The Power of Maps: Cartography and Cultural Revolution in the USSR, 1917–1957

Illuminated globe on the façade of the Central Telegraph Office in Moscow. Architect: Ivan Rerberg, 1925/1928

A red surface here, a sharp line there: maps do not provide a neutral representation of reality. Rather, they create those powerful spatial perceptions that have already legitimised many a demarcation and led to many an appropriation of the environment. Maps can be used to transcend the obvious and the present, they can open up previously unimagined spheres of possibility. Maps and those who draft, observe and use them are therefore often characterised by something visionary, even superior. It is no coincidence that many world leaders have been depicted leaning over maps. The use of maps and the functions ascribed to them can reveal a great deal about the power relations, identity definitions and future plans of a society.

Poster for the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1952, GDR, artist unknown

The historian Dr Nick Baron devotes himself to such a cultural history of cartography with a focus on the Soviet Union. He investigates the role that maps and map reading played in ideological and political discourse as well as in everyday life in the USSR, focussing on the period from 1917 to 1957, between the October Revolution and the end of Stalinism. According to Dr Baron's thesis, maps were far more than just a tool for geographical orientation in the young Soviet society. They were a symbol of the new era and the "cultural revolution", which had taken up the cause of the ideal of the "Soviet man" in order to win over the people to the new regime. In the imagery of the time, maps served as an essential attribute of this prototype of a "new man", who drives progress with technical expertise, prudence and discipline. Cartography and revolution even appeared as essentially related endeavours, as both aimed to transform a raw, still unpolished nature into a progressive and harmonious order. Stalin himself once described the use of maps and compasses as a precondition for a sense of sophistication, and the party leadership supervised the design and production of maps and even intervened in editorial processes. 

The geography lesson, photo by Jevgeni Chaldej (1952)

However, in addition to the communist party elite and political propagandists, teachers and educators, artists and filmmakers, and last but not least, the everyday perspective are also addressed. After all, maps were ubiquitous in post-revolutionary culture: they were depicted in magazines and on paintings, and adorned popular reference books and postcards. The globe was emblazoned on public buildings from the 1920s: an unmistakable indication of the claim to world revolution.

For the first time, Dr Baron comprehensively applies the approach of a critical history of cartography to the Soviet Union, which promises to shed light on the interrelationships between science and culture, society and nature in the early Soviet Union. For his study, Dr Baron can draw on many years of work on the subject as well as extensive research in Russian archives – preliminary work that is of great value in light of the Russian war against Ukraine. In addition to maps and documents relating to their design, production and perception, school and textbooks as well as popular and artistic representations of maps, including selected films, also serve as sources. The research results will be published in several specialised papers and incorporated into a monograph. 

‘The USSR on the world map’, from: M. I. Nikishov, Geographical Atlas of the USSR (1951)

Grant holder

Dr Nick Baron, Nottingham

Support

The Gerda Henkel Foundation supports the project by granting a research scholarship and covering travel and material costs.

 

This project was documented in spring 2024.