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The Imperiia Project: a spatial history of the Russian Empire

Datasets

Here is a list of the datasets we have compiled, or are in the process of compiling. The list is not comprehensive, but it will give you a sense of the range of data we are producing. (Our data breaks out into two categories: attribute data and location data.)

ATTRIBUTE DATA

Geography

Area: administrative borders of provinces and districts
Climate: average number of ice-free days on Russian rivers, 1861-1865
Climate: site-level data on monthly rainfall, 1804-1914 (intermittent)

Politics

Incidents of arson in rural and urban areas of European Russia (including fatalities and damages): district and town levels, 1860-1864
Postings of governors-general and governors: province level, 1700-1917

Culture

Churches and cathedrals: province level, 1727
Orthodox monasteries: villages/towns, 1817
Mosques: villages/towns, 1870
Synagogues: villages/towns, 1870
Learned societies: villages/towns, 1762-1917

Demographics

Total population: province level (total), 1745, 1775, 1831, 1845, 1856, 1872, 1897
Total population: district level (by social status, gender, religion), 1775, 1845, 1897
Total population: towns (by status, gender, religion), 1845, 1897
Muslims attending mosques across the empire: villages/towns, 1870

Economic activity

Land use: district level (forest, farm, hayfields, bogs), 1797, 1845
Forested area: district level, 1803, 1846
State revenues: villages/towns, 1727
Distribution of economic activities: province level, 1793, 1856
Agricultural production (by crop, volume and value), 1840s-1850s

Trade

Foreign imports and exports (values and commodity listings): customs locations, 1826-1846
Foreign ship traffic, 1826-1846
Domestic maritime trade value, volume, and voyage frequency in the Black Sea, 1826-1846
River trade (value and volume of commodities): all navigable rivers, 1872
Domestic trade at local markets (dates, type/volume/value of goods traded): villages/towns, 1788, 1831, 1866

Infrastructure

Number of horses available at every post station in the empire, 1824
Kilometers of navigable rivers and rail lines: province level, 1872

LOCATION DATA
The location data listed here was extracted from The Geographical Atlas of the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Poland, and the Grand Duchy of Finland, which was published between 1821 and 1827. The atlas organizes the geographical features of the empire into forty-one categories, and the map layers produced from the data extracted from the atlas recreate that scheme. The layers can be examined here:

2 first-level administrative units (semi-autonomous regions)
61 provinces
9 irregular regions
8 voevodstvos (second-level administrative units, Kingdom of Poland)
583 third-level administrative units (districts)
771 islands
5,636 lakes and inland seas
7,766 road segments (post roads, provincial roads, district roads, carriage roads, seasonal roads)
22,020 river segments (of which 1,935 bear toponyms)
11,600 towns (provincial towns, district towns, “large” and “mid-sized” towns, registered towns, minor towns, fortified towns)
12,242 villages (villages with churches, villages without churches, farmsteads, Cossack villages, Protestant villages)
3,567 post stations, 576 post houses
204 fortified sites (fortresses, redoubts, military encampments, fortified lines, foreposts, cordons)
74 monasteries
4 mosques
148 factories
24 mines
29 taverns
10 customs houses