A friend and I have recently fallen down the rabbit hole of Soviet military topographic maps. We have searched long and hard to answer one simple question: how do you plot a coordinate on a Soviet military map?

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We've searched to find that the maps are made using the Krassovsky 1940 ellipsoid and I believe the Pulkova 1942 datum. They use a grid system that is based on the Gauss-Krueger projection. But when you look at one of these maps, you can see Lat/Long designations, then a bunch of 1 kilometer boxes that spread across the map. At first, I figured they were based on the distance from the southwesternmost Lat/Long lines (down and left) until I came across a map that threw me for a loop. I'll provide an example in this post, along with the website where we found the map examples.

We're starting to think that they use a system similar to the UTM system NATO forces use, as they both use similar map projections.

Help would be thoroughly appreciated!

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Map source: https://maps.vlasenko.net/soviet-military-topographic-map/

Another source: https://www.sovietmaps.com/

A map of Poland