The red atlas : how the Soviet Union secretly mapped the world / John Davies; Alexander Kent; James Risen

Introduction: Why this book is a detective story -- War and peace : the background of the story... from Napoleon's march on Moscow to the collapse of the Soviet Union -- Capturing the world... on paper : describing the style, content, and symbology of the Red Army's maps of the world -- Plots and plans : the overt and covert methods of the Soviet cartographers -- Resurrection : the discovery of the maps after the fall of the Soviet Union and their continuing significance today -- Appendix 1: Examples of maps of various series and scales -- Appendix 2: References and resources -- Appendix 3: Translation of typical city plan "Spravka" -- Appendix 4: Translation of typical topographic map "Spravka" -- Appendix 5: Symbols and annotation -- Appendix 6: Glossary of common terms and abbreviations -- Appendix 7: Print codes -- Appendix 8: Secrecy and control.

Nearly thirty years after the end of the Cold War, its legacy and the accompanying Russian-American tension continues to loom large. Russia's access to detailed information on the United States and its allies may not seem so shocking in this day of data clouds and leaks, but long before we had satellite imagery of any neighborhood at a finger's reach, the amount the Soviet government knew about your family's city, street, and even your home would astonish you. Revealing how this was possible, The Red Atlas is the never-before-told story of the most comprehensive mapping endeavor in history and the surprising maps that resulted.