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Description

One of the Most Dramatic Soviet Cartographic Appraisals of Nazi Germany.

A fascinating Soviet poster map documenting the "Fascist Organizations of Germany", recording their structures, uniforms, and locations within the country, prior to the Second World War. The focus of the poster is on the paramilitary apparatus of the Nazi Party, not the formal military of the German State, which Hitler had begun reactivating in 1933 in contravention of the Treaty of Versailles.

In 1936, the Soviet Union was still focused on the fallout of the smaller-scale fascist-communist street fighting in which these paramilitary organizations or their antecedents had engaged in the preceding two decades. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was still three years away, and the full danger posed by German re-militarization was not yet clear, or at least acknowledged by, the Soviet Union.

The focus of the map is the distribution of Nazi paramilitary organizations throughout Germany and East Prussia. The legend of the map reads:

Условные Знаки - Conventional Signs

Группа СА (Дивизия Штурмовиков) [Group SA (Attack Division)]
Оберабшнит СС [SS-Oberabschnitt - SS-Senior District]
Штаб областного союза Фашистской Молодежи [Regional Headquarters of the Union of Fascist Youth] (This is a reference to the Hitler Youth, though the Fascist Youth Union was a formal organization in Harbin, Manchukuo)
Фашистская Авиация [Fascist Aviation]
Областное Отделение Союза Технической Помощи [Regional Branch of the Technical Assistance Union]
Бригада Штурмовиков [Assault Brigade]
Бригада Охранников [Guard Brigade]
Штаб Округа Обязательной Трудовой Повинности [District Headquarters of the Compulsory Labor Service]
Полк Обязательной Трудовой Повинности [Compulsory Labor Regiment]
Штаб Корпуса НСКК [NSKK Corps Headquarters]
Инспекция НСКК [NSKK Inspection]
Моторизованная Группа [Motorized Group]
Моторизованная Бригада [Motorized Brigade]

The illustrations and diagrams on the edges provide additional information on the organizations named in the central map. Starting in the upper-right corner and working clockwise, there is a table recording the number of members in each organization specifying how many were in East Prussia versus all of Germany. Further down is a diagram of the organizational structure of the NSKK (National Socialist Motor Corps) with Hitler at the head; below that is a diagram of the regional organizational scheme of the "Compulsory Labor Service" (RAD); in the lower-right corner is the regimental organizational scheme of the RAD; below the map are the uniforms of the various fascist organizations ("Форма Одежды Фашистских Организаций") including the SA, SS, RAD, Technische Nothilfe, and Hitler Youth ("Гитлеровская Молодежь"). In the lower-left corner is a diagram of the organizational structure of fascist youth; above that is the organizational structure of the SA assault forces, with Hitler at the top.

The map was compiled by F.P. Konov and executed by S.I. Folimonov. It was published by the ИЗОГИЗ (Visual Art Publishing House) division of ОГИЗ, the Association of State Book and Magazine Publishing Houses.

Rarity

The limitation notice lists a printing of 50,000. In spite of that print run (which was relatively small by Soviet standards) the poster is extremely rare today. This is the first time we have seen it.  We have not found other copies for sale, in institutional collections or illustrations online.

The map is one of several related posters compiled by F.P. Konov.

Condition Description
Old folds. Scattered foxing. Otherwise Very Good.