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Imperiia: a spatial history of the Russian Empire

How to look at the (tag) clouds

Why are some words bigger than others?

Each of these terms functions as a tag for the playing cards. The more cards a term tags, the bigger it gets. Click on the "About this visualization" for more details.

Can I learn anything without clicking?

Absolutely! In fact, it would be silly to click on any term without pausing to think about what the tag cloud is telling you. The way tag clouds are generated on this site, terms used most often are not only larger - they also get placed at the center of the cloud. Less frequently used terms are located along the edges of the cloud. In other words, there is a "cloud logic" at work here.

Step 1: Try your hand at translating the tag cloud into a statement about the Russian Empire.

For example, have a look at the tag cloud for "Card Sort #2: geography." I might translating a piece of the cloud into a statement by saying this: "There were more swamps than lakes in the Russian Empire." There. Did it. I noticed that the word "swamps" is bigger than the word "lakes," and a translated that observation into a bare-bones statement. I might be right and I might be wrong, but I have not started down the road to knowing something.

Step 2: Maybe you started with the most obvious statement. Maybe you started on the edges. Either way, now try making a list of statements or observations you can draw from the tag cloud. Make the list long. Really long. Really, really long. (Ha!)

Step 3: Think about the underlying assumptions you (or someone less savvy than you) might start making. For example, the statement I made in Step 1 might begin morphing into something slightly different, such as: "Swamps were more important than lakes in the Russian Empire." Try adding some of those statements to your list.

Step 4: Time for a mental pivot. Take a look at your list: see each statement not as a statement, but as a hypothesis. A research question. Pick one (or more!) that interests you. Rewrite the statement as a question or series of questions. They might take the form of "Was...?" They might take the form of "Why...?" No matter what form they take, give some thought to the crucial "How" question: HOW will you find the answer to the questions you are asking?

Step 5: Stop staring at the cloud: it is time to move in! Start clicking on terms and getting into the data. See how many answers you can find right here in the playing cards.

(Cautionary note: The playing cards to do not hold all of the answers. But use them well, and you will not only have an excellent set of research questions to take with you to the library, but a sense of what a great many of the answers might be.)

Have fun!

This page is referenced by:

Card Sort #2: geography 47 tags 2022-03-24T09:45:39-04:00
These cards were intended to teach young boys and girls (and probably their parents) about their country.

Konstantin Gribanov, the card maker, pulled off a miracle of information design. Within the small space of the cards, he managed to embed lessons about key geographic themes - watersheds, land cover, and topography. On each card, below the inset map and to the left of the ethnographic depiction, is a rectangle containing the names of major rivers and the sea basin that dominates the region. On the flip side of each card, Gribanov referenced topographical features using labeled pictures.

But that is not all. Gribanov also managed to highlight some of the most intriguing idiosyncrasies of Russian space. Looking carefully pays off. The cards describe the Russian Empire as a fertile and varied landscape studded with mineral springs and volcanoes: reassuringly plain and occasionally exotic.

There is a list of geographic features below. But we think you will have more fun using the tag cloud above.

Whether you click on a tag (be sure to enter full screen mode to see the full cloud) or an item in the list below, you will arrive on a landing page. Each landing page in this section is formatted (more or less) the same way and contains:
- a map showing the locations of the provincial centers of every province bearing that tag
- a representative image drawn from the cards
- a "starter question"
- a dot visualization (read up on how to use a dot viz here)
(The rivers are different. For now they are bare-boned. In time, the course of each river will be shows as it was depicted on a contemporary map. We appreciate your patience.)
Card Sorts
The Way It Used To Be
The intended use of the cards in the middle of the 19th century was straightforward: you would lay them out on a flat surface at random and rearrange them according to similarities and differences. Grouping and regrouping.
The Way It Is Now
We have recreated that experience here, as best we could. You are welcome to move through the material any way you like, but we do have a few words of advice, especially for looking at the (tag) clouds and for making sense of the arrays of colored dots you will find lurking on many of these pages.

Keep in mind that we did very little "massaging" of the data. We used the vocabulary of the cards. We preserved the categories of information, even though we could have produced cleaner "dot vizzes" had we consolidated many of the barely-used tags.

We had our reasons. Most relate to our stubborn belief that we can learn as much from marginalia - from the odd bits of information on the edges of the page - as we can from the big, bold, decorated, buzzwords in the center.

You don't believe us?

Well. Take, for example, the fact that there is only one playing card that mentions the harvesting of mammoth bones as a key economic activity. We could have folded that outlier into some other economic category in order to streamline our lists.

But aren't you glad we didn't? How else would you know about the mammoth bones?

And the walrus teeth?

And the production of chronometers?

And the watermelons? (Oh wait, no - those you will have to look for more carefully.)

You are welcome.