Special Series Maps
Several other map series are known to have been produced by VTU and GUGK during the Cold War period.
They include 1:300,000 topos published in the 1950s by GUGK. The purpose of this series is not known, nor is it known how extensive the series was, but the few that have come to light cover areas within the USSR, ranging from J-42 Tajikistan, in the south, to P-40 Krasnovishersk, Russia, in the north and the Baltic States. The 1958 USA Army Manual [9], in the section describing 1:200,000 scale maps, includes the statement ‘the symbolization is [...] believed to also apply to the new 1:300,000 scale maps’.
A typical 1:300,000 map, 1-O-35 Tallin, can be seen here
Also of interest are the series of large-scale town plans labelled План-Схема (Plan-scheme) and classified Для Служебного Пользования (For Official Use), produced by GUGK.
About 35 plans are known of small Latvian towns at scales of 1:5000, 1:6000, 1:7000, 1:8000, 1:10,000, 1:18,000, 1:20,000 and one of Riga at 1:25,000, all dating from the mid-1980s. They show little detail, being to a much simplified design in four colors, with no detailed symbology or annotation. Few individual buildings are shown, urban blocks are shown generalised, and contours are at 5m or 10m intervals, with no spot heights or depths. They do have a street index but no ‘spravka’. They also show the symbol legend on the face of the map, facilitating their use by untrained users.
Two other map series are small scale aeronavigation maps and rectangular topographic maps.
The Aeronavigation maps has large rectangular sheets at the relatively small scale of 1:2,000,000, each covering a considerable area and using a polyconic projection. Unlike the regular topos, the sheet numbers use the Cyrillic alphabet and Roman numerals. The numbering system adopts twelve horizontal bands from north to south (A in the Arctic to M in the Antarctic) and 20 vertical zones (from zone I at London, running clockwise via USSR and USA to zone XX west of Ireland).
Aeronavigation maps B-11, Berlin, and B-111, Moscow, can be seen here
Unlike the aeronavigation maps and SK-42 topos, the Rectangular Topos are designed to be trimmed and mounted side-by-side as a wall map to provide continuous coverage over very large areas of land. These were produced in at least two different series, one in the 1960s, another starting in the 1970s, and cover at least Europe and the Americas at 1:1,000,000 and 1:500,000. The 1960s sheets are classified Secret, the later ones have no security classification. The one-million scale maps of the earlier series have two part numbers (eg 44-111 is Chicago, 1969) whilst those of the later series have three part numbers (44-00-62 is Ottawa, 1985).