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The Second Soviet Map of Lviv. One of Two Known Copies. Shows the Remnants of the Janowska Concentration Camp.

Large, post-World War II military city plan of Lviv, Ukraine (then Lviv, Ukrainian SSR), published probably by the Red Army or a related military map publisher in 1947.

The map was largely based on a 1936 Polish city plan of Lviv, with updates made in 1944 and '45 based on reconnaissance surveys. The map is laid out at a scale of 1:10,000 and shows incredible coverage of the buildings, street names, topography, railroads, parks, groundcover, etc. in and around the city. The legend lists wooden, stone, and brick buildings that remained intact after the 1944 Soviet siege. Also, roads and tram lines are shown. The Lviv city center was among only a handful of prominent Eastern European cities with the historic center barely touched by Second World War battles, holding currently its diverse architecture and intricate urban outlook. Nevertheless, the map shows areas within the city that are totally destroyed - with even the roads being unpassable.

The map records the Soviet attempt to diminish and replace Lviv's Ukrainian heritage with the U.S.S.R.'s preferred Russian nomenclature. To this point, the map has a list of streets on the verso and most of these are in their "Soviet-friendly" versions.

The map was made by Captain I.R. Sukhorukov, an engineer-cartographer in the 22nd Kharkiv Military Cartography Department, and Major A.A. Burshtein, the head of the 22nd Department from August 6th, 1942 to April 30th, 1946.

Immediate Pre-World War II Lviv Urban Planning

The Soviet Union had ambitious plans to reshape Lviv in 1939, prior to the capture of the city by Germany in 1941. The mapping of the city by the Soviets began again in earnest in 1944 as the Red Army foresaw the recapture of the city. This second edition of that map was published a few years after the conclusion of the war, documenting some of the post-war changes. Thus it is the second edition of the first Soviet topographic Lviv map (Rostislav I. Sossa, Mapping of Lviv in the Soviet Period // Geodesy, Cartography and aerial photography, vol. 91 (2020)).  In the following years, more detailed classified plans were issued. Using state cartography archives data, prominent Ukrainian cartographer Dr. Sosa mentions that a later 1:5000 plan (issued in 1955) was issued in 33 copies only. That map was used for general Lviv city planning. The present map was probably no less rare.

Although not marked as one, the map was classified, as all Soviet city plans up to 1:100,000 were classified by NKVD order since 1939. Compared to a scan of the 1944 1st edition of this map on Wikipedia, the second edition is not marked as “classified” but it is more detailed with a 1:10,000 scale versus a 1:15,000 scale of the first edition. Nevertheless, it shows important classified information including a more detailed overview with contours of the blocks and the state of solid buildings & walls. This edition very likely should have been marked "Classified", but through a bizarre breach of Soviet state secrets policy it was not. Neither Soviet Lviv cartography researchers - R. Sossa and O. Shyska – mention the reason for this.

The first edition of the plan states it was drafted according to 1:20,000 aerial photography, taken during 1941 and reviewed using 1944 materials. The same goes for this edition. The first edition was printed in Saratov (away from the frontlines) - according to various sources, this second edition was printed in Kyiv.

The Soviet economy struggled mightily in the late 1940s, thus a color-printed map was an expensive and rare item. In this context, it makes sense that this large seven-color plan was intended mostly for officer use and was printed not in Lviv, but in Kyiv where more advanced printing machines were available at the time.

Rarity

Neither WorldCat nor the RSL database show any Lviv maps from the 1932-1961 period. German plans of Lviv from the early 1940s, including the Plan von Lemberg (after M. Kowalski) and the 1944 Lemberg Plan (Sonderausgabe), are shown in an article by Ryan Moore for the Library of Congress.

An example in worse condition is at the Lviv Local Media Archive and is attributed as coming from the Oleg Sergeev collection. The example from the Oleg Sergeev collection is present in the first illustrated monograph on Lviv cartography: Altas Ukrainskhih Istorichnikh Mist – Vol. 1. Lviv. Edited by L. Kapral. Issued DNVP Kartografia, 2014, found as the map 1-23. Aside from Sergeev's copy, we were unable to trace any other copies.

 Keeping in mind that the major institutional libraries do not seem to have this map, it can be said that the run of this map was also below 100 copies.

We extend our thanks to Pavel Vedernikov for his assistance in cataloging this map.