They are the maps that came in from the cold. But unlike the characters who populate the shadows of John Le Carre's espionage thrillers they belong to the real world.

Russian spy maps of the UK produced by the KGB during the Cold War have revealed that Glasgow and Edinburgh were two of the cities that the Soviets had made a priority.

They were produced between 1950 and 1997 as part of a worldwide strategy for global domination. The Russians also made plans of Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Dundee, Dunfermline, Paisley and Greenock.

Available commercially for the first time, the maps reveal that Stalin, Khruschchev and Gorbachev would have known exactly how to get to your house by tank.

The Russians knew the width of our roads, height of our bridges, depth of our rivers and the names of our streets, according to mapping and environmental risk report provider Landmark Information Group, which has digitalised the rare set. They reveal the exact location and purpose of every structure of possible military importance. The details were not present on Ordnance Survey maps due to political and military sensitivities at the time.

The map of Glasgow was produced in 1983 while Edinburgh went to print two years later. Experts believe they were developed using aerial photos, satellite images, local knowledge and even spies.

John Davies, a Russian map expert, said: "Realising the military, economic and political benefits of topographic information the Soviet military set about mapping the whole world - a mammoth task which took over 50 years before, during and after the Cold War to complete."