Curious land surveyor here!

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?

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.

I've personally tried to find the answer to this question for MONTHS, but keep putting it off on the back burner to deal with life. I'm super excited to get an answer!

Help would be thoroughly appreciated!

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

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

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A map of Poland