Google map pictures from Russia - what is it?

[CaptainPanic]

As I was taking a little summer holiday in Russia by browsing on google maps, I found some weird features in the Russian landscape that I cannot explain. There are triple or quadruple rows of trees (or other types of green), which extend for hundreds of kilometers through the landscape.

 

Here's an example of a triple line.

Here's an example of a quadruple line.

Here's one that crosses through a town, to give a sense of scale.

Finally, here's one just outside of Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad), which seems to give a possible hint about what this is...

 

These lines seem to have little to do with the borders of the oblasts or other governmental regions. The line just outside Volgograd suggests to me that this is a line that indicates the furthest advance that the German forces made in WWII (even though it is outside the city, and I thought that the battle took place inside the city)? The scale of these lines (hundreds of meters wide, stretching hundreds of kilometers) is quite mindboggling.

 

I've searched the internet for quite a while now, but I haven't been able to find a single reference to what these are. Guesses are welcome, but links and sources are what I am really looking for!

[Klaynos]

I would guess that they're old stop lines in case of invasion. But that is a complete guess.

[Roamer]

They may be there as some kind of passage for animals, although Russia doesn't realy need those.

[imatfaal]

I wonder if they are large scale wind breaks. It is the sort of thing that the mad collectivisors might write large across even a huge land mass - would actually be an all right idea compared to some of their other deadly brainwaves. Fields work better with hedgerows - so don't waste space by having lots of little hedgerows have three big ones every hundred miles or so

btw you can street view the third one. There seems no elevation at all

I think they are very old defensive forest lines like the Zaoksk Zaseka Line

 

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YQ-oKgca7hIC&pg=PA41&lpg=PA41&dq=russian+shlyahs&source=bl&ots=ClwCSHFBln&sig=e-0vKXhrEDGrhGYC-EuCP5RkPZQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEMQ6AEwB2oVChMIuLLl-dKFxwIVxT4UCh3otAoY#v=onepage&q=russian%20shlyahs&f=false

 

http://oaks.forest.ru/eng/events/kozelsk.html

[Endy0816]

Pretty cool, I had never heard of using trees for defensive purposes. Makes sense though.

Edited July 31, 2015 by Endy0816

[CaptainPanic]

It would be a pretty low-maintenance defensive line.

imatfaal, thanks for the link. It is the best explanation (and the only one with a link) so far.

[Harold Squared]

Pretty cool, I had never heard of using trees for defensive purposes. Makes sense though.

Indeed, concealment of military formations. In medieval times trees were cut and the sharpened branches laid towards the enemy, they are called "abatis".

 

In the days of the Raj, a great hedge was maintained to keep the inland population from getting salt from the sea. This hedge has largely disappeared but was very effective in its day.

[michel123456]

found this:

Penza was founded as a Russian frontier fortress-city,^%5B9%5D and to this day, remnants of the Lomovskaya sentry line built in 1640 have been preserved at the western edge of the city, and remains of earth ramparts dating from the mid-16th century are preserved in the city center

Penza is the town where the line seems to stop. No further info about the "Lomovskaya sentry line built in 1640"

 

 

https://www.google.nl/maps/place/R158,+Penzenskaya+oblast',+Rusland,+442411/@52.9615576,45.0479314,13272m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m12!1m9!4m8!1m3!2m2!1d44.901894!2d52.9882774!1m3!2m2!1d45.0397761!2d52.9499346!3m1!1s0x41404359e1b923d3:0x5ae3941399493f2e

Although looks weird to me that a human intervention with tree plantings from 1640 still persists today.

[Harold Squared]

found this:

Penza is the town where the line seems to stop. No further info about the "Lomovskaya sentry line built in 1640"

 

 

https://www.google.nl/maps/place/R158,+Penzenskaya+oblast',+Rusland,+442411/@52.9615576,45.0479314,13272m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m12!1m9!4m8!1m3!2m2!1d44.901894!2d52.9882774!1m3!2m2!1d45.0397761!2d52.9499346!3m1!1s0x41404359e1b923d3:0x5ae3941399493f2e

Although looks weird to me that a human intervention with tree plantings from 1640 still persists today.

All over North America there are remnants of the "Mound Builders" civilization, but I understand what you mean, trees represent fuel, and Russian winters are notoriously harsh. Much of New England was stripped of trees before coal came into widespread use.

[Kellyman98]

If anyone is still intersted its to do with wind stoppers for the Steppes 

 

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/89817/fending-off-the-wind-on-the-steppe 

[SergUpstart]

Forest belts for protection against soil erosion and the formation of large ravines

On 8/11/2015 at 11:34 PM, Harold Squared said:

All over North America there are remnants of the "Mound Builders" civilization, but I understand what you mean, trees represent fuel, and Russian winters are notoriously harsh. Much of New England was stripped of trees before coal came into widespread use.

In the steppe areas where there is no wood in the winter in the villages they are heated with straw and dung.

 

Recently I heard on the radio that in ancient Egypt, donkey excrement was used to heat furnaces for smelting copper and bronze.

[studiot]

12 hours ago, Kellyman98 said:

If anyone is still intersted its to do with wind stoppers for the Steppes 

 

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/89817/fending-off-the-wind-on-the-steppe

That was a great start to your membership. +1

Looking forward to more bang on stuff.

[SergUpstart]

On 7/31/2015 at 11:34 AM, CaptainPanic said:

The line just outside Volgograd suggests to me that this is a line that indicates the furthest advance that the German forces made in WWII (even though it is outside the city, and I thought that the battle took place inside the city)? The scale of these lines (hundreds of meters wide, stretching hundreds of kilometers) is quite mindboggling.

In September and October 1942, the main battles of the Battle of Stalingrad took place north of the city. The Red Army tried to push the Germans back from Stalingrad with blows from the north. To repel these attacks, General Paulus used the main forces of his 6th army. This was the so-called "Stalingrad Verdun". With the remaining smaller forces, he continued to storm Stalingrad.

Edited April 29, 2021 by SergUpstart

[DeepSeaBase]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladoga_Canal

 

I'm pretty sure these are the old Russian Empire canalways that connected the Baltic to the black sea and the Caspian.

France has one too from channel to mediterranean and all that's left of it is a petty, wooded trail surrounded by levies on both sides.