The Imperiia Project: a spatial history of the Russian EmpireMain MenuProjectsDashboardsMapStoriesGalleriesGamesWho said history was boring?Teach Our ContentCiting the ProjectKelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5The Imperiia Project // Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
Data security. Data-driven decisions. Data mining. Data science. Big data...
You get the idea: data is everywhere. You consume it, you produce it. But what is it, really? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, we use the word "data" to describe related items of (chiefly numerical) information considered collectively, typically obtained by scientific work and used for reference, analysis, or calculation.
That may or may not resonate with you. Maybe you think of data as structured information. Maybe you think of it as magic or the ultimate source of power in the modern world. However you define it, you will most likely agree that data is a valuable commodity. The better the quality, and the harder it is to obtain, the more it is worth.
Archives and libraries are filled with related items of information, but converting the documentary record of the human past into data that is both usable and meaningful requires labor and expertise (and a lot of coffee).
That is where we come in.
We provide freely-accessible, well-documented, utterly fascinating data about the world that was once the Russian Empire to a primarily English-speaking audience. Why do such a thing? It's simple. Our goal is to lower the barrier for spatial analysis so that students, scholars, and members of the public can connect the tsarist past with today's technology.
If you find yourself making use of our datasets, or have ideas for a new one, we would love to hear about it. Email imperiia@fas.harvard.edu or hit us up on Twitter @ImperiiaProject.
Browse the Catalog
New datasets are published on Dataverse every other Friday, beginning May 13, 2022.
Contents of this path:
12022-05-06T15:48:43-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Fields on Fire38Nothing struck fear into the heart of tsarist officials like news that the country was in flames.plain2024-03-05T23:48:34-05:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12024-02-14T14:51:30-05:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Farmlands: Counting Sheep32Animals were the engines of empire. Find out where the sheep (and horses and camels) were in the 1860s.plain2024-04-09T21:56:02-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12022-05-06T15:54:15-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Gardens of Crimea39Immerse yourself in the work of botanists and bureaucrats who nurtured an obsession with fruit treesplain2024-03-01T11:03:39-05:00Paul Vadanf46fd2a7a6d2ab1ecca0ec13c84118eaf61facfa
12023-03-16T10:02:01-04:00Yipeng Zhoubaef370094247c455a6c8632f4ff98d54bc4c5eeThe Tsar's Trans-Atlantic Voyagers26Explore the social history of tsarist migration with passenger records from American ports.plain2024-03-01T11:03:50-05:00Paul Vadanf46fd2a7a6d2ab1ecca0ec13c84118eaf61facfa
12022-05-06T15:50:49-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5History through Playing Cards32Explore ethnic, economic, and geographic variation on the cusp of the Great Reforms!plain2024-03-01T11:03:27-05:00Paul Vadanf46fd2a7a6d2ab1ecca0ec13c84118eaf61facfa
12022-05-06T15:56:43-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Sweet Things: A Map of Gingerbread-Bakers and Chocolatiers38Because everyone needs to know where to find the gingerbread-bakers and chocolatiers.plain2024-03-07T10:30:23-05:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12022-05-16T14:49:11-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Woodlands: Forest Cover in European Russia26Coming soonplain2024-03-07T16:03:19-05:00Paul Vadanf46fd2a7a6d2ab1ecca0ec13c84118eaf61facfa