Economic Maps

topical maps that illustrate various economic phenomena and activities.

A distinction is made between general economic maps, which describe the economy as a whole (including maps of economic regions, territorial-production complexes, economic centers, economic ties, levels of economic development, and specialization of production), and maps of various branches of production and spheres of circulation (including industry maps, agricultural maps, transportation and communications maps, and maps of the construction industry and trade and finances). Maps depicting labor resources and natural resources as components of economic activity are also classified as economic maps. Resource evaluation maps (depicting agroclimatological resources, conditions of economic development of regions, conservation, and the like) are classified midway between economic maps and maps of the natural world.

The first hand-drawn economic maps in Russia appeared in the late 17th century; printed maps were first published in the 1840’s. The most important economic maps compiled before the October Revolution were made after the reforms of the 1860’s, for example, the Statistical Atlas of the Principal Sectors of Factory Industry in European Russia (1869–73) and Trade and Industry Map of European Russia (1900), compiled by V. P. Semenov-Tian-Shanskii.

Economic maps are used to facilitate planning and forecasting the development and location of productive forces as well as for management of the national economy. The first widely known Soviet economic map was the Schematic Map of the Electrification of Russia (1921), compiled at the initiative of V. I. Lenin. Compilation of the Great Soviet Atlas of the World (1937) and of the economic and comprehensive atlases of the USSR and individual regions of the country represented a significant contribution to domestic and world economic cartography. Further achievements in the postwar years have included a series of economic atlases of the USSR and other countries, comprehensive atlases of the Union republics, krais, and oblasts, and economic maps for reference, education, and agitation and propaganda.