The Imperiia Project: a spatial history of the Russian EmpireMain MenuProjectsDashboardsData CatalogMapStoriesGalleriesGamesWho said history was boring?Teach Our ContentCiting the ProjectKelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5The Imperiia Project // Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
Curious about the playing cards?
12022-05-19T14:55:42-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f593plain2022-05-19T15:11:40-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Glad to hear it! We built a project around them but if you want to go straight to the deck if you prefer. We have translated every bit of information on the cards into English. A reasonable amount of it is included on these pages. Our "anatomy" of a playing card might come in handy, too!
This page is referenced by:
12022-05-06T15:50:49-04:00V01. History through Playing Cards30Explore ethnic, economic, and geographic variation on the cusp of the Great Reforms!plain2022-06-27T17:48:18-04:00
Explore ethnic, economic, and geographic variation on the cusp of the Great Reforms!
The Source
This dataset is sourced from an elegant deck of playing cards created in 1856 to teach members of Russia's elite families about the empire they inhabited. The cards—all 80 of them—provide us with a unique perspective on how the subjects of the tsar “saw” their country on the eve of the emancipation of the serfs.
The dataset contains hundreds of attributes describing the distribution of economic activities, ethnic groups, geographical features, and historical "particularities." If you have ever wondered where tobacco was grown or which provinces were home to volcanos, this is the dataset for you!
The shapefiles include high-quality custom historical boundary data for provinces and autonomous regions, as well as location data for all provincial and district towns.
Temporal coverage
Early 1850s. (The cards were published in 1856.)
Geospatial coverage
Russian Empire
Spatial Units
3 semi-autonomous regions (polygons); 77 provinces (polygons); 417 towns (points); 86 rivers (lines)
