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National Geographic : 1960 Dec
Contents
OF ALL COUNTRIES on the globe, none claims the attention and interest of the Free World more than the Soviet Union. It fills our news columns, air waves, and conversations; it affects our politics and preoccupies our foreign policy. For all these reasons, there is a tremendous demand for accurate geographical information about this vast nation and the changes oc curring there in recent years. To meet the demand, the National Geographic Society drawing upon the latest and most dependable cartographic data-has compiled an entirely new, up-to-date 10-color wall map, entitled The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The new map is not being issued as a sup plement to the magazine but will be mailed in response to orders.* This full-length cartographic portrait of Russia supplements two eyewitness articles on the Soviet Union that appeared last year in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC: "A Firsthand Look at the Soviet Union," by Thomas T. Hammond, September, 1959; and "Russia as I Saw It," by Vice President Richard M. Nixon, December, 1959. On a scale of 142 miles to the inch, the wall map includes all the 15 Soviet Republics, and shows the administrative subdivisions of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, largest of the 15. Shown, too, are Russia's European satellite neighbors and a portion of Communist China. One-seventh of Earth's Land Covering half of Europe and a third of Asia, the U.S.S.R. occupies more than one seventh of the earth's land surface. To show so vast a nation on a 42-by-29/2 inch sheet presented an unusual problem. Your Society's cartographers chose a trans verse polyconic projection as the one that would portray this immense expanse of the globe with a minimum of distortion. As a result, the scale change over the Soviet Union's 8 y million square miles is held to a minimum. The map reveals that the Soviet Union touches 12 other nations; yet the country's seacoasts outstretch its land frontiers. Its longest coast-16,000 miles-borders the Arc tic Ocean, frozen and unnavigable for surface ships most of the year. The Soviet Union has harbors on the Black and Baltic Seas, although winter ice closes many Baltic ports. Warm currents in the far north Barents Sea, however, make Murmansk a year-round port. On the Pacific side, ice breakers keep Vladivostok open all year. Russia Today NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC'S NEW LARGE-SCALE WALL MAP DEPICTS A CHANGING SOVIET UNION Within Soviet territory, but shared by Iran, sprawls the world's largest lake, the Caspian Sea. Eastward, in the Mongol region, lies Lake Baykal, the world's deepest-5,315 feet. By far the greater portion of the Soviet Union's 209 million people are concentrated in Europe, west of the Ural Mountains. Dur ing recent years, however, the Russians have intensified their efforts to exploit the resources of Siberia, a relatively empty land of five million square miles. Since 1954, for example, the "new farms" program in southern Siberia and adjacent Kazakhstan has turned 90 million acres of virgin soil into cropland, mainly wheat. Within Siberia's forests and across its bleak tundra, Soviet pioneers have discovered iron ore, gold, diamonds, tin, and other minerals. New Dams Will Boost Power Output One important key to Siberia's development is hydroelectric power. The map locates two enormous new dams: one at Bratsk on the Angara River; the other at Krasnoyarsk on the Yenisey. Each is designed to generate more than four million kilowatts of power, twice the output of Grand Coulee Dam, larg est producer in the United States. * Orders for the new wall map, The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, should be addressed to the National Geographic Society, Department 54, Washington 6, D. C. Price: $1.00 on paper; $2.00 on fabric; index to place names, 500; postage pre paid to all countries. 887
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