Reviews: A New Atlas of Armenia

Summary

This review evaluates the *Atlas of the Armenian SSR* produced by the Armenian Academy of Sciences, a comprehensive cartographic work comprising approximately one hundred maps covering the republic’s 29,800 km² and its population of 1,893,000. The purpose is to assess the atlas’s scope, content, and scholarly utility, while acknowledging its geographical limitations—confined to a small fraction of historical Armenia. The review methodically examines the atlas’s four main sections: physical maps (geology, climate, phenology, hydrography, botany, zoogeography), demographic maps, economic maps, and historical maps. Key findings highlight the atlas’s thoroughness, with maps at scales of 1:1,000,000 to 1:2,000,000, though larger scales for physical maps would have enhanced detail. The economic section is praised for statistical diagrams and projected growth under the 1959–1965 seven-year plan, illustrating rapid industrialization and agricultural expansion, such as vineyards increasing from 9,200 to 26,900 hectares. Demographic maps notably document the transformation of Erevan from a town of 29,500 to a city of 558,000. Historical maps, while less comprehensive than some older standalone maps for classical studies, still illuminate ancient accounts (e.g., Xenophon, Strabo, Plutarch) by correlating climatic extremes with military campaigns. The review concludes that despite the regrettable exclusion of neighboring historical Armenian territories like Nakhidjevan, the atlas is a meticulously executed, technically well-produced resource that will prove invaluable to students of Armenian affairs, economists, sociologists, and geographers, and could serve as a model for similar atlases across the Soviet Union.