You might check the map collection in the bookstore to see if you can put your hands on a personal copy of a good, large-scale map of Eurasia or a good reference atlas, generally useful just to read the newspaper with understanding.

  • For a fresh look at the meaning of maps, look at this website = “The Map as Cultural Assumption”
  • Here is a suggestive article about hand-drawn maps [2006mr-ap:VIA:37 =TXT]
  • For quick reference, here are 4 maps of universal use to the historian (starting with #1 for the Russian historian) =

#1 Russia now |---| #2 Eurasia outline |---| #3 Northern hemisphere snow now |---|  #4 global tetrahedral

GEOGRAPHIC TABLE::
Russia and its "Near Abroad":
HIGH POINTS, LOW POOLS,
THE WATERS THAT FLOW BETWEEN,
CONCENTRATED POPULATIONS (CITIES),
& OTHER FEATURES

In the table below, the central organizational principle, defining each row at column 2, is the river. The table as a whole features 27 Eurasian river systems, their origins, course and destinations. There are 17 rivers (top 17 rows) in what is called "European Russia" (which includes some rivers in non-Russian territories which have been frequently in the orbit of Russian power). On any row, from column one (far left) to column five (far right), you take an imaginary river trip from highlands to various seas, from the high points to the low pools. Obviously this works best if you have a map at hand to give spatial identity to the imaginary river trip.

The six most important high points, with their most important watersheds (entered here roughly SW to NE) are =

    1) Caucasus Mts. (Mt. El'brus = 18,500)
             GO Kuban and Kura rivers
    2) Valdai Hills (1138 ft., this the highest spot in European Russia)
             GO Dnepr [Dnieper, rises at 830 ft above sea level], Vistula, Western.Dvina, Velikaia, Volkhov, and Volga [730 ft.]
    3) Ural Mts. (Urals; 6214 ft maximum height in the far north, but few points above 4000 ft.
                  The Trans-Siberian Railroad crosses the Urals at 1345 ft. Mt. Tom in the Coburg Hills = 3100 ft.)
             GO [Pechora], Kama, Ufa, Ural, Northern Dvina, Tobol, and Tavda rivers

    4) Tien Shan Mts., dividing China's Sinkiang border from Central Asia (Mt.Communism = 24,600)
            GO Amu Darya, Syr Darya, Ili rivers
    5) Lake Baikal (6365 ft. deep) and the western slopes of its high west bank
            GO Angara and Lena rivers
    6) Altai highlands of western Mongolia (15,266 at highest peak)
            GO Ob - Irtysh [not unlike forked Missouri - Mississippi], Yenisei, Amur, Argun and Shilka rivers

Column 4 indicates the destination of rivers and other significant regional features. Column 5 is alpha-coded to identify the seven major low pools =

(A) Black Sea
(B) Caspian Sea
(C) Baltic Sea
(D) White Sea
(E) Aral Sea
(F) Arctic Sea [or Arctic Ocean], and
(G) Sea of Okhotsk

The first four low pools (A-D) are the destinations of what we conventionally call "European" rivers, the last three (E-G) are "Asian" (Siberian). Notice how a number is attached to each alpha-coded drainage region to specify individual river systems. E.g., The great Volga River is in the (B) Caspian Sea region and is coded "B1".

Column 5 might contain two hypertext hop-points = [map] and [MAP]. These  indicate maps to which you might hop, better to situate yourself. The first, [map], hops to an outline map of the region of the given low pool. The second, [MAP], hops to a standard map of "Russia/USSR/Russia" as a whole. These maps facilitate imaginary river trips, a good way to gain mastery over this river-centered table of Russian and northern Asian geography. Here in river-city Eugene, river consciousness is a mind-expanding experience.

* NB! two mountain cities [ bracketed in column 1], and seven coastal cities in column 4

1. High Points
(w/alt. in feet)

2. Rivers

3. Cities*

4. Low pools
& other features

5.Code
&maps

Alps, then  Balkans(9500) on right bank of the =




Danube River

Vienna (OST)
Bratislava (SLO)
Budapest (HUN)
Belgrade (SRB)

Black Sea
Constantinople-Istanbul
Dardanelles & Bosporus
(tight straits into Aegean
& Mediterranean Seas)

A1

[map]
[map] [MAP]

Carpathian Mts. (N) Slovak/Poland


Dnestr R.

 


Black Sea
[ Odessa ] [map]

A2
[map]
[map] [MAP]

Valdai Hills
1138 ft.


Dnepr R.
830 ft.

Smolensk
Kiev [map]


[ Kherson ] Black Sea
[Crimean Peninsula]

A3
[map]
[map] [MAP]

Steppes of Central Eur-Rus


Don River

Khar'kov
Rostov

Sea of Azov
Black Sea

[Novorossiisk]

A4
[map]
[map] [MAP]

Caucasus Mts.


Kuban R.

Stavropol


Black Sea

A5
[map]
[map] [MAP]

Valdai Hills


Volga R.

730 ft.

Tver [map] [map]
Yaroslavl [map] [pix]
Nizhnii-Novgorod [map]
Kazan [W]
Saratov
Volgograd [map] Astrakhan [map]

Caspian Sea
[ Baku ] [map]

Rostov Velikii  [pix] [pix] [pix] [pix]

Valdai & north Volga =
South Volga &Caspian=

B1
[MAP]
[map]
[map]

Valdai Hills


Oka
etc.

Moscow
Vladimir
Riazan


Volga

B2
[MAP]
[map]
[map]

Urals, w-central


Kama etc.

Perm


Volga

B3
[MAP]
[map]
[map]

Urals, w-central


Ufa River

Ufa


Kama
River

B4
[MAP]
[map]
[map]

Urals, south


Ural River

Orenburg


Caspian Sea

B5[MAP]
[map]
[map]

 

Caucasus 


Kura
R.

Tbilisi


Caspian Sea

B6[MAP]
[map]
[map]

Turkey, east. highlands


Araks
R.

Yerevan


Kura River

B7[MAP]
[map]
[map]

Valdai Hills


Vistula R.

Warsaw

Baltic Sea
(Skagerak; Kattegat)
North Sea

Atlantic Ocean

C1
[map]
[map] [MAP]

Valdai Hills


W. Dvina

Riga [map]


Gulf of Riga
Baltic Sea

C2
[map]
[map] [MAP]

Valdai Hills


Velikaia

Pskov [map]

Narva (port city)

Lake Peipus
Baltic Sea
Narva River
Gulf of Finland

C3
[map]
[map] [MAP]

Valdai Hills

Volkhov R

Novgorod [map#1] [map#2]


Lake Ladoga

C4
[map]
[map] [MAP]

Ladoga, Lake


Neva R.

St.Petersburg


Gulf of Finland
Baltic Sea

C5
[map]
[map] [MAP]

 Urals, west- central


Northern Dvina R.

Arkhangel'sk [map]

White Sea
Berents Sea
 [
Murmansk (map)]
North Sea
Atlantic Ocean

D1

[map] [MAP]

Tien Shan Mts.


Amu Darya R.

 
Aral Sea
E1

[map] [MAP]

Tien Shan, Fergana Valley


Syr Darya

Tashkent


Aral Sea

E2

[map] [MAP]

Tien Shan Mts.


Ili River

Almaty


Lake Balkhash

E3

[map] [MAP]

Altai highlands


Ob River

Novosibirsk [map] Kemerovo
Tomsk

ARCTIC SEA
Novaia Zemlia Island

F1

[map] [MAP]

Urals, southeast [Ekaterinburg] [Cheliabinsk]


Tobol R.

 

Arctic Sea

F2

[map] [MAP]

Urals, central-east


Tavda R.

 

Arctic Sea

F3

[map] [MAP]

Altai


Irtysh R.

Omsk [map]

Arctic Sea

F4

[map] [MAP]

Altai


Yenisei R

Krasnoyarsk

Arctic Sea

F5

[map] [MAP]

Baikal, Lake


Angara R.

Irkutsk [map]

Yenesei River

F6

[map] [MAP]

Sayans


Tunguska

 

Yenesei River

F7

[map] [MAP]

Baikal Lake,  20 miles from W. shore


Lena R.

Yakutsk [map]

Arctic Sea
Verkhoyansk Mts.

F8

[map] [MAP]

Yablonovyi mts.


Vitim R.

 

Lena River

F9

[map] [MAP]

Stanovoi mts.


Aldan R.

 

Lena River

F10

[map] [MAP]

Kolyma range


Kolyma R.

Kolyma

Arctic Sea

F11

[map] [MAP]

Altai highlands (Eastern Mongolia)
 


Amur R.
The final four rivers on this table flow into the Amur

Blagoveshchensk
Khabarovsk [map]

Tartar Gulf
(Sakhalin Island)

Sea
of Okhotsk
[Okhotsk]
[ Magadan
] [map]
Kamchatka Peninsula
Kuril Islands
Aleutian Islands
Bering Sea
(Sea of Japan
Japanese Islands)
Pacific Ocean

G1

[map] [MAP]

Altai (above)

Argun R.

 

 
Amur River

G2

[map] [MAP]

Altai (above)

Shilka R.

Chita


Amur River

G3

[map] [MAP]

Manchuria

Sungari R

Harbin (Manchu China)


Amur River
G4

[map] [MAP]

Korea, China

Ussuri R.

 

 Amur River
[
Vladivostok]

G5

[map] [MAP]


MAP WEBSITES

 Websites

  

Bibliography of Atlases
EUROPE AND THE WORLD
(Russia and Eastern Europe at the bottom)
with Locations
(MAP = Knight Library Map collection
REF = Knight Library Reference Room)

The most useful atlases of Russian history are listed in the GLOSSARY

<>Atlas zur Zeitgeschichte : Europa im 20. Jahrhundert
<>Cassell atlas of world history | On 20th-c world, see scts 5.05, 5.06, & all of sct 6
<>Collins atlas of twentieth century world history
<>Collins atlas of world history
<>Hammond atlas of the 20th century

<>National Geographic atlas of world history | On 20th century world, see pp. 302-79
<>Natkiel, Richard, et al. Atlas of the 20th century
<>Oxford illustrated history of modern Europe. Edited by T.C.W. Blanning
<>Palmowski, Jan. A dictionary of twentieth-century world history
<>Rand McNally Historical atlas of the world
<>Times atlas of European history
| On 20th century world, see pp. 164-91
<>Times atlas of the 20th century
<>Times atlas of world history

<>Wheatcroft, Andrew. The world atlas of revolutions

Russia and Eastern Europe

Burdett, Anita L. P., ed. The historical boundaries between Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia : documents and maps 1815-1945

Landscape Atlas of the USSR | Maps #6-30 = close-ups of strategic points in Western European Russia, from Baltic shores, over the central plains, down to the Black Sea Coast. See the good outline maps, pp. 19 and 37