1982 Huge 6-Sheet Soviet GUGK Map of Moscow, Russia

Possibly the largest Soviet Era city plan ever issued, this is an immense six-sheet map of Moscow, standing more than seven feet tall. It was printed in 1982 by the Soviet Main Administration of Geodesy and Cartography (Главное управление геодезии и картографии, or GUGK). It displays the city on a remarkably detailed scale, highlighting roads, metro and rail lines, and major landmarks.

A Closer Look

Consisting of six separate sheets, each of which is about 30 inches high and 36 inches wide, Moscow is exhibited as divided in its dozens of districts (raion, район). Metro stations are clearly indicated with distinctive M of the Moscow Metro, while at bottom-right a map of the city's metro lines is provided. Aside from metro lines, marked in red, rail lines in black and rail stations are labelled. Major roads throughout the city are identified, with the inner 'Garden Ring Road' and the outer 'Automobile Ring Road' providing recognizable outlines for the city.

Recognizable landmarks are illustrated, from the Kremlin complex at center, to the Bolshoi Theater, the still-new Olympic Village (Олимпийская деревня, for the 1980 Olympic Games), and several imposing skyscrapers built soon after the Second World War, including the Hotel Ukraina (Украина) and the main building of Moscow State University (Московский государственный университет). Orthodox cathedrals and monasteries are labelled as art museums, reflecting their secularized status at the time. Moscow's greenspaces, docks, sporting complexes, and amusement facilities, such as the circus (Цирк), are also depicted or labeled. Some areas are deliberately distorted, a common practice in non-classified Soviet maps, intended to misdirect foreign spies.

Publication History and Census

This map was produced in 1981 and printed in October 1982. It was compiled by the 'Kartografiya' Production Mapping Association (Производственное картосоставительское объединение «Картография»), a unit within the GUGK. G. A. Skachkova (Г. А. Скачкова) is listed as editor, while N.P. Knyazeva (Н.П. Князева) and S.N. Turs (С.Н. Турс) served as technical editors. Only 2050 copies were printed, an unusually small run for the time, suggesting that it was intended for use in a government office or state-run enterprise such as a hotel or taxi depot. The only known examples of this map in institutional collections are at Cambridge University, the Latvian National Library, and the Russian National Library.