Soviet Tourist Map of Riga

This map was printed in Moscow in the year 1973, the edition had 615 000 copies. The paper size is 72*90 cm. On the front side is written “Riga. Tourist scheme”. On the photo, you can see a monument to Latvian red riflemen, and behind it — the Museum of Latvian red riflemen (now it is the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia).

All the text is in Russian. You can barely find any map published in 1945-1990 in languages of other 14 soviet republics, that was claimed “equal” with Russia in USSR. I don’t know if any soviet map of Latvia in the Latvian language ever existed.

There are two maps on the opposite side of the paper. One has the map of the whole city with primary highways and secondary roads, railways, rivers, parks, and forests. It is made with calm, non-contrast colors, as many other tourist maps printed in USSR.

On the opposite side, there is a tourist map of Riga city center. It has beautiful drawings of architectural monuments and infrastructure objects (bridges and stations). Such attention to decorative details is atypical for Soviet maps, so it deserves special attention.

Both maps are marked with numbers (from 1 to 237) signed under the map. All marks are divided into groups: Memorials and monuments, architectural monuments, museums and exhibitions, theaters and circuses, concert halls, cinemas, sports facilities. There are also special marks of tourist infrastructure: tourism organizations, hotels, restaurants, and cafes, markets and shops, gas stations, service stations and rental points, transport, helpdesks.

There were plenty of streets named after soviet leaders and communist ideology: Lenina str, Gorky str, Pioniery str, Communary avenue, etc.

The brief text reference to the city deserves special attention. It’s a short historical note, written in the soviet colonial style. There is almost no mention of nationalities who lives and ever lived in Riga, only “people of Riga”. The only real person, mentioned in the text, is Lenin: “In spring 1900 V. I. Lenin had a meeting with Latvian social-democrats”. Only three years appears here — 1201 (foundation on the city), 1900 (Lenin), and 1967 — the year when Salaspils Memorial Complex (in memoria of victims of concentration camps) was built near Riga. There is also a whole paragraph about Jurmala, a resort on the Baltic Sea coast, which the soviet nomenclature enjoyed very much.