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Soviet spies mapped the entire world

ccablog.blogspot.com — “...plans at 1:25,000 and 1:10,000 were produced of thousands of towns and cities around the world.” In some areas, the Soviet maps are still among the best available.

Who dugg this? Made popular Nov 22, 2005

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  • Griffology, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7In soviet Russia world maps you!
  • blackjack75, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Next: Google Maps buys out a small company named KGB.
  • BugMeNot2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Soviet Russia = Magic.
  • history1me, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Having gone to UCSC, I thus have no idea, but I think some covert ***** went down. Now, where my joint!
  • elpayo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2So does this mean we'll be seeing Google Mapskoyovich soon?
  • parker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1cool maps, doesn't say anything about spies though. i wonder how they got such great information.
  • yaos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0lol. I just knew there was going to be a Metal Gear Solid reference in here.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Too bad they're all in Russian.

    I still understand everything though, since it's my first language.
  • mlahana, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0soon you'll be able to google them.
  • cockbadger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Wonderful article and research! Now I'd like to see the maps of the CIA :~)
  • danio, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0oh those russians
  • pox05, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0thats awesome

    but to go from that black site to this one in white really hurts my eyes.
  • infra172, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3"Some of these maps are freely available on the Internet. The two best sources are the University of California, Santa Cruz and the University of California, Berkeley."

    Gee. Wonder why those colleges have them.
  • amitrix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0thank god my country is not in the map...im safe!
  • mancat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Where's the map that shows me where to find the Lost Ark?
  • emperor799, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0See, I keep telling everyone that the USSR had UFOs. How else could they have mapped all that in that much detail?
  • unclejesse0, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1The commies are trying to get our precious bodily fluids!
  • Icefreez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I founnd the maps on the forest more intersting on that site. http://ccablog.blogspot.com/2005/11/forest-cover-maps-and-data.html
  • karlisi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Most of these maps are based on quite old aerophotos, at least for territory of former USSR, so they have many errors like wrong road-paths, wrong names of places etc. So, if you want to go by car trough i.e. Latvia using these maps, you can end in a deep swamp :)
  • mushoo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1^^^ I thought McCarthy was dead.
  • Bufoon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+03 words... Amazing
  • mancat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"Gee. Wonder why those colleges have them."

    Hahah... I thought about the same thing. :)
  • TomJ, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0nice comments . . .

    and no, soviet spy/cartographers were not crawling all over the globe to get this data. why do that when you can just copy your oppositions much more accurate maps! look at all of the railway fiascos they experienced specifically because of sh1t maps. in hindsight, it looks to me that most soviet tech advancement was off what they bit from the germans and british.
  • SpacemanSpiff, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0parker: "cool maps, doesn't say anything about spies though. i wonder how they got such great information."

    I think you answered your own question.
  • Niao, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0>>Griffology
    >>"In soviet russia, world maps you!"

    Damn, beat me to it.

    >> yeah they found some maps .... go nuts

    Imagine you were in a house. The house is infact a mansion, though you have no idea of this. You have a grasp of how to leave, understanding the concept of a door, but the door is beyond your reach at this time. You know the rooms you have explored, but many valuble things or even other people could lie in rooms you have not yet seen. You are alone.

    You discover a map. A nearly perfect map. You are awed by the sheer quality and attention to detail. The time spent crafting this map must have been years to nail down every niche and spot and you can almost feel the urgance of the creator to discover how to leave the mansion.

    Now what will you do?
    >
  • Kashey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1All soviet maps of USSR were off in some areas. Karlisi is somehow right. But it was done on purpose. Some village names and roads were fictional. So good luck using those old soviet maps to reach some secret places. They will lead you off road and to the closest swamp. Closer they get to military or secret objects more off the maps are. More fake villages and fake roads. Any people wondering around secret and military places lost because of the maps were monitored closely because people who needs to be in that area know that place inside out and they don't need maps.
  • mcpaige, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0mass them up!
  • npiv, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0yeah they found some maps .... go nuts
  • mcpaige, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0mass = mash
  • geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Wonder how this stands up next to GPS+Satellite Imagery. Still, very impressive for pre-satellite cartography.
  • NexFlamma, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0He is. The commies killed him

    Damn commies.

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