4 December 2012 - new maps
Posted by marekz on 12/04/2012 21:33
wig_news_EN
166 sheets of a WIG 1:100,000 series have been added, all 300 dpi & 600 dpi (Mapster index sheet). These are older editions, dated 1920 – 1925, from private collection. Please note! - map sheets from the area of "Kresy" (Borderlands), approximately east of Pas 42, which cover the area of Russian 2-verst map (1:84 000) – do NOT exactly correspond to the later WIG editions, even though they might have the same sheet name - and the discrepancy grows the  further to the east a sheet is from the Pas 42. This WIG index sheet dated 1924 (approx. 8 MB) might help to see the issue clearly. Therefore, a list of WIG 1:100 000 maps has been split into the older editions and the newer ones. The sheets now added have been marked on this list,  available through Mapster.
Because the new sheets are based on Austrian German and Russian original maps, they might appear, at first sight, to be quite primitive. The most typical change is the updated place-names (in Polish) or Russian (Cyrillic) changed into Latin. That said,  some sheets are quite impressively redone such as a multi-colour Mir-Stołpce. These early editions, even though somewhat crude perhaps, are really valuable, as they show the area right after "Great War", as WW1 used to be known at that time. Moreover, sheets extending far into the territory of what would be the Soviet Union, mark the hamlets of Polish impoverished gentry (zaścianek, zaścianki), which disappeared from later map editions. For those familiar with Polish, the sheets offer a bewildering array of place-names which, although mostly of Polish origin, actually make no sense in contemporary Polish, and more akin to Jabberwocky, e.g. Dzirkal, Smacz, Czeremoszniki Podzisienne, Ażubel, Nunniki, Chrapunia, Ergał, Azopniki, Zaścianek Usoch (Zahibel), Uroczysko Baby-Woda, Uroczysko pod Winpiszczem, Folwark Stary Zamek-Birża, Dwór Smolgów or Błoto Lodowe Jezioro.
Two sheets of WIG 1:500,000 maps, sheets Przemyśl and Wiedeń (Vienna), have also been added, both in "temporary edition", dated summer 1939.
Another, minor update is 10 sheets of Russian 2-verst map (1:84,000) from Latvia, and one from the Ukraine (Zhytomir). A larger number of those maps can be expected next year.