Or a useful reference point to call back to the artillery.

Recording information that is tactically useful for a ground battle would almost certainly have been a goal of the mapping program.

Asking people about churches in 198x USSR was probably not the wisest way to go around for a CIA spy. Better stick with libraries.

I was thinking more along the lines of "I'm looking for a shop near X."

Никогда ещё Штирлиц[1] не был так близок к провалу.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stierlitz