Stadtplan von Minsk

Large, WW2-era map of Minsk, Belarus, published by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) for military use. An index of important public buildings is included in the upper-right corner. These buildings are also marked out in black on the map. The map is identified as "Sonderausgabe! III.41" in the upper-right corner, suggesting that this 'Special Edition' was published in 1941, rather than 1940 as the imprint in the lower-left corner would suggest. We can also see from the lower-left corner that the source of this extremely detailed map was a earlier map of April, 1918, surveyed during the final German offensive on the Eastern Front of WW1.



A later manuscript hand has marked three buildings in blue pencil: the government building of Belarus [marked 'Gov'], the headquarters of the N.K.V.D., the Soviet Union's ruthless state security agency, [marked 'NKVD'], and a third building which is not labeled, but which was also operated by the N.K.V.D. This map, therefore, relates both to WW2 and the Cold War, and serves as a fascinating record of 20th century Minsk.



Printed colour. [RUS2606]