

This article is a set of editorial comments proposing the conception and content of the second edition of the National Atlas of Czechoslovakia — the linked Atlas of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic — responding to J. Hromádka's outline. The authors argue the atlas should present the spatial results of socialist construction within an international frame, organized in five parts (world position; natural conditions as a basis for the economy; population and settlement; geography of production; living standards and external economic relations) in roughly sixty sheets. They assign production geography more than a third of the sheets and industry about a quarter, reject descriptive landscape chorology, and restrict historical maps to explaining present conditions, mainly by comparison from 1945, coordinated with the historical atlas then in preparation. Methodologically they recommend a common base, chosen scales, internationally comparable techniques and indicators, and cautious superimposition of related phenomena, with detailed schemes for industry, agriculture, forestry, transport and communications, settlement and migration, education, culture, health, housing, retail and services, economic regions, living standards and foreign trade. They conclude that a textual supplement should document sources and compilation methods and that a compact but representative editorial board should synthesize discussion and coordinate the participating institutions.