G-K Soviet.

This is coolbert:

"In a simply engrossing article over at Wired about Soviet mapping efforts - this bit just yelled at me about the paradox of how easily the essential can be forgotten...or ignored." - - Commander Salamander.

"Inside the Secret World of Russia’s Cold War Mapmakers"

[article in Wired as of 2015]

"The Soviet Military secretly mapped the entire world, but few outsiders have seen the maps—until now."

"Maps included details of a Royal Navy submarine-building shipyard and the carrying capacity of bridges."

"The program involved tens of thousands of surveyors and topographers, and hundreds of cartographers."

"For San Diego, the Russians included sites of military interest, but also notes on transit, communications, and the height of buildings."

Soviet map left, American map right. Presumably the Soviet map would be used by Soviet Naval special-purpose units when planning an attack on the San Diego naval base. Soviet attention to detail quite obvious. By reputation the G-K Soviet representation of the world highly accurate, more so than the American UTM standard.

This additionally:

"The Soviets mapped a handful of American cities at a scale of 1:10,000. These are detailed street-level maps, but they don’t focus on places of obvious strategic importance." List to include:

* Pontiac, MI.

* Galveston, TX.

* Bristol, PA.

* Scranton, PA.

* Syracuse, NY.

* Tonawanda, and North Tonawanda, NY.

* Watertown, NY.

* Niagara Falls, NY.

As to why these cities chosen for intense detailing on 1:10,000 maps not known. Only the Russkie knows for sure and they ain't saying!

coolbert.