Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny

The Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny (WIG), was the Polish "Military Institute of Geography" from 1919 until 1949. Colonel Józef Kreutzinger was the Head of the Institute from 1926.

History of the Institute

When Poland regained its independence in 1918 it faced a challenge of making a new set of maps for a new country. The invaders left behind 9 triangulation systems with 8 reference points. The "Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny", originally called the "Instytut Wojskowo-Geograficzny" (the "Geographic-Military Institute") was set up in 1919 in Warsaw. Its first task was to form a coherent and updated system from the maps of Polish territory originally drawn by the partitioning powers (German, Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires). The maps in various scales were the foundation of the 1:100,000 scale Polish maps.

By 1926 40% of the area of Poland was mapped. From 1927 onwards, WIG began to draw a uniform triangulation network and to print its own, original 1: 100,000 map, known as “type two”. These maps were two-coloured (black topographic elements, brown contour lines), some sheets contained two more colours added by overprinting. From 1929 onwards “type three”, i.e. two- and four-coloured maps were published. In 1931 a four-colour version became the standard type (known as “normal type” or referred to as the “tactical map of Poland”). By 1939 all 482 sheets for the area of pre-war Poland were published, together with around 280 additional sheets ("wyłącznie do użytku służbowego" or “for internal use only”) to cover the adjacent areas of neighbouring countries, i.e. USSR, Lithuania, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania. These maps were mainly foreign copies with Polish translation of topographic symbols and only minor updates.

Other maps publications of the WIG

*A detailed map of Poland (1:25,000). Up to the beginning of WWII 1,260 of the planned 3915 sheets were published (32.2%).
*An operational map of Poland (1:300,000), 43 sheets.
*A map of Poland and neighbouring countries (1:500,000),
*A map of Poland and neighbouring countries (1:750, 000),
*An International World Map (1:1,000,000).

WIG also produced several detailed, multicolour maps of popular tourist destinations (e.g. the Tatra Mountains), for walkers and skiers, as well as 1:300,000 road map of Poland, city plans, etc.

Between 1927 and 1939 the Institute published, together with a section of "Geograficzne Towarzystwo Wiedzy Wojskowej" ("Geographic Society of Military Science"), the "Wiadomości Służby Geograficznej" (the "Geographic Service News Quarterly"). Around 90 volumes (up to 300 pages each) are known to have been published. They include valuable historical and geographical information on the land and peoples of pre-war Poland.

Polish topographic maps published by WIG were highly regarded in pre-war Europe but due to poor distribution system they were underused and played no role in the defence of the country during the German invasion in September 1939. After the World War II broke out the Institute was evacuated, first Lemberg (also called Lwów and Lviv) and via Romania to France, where it was re-activated. After the fall of France in 1940 WIG was evacuated again, to Great Britain, where it published maps for the Polish army in the West, and pre-war copies for the underground Polish resistance movement.

After the USSR invaded Poland on 17 September 1939 several officers of the Institute were arrested, some executed on the spot, others later murdered in the well-known Soviet Katyń massacre. Still others, deported east, a few years later ended up in the "Ludowe Wojsko Polskie" (the "Polish People's Army" formed in the USSR in 1943). A few officers who returned to Warsaw by 1940, either voluntarily or under threat went back to work for the German-run Institute. Some of them collaborated, others smuggled out maps to pass them on to the underground movement (the "Armia Krajowa" or "Home Army").

When Germans invaded Poland they incorporated WIG maps into their own "Grossblatt" (1:100,000) mapping system, re-issuing WIG maps both in black&white and in colour, with some minor updates. 4-sheet reprints, mainly in colour, alongside the maps in 1: 25,000 were also published. The latter were either straight pre-1939 Polish 1:25,000 maps, or blown-up copies of 1:100,000 or (from 1944 onwards and in limited numbers) new sheets based on Polish cartographic materials captured in 1939 with minor updates.

WIG maps were also a basis for the American AMS (Army Map Service) maps of Poland in the scale 1:100,000 published from 1944 onwards, as well as for the British 1:250,000 and 1:500,000 air maps of Poland from the same period.

WIG was re-activated in Warsaw after the war (maps and machinery was returned from Scotland in 1946) and was active until 1949 when, during the Stalinist purges, most of the senior staff were arrested and the Institute was disbanded. Its functions were taken over by the "Oddział Topograficzny (IX) Sztabu Generalnego WP" ("Topographic Section IX of the General Staff of the Polish Army") and "Wojskowe Zakłady Kartograficzne" (the "Military Cartographic Works").

Nowadays the maps by WIG are a valuable source of information not only for the historians, but also for tourists and people searching for their roots. In recent years mainly the maps of popular hiking areas have also been reprinted by several Polish publishers.

Bibliography (in Polish)

* Bogusław Krassowski, "Polska kartografia wojskowa" (1919-45), Warsaw 1974
* Bogusław Krassowski, "Małgorzata Tomaszewska, Mapy topograficzne ziem polskich: 1971-1945. T.1 Polskie mapy topograficzne wydane w latach" 1918-1945, Warsaw 1979
* oprac. Bogusław Krassowski, "Jadwiga Madej, Dzieje polskiej kartografii wojskowej i myśli strategicznej: materiały z konferencji Białystok", 5 May & 6 May 1980 r., Warsaw 1982
* Eugeniusz Sobczyński, "Historia Służby Geograficznej i Topograficznej Wojska Polskiego", Warsaw, 2000