Discovery of Russian maps proves that an invasion was considered

3:36pm Thursday 1st March 2007

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SOVIET spies drew up plans to take over Bolton if they ever went to war with Britain, it has been revealed.

Highly detailed spy maps of the town were produced by the KGB during the Cold War.

And they reveal features not present on Ordnance Survey maps due to political and military sensitivities.

Bolton's map was unearthed from an abandoned train carriage in the Balkans.

It is dated 1975 and would have been useful if the USSR president of the day Leonid Brezhnev decided to send tanks along Bradshawgate en route to the Town Hall.

But maps of this kind were produced from 1950 until as recently as 1997.

The majority of them were made at the height of the Cold War when the West feared the USSR would use its nuclear arsenal.

According to experts, the maps were drawn up using aerial photos, satellite images, local knowledge and even spies.

The impressive mapping operation formed part of the most comprehensive global survey ever attempted, with the Russian military creating detailed, accurate maps of practically every country in the world.

David Wrench, course leader in history at the University of Bolton, said: "Bolton would have been important because, like much of Greater Manchester, it was a centre of industry.

"I doubt it would have been strategically more important than other areas of the country, but the Russians would certainly have wanted to target Britain's large centres of population.

"It would have been an insurance policy, so to speak, in case of war and I'm sure we had detailed maps of Russian towns and cities."

With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the rush withdrawal of the Russian Military from the Baltic states, thousands of paper maps covering the whole world were found in abandoned train carriages in Latvia and Estonia.

To this day, no one knows whether or not the Russians left them behind by accident.

The maps are being made available through digital mapping provider Landmark Information Group.

The firm snapped them up for an undisclosed sum from East View Cartographics, one of the UK's leading land data intelligence specialists.

Such is their detail, they reveal the exact location and purpose of every structure of possible military importance, including the width of roads, the height of bridges, the depth of rivers, train and bus stations and prisons.

The map of Bolton even includes the site of the Parish Church.

Russian map expert, John Davies, said: "Realising the military, economic and political benefits of topographic information, the Soviet military set about mapping the whole world - a mammoth task that took more than 50 years before, during and after the Cold War to complete. Today, very little is known about how the organisation was structured and how such incredible results were achieved.

"Certainly the operation was militarily driven, very well controlled, achieving spectacular results.

"Ultimately, futile of course, if the purpose was world domination.

"But for mapping professionals they provide a fascinating and invaluable insight as to the structure of our towns and use of land during this period."