[Map of the Hemispheres]

The world shortly before the fall of the Soviet Union.

This massive double-hemisphere world map provides a streamlined topographic overview of the world’s landmasses and seafloor in the late 20th century. The historic round-the-world voyages of Ferdinand Magellan and Kruzenshtern/Lisyansky (the first Russians to circumnavigate the globe) are shown in black and red, respectively. The borders of the U.S.S.R. and its polar possessions are carefully noted on an image that is otherwise unusually devoid of political boundaries.

The map was compiled by a team of Soviet editors overseen by V.I. Scherbakova and originally issued in 1986. This is a slightly later edition, updated to 1990, and published in Moscow under the authority of the Main Directorate of Geodesy and Cartography (GUGK), with printing executed at the Novosibirsk Cartographic Factory (the primary production facility of the GUGK). With the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in 1991, this global perspective stands as one of the very last official world maps issued by the Soviet authorities.