Europe from Moscow Asia from Irkutsk

A geographic window into Soviet motives during the Cold War.

In the years immediately after WWII, the United States sought to promote foreign policy that contained the geopolitical expansion of the surging U.S.S.R. Major accomplishments to that end were the establishment of NATO in 1949 and long term military bases in Japan in 1950. Although this restricted the global advance of communism somewhat, there were still opportunities for the red plague to spread.

This pair of images is an attempt to show the American public a Soviet perspective of where that growth might take place. The left map shows Europe, looking west from Moscow. Text below describes the recent successes in fighting back the Soviets in Greece and Turkey, but explains how “Russia’s conquest of the satellites has pushed the Red frontier to the waist of Europe.”

The second map shows Asia from Irkutsk, a major industrial center in Siberia. Friendly Communist China clearly plays an important role and the ongoing conflict in Korea is only briefly mentioned. The text does, however, presciently predict a future conflict – “Russia now stands on the threshold of one of the world’s greatest prizes: the rich green valleys of Communist-infested Indo-China and Malaya, and the immense, unexploited riches of the islands beyond.”

The pair of Cold War views were drawn by R.M. Chapin, Jr. for Time Magazine in 1952.