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Description

"This is the first appearance of a Cold War map of Soviet concentration camps." - P.J. Mode Collection

Rare map of the Soviet Gulag System, from the end of the Second World War and beginning of the Cold War.

Rare variant edition of this important pictorial map, documenting the Gulag, the Soviet concentration camp system, this example with text at the bottom and right pasted down on the map rather than integrally printed.  The mapmakers also published a book in Rome entitled Sprawiedliwosc Sowiecka (Soviet Justice)  in 1945 one of the first books to include reports of prisoners about the forced labor camps in Soviet Russia.

Besides Polish, the book was also published in Italian (Giustizia Sovietica) and French (Justice Sovietique). 

The map illustrates the extensive system of concentration camps, spread out over nearly half o the Soviet Union.  At the right, the explanatory text describes Soviet Russia's economic success, which was attributable "to the cheapest - because slavery - work of millions of prisoners". The text further notes that it "was drawn up to the base of original Soviet documents and written statements from former prisoners, living in the years 1939-1942 in these 'correctional' labour camps".

Below the map is "the schema of the organization", describing the particular industries and activities of each camp, while above the map "photographs of headings of Soviet documents from the camp authorities" are illustrated.

This map was published in 1945, at the end of the Second World War, when Western propaganda stopped focusing on Germany and turned its attention to the Soviet Union.

Reference
Persuasive Maps: The PJ Mode Collection, #1330.