The Imperiia ProjectMain MenuResearch Dashboardsmaps, visualizations, and moreVeles: The Data CatalogOngoing ProjectsThe MapMaker PodcastEvery story starts somewhere.Teach with MapsGalleriesKelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5The Imperiia Project // Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
12020-09-02T12:35:21-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Guidebook to a Lost EmpireKelly O'Neill177a Twitter thread / timeline / map story mashupplain2025-08-08T13:36:42-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
Contents of this path:
12020-09-02T14:20:50-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5The "last, best" guidebook22When journalist Harrison Salisbury first visited the Soviet Union in 1944, he tucked a copy of what he called “the last, best” guidebook into his gas mask bag. It (the book, not the gas mask) had been published in 1914 in Leipzig by the famous Baedeker publishing house.plain2020-09-11T14:59:13-04:002020-09-01T18:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-02T14:41:41-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5This is the book.13He was right. If you want to know how the empire looked, sounded, tasted, and smelled on the eve of collapse, this is the book.plain2020-09-11T15:00:54-04:002020-09-01T18:32Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-02T14:44:33-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5It is a portal.14I don't mean those words lightly. Baedeker’s Russia with Teheran, Port Arthur, and Peking is a portal to a lost empire. I will prove it. Join me?plain2020-09-11T15:13:04-04:002020-09-01T18:34Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-02T16:29:10-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5It is a handbook.13For the sake of simplicity, let's call Baedeker's volume on Russia "the handbook." It is, after all, just that. A "handbook for travellers."plain2020-09-11T10:01:04-04:002020-09-02T12:31Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-02T16:32:00-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Frivolous? No.13We must get something straight from the start: there is nothing frivolous about the Handbook.plain2021-01-21T17:47:30-05:002020-09-02T14:0450.359722, 7.597778Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-02T16:33:35-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5No superabundance of matter.8In the preface to his "Traveller's Manual of Conversations" (first published in 1836), Baedeker explained his preference for curation over indiscriminate inclusion. (Click on the entry to read the quote.)plain2020-09-11T10:03:21-04:002020-09-02T14:05Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-03T14:55:53-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5It is an accumulation.15If it is NOT a "superabundance of matter" (I suppose the meaning of any word is debatable) the Handbook most certainly IS an assemblage. An accumulation of observations. A carefully sequenced collection of testimonial scraps.plain2020-09-11T15:24:33-04:002020-09-03T14:17Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-02T16:35:37-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Or is it?7Were I to tell you that the Handbook spills over 590 pages, includes 118 maps, documents 80 itineraries, and names more than 3,000 places, you might secretly question the claim that this is not "a superabundance of matter."plain2020-09-11T10:03:53-04:002020-09-02T14:15Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-09T11:09:05-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5A heap of scraps.8Literally. Fritz Baedeker, at the helm of the publishing house in the early 20th century, asked readers to send hotel bills, annotated with reviews, to his office in Leipzig...plain2021-01-21T17:42:59-05:002020-09-03T14:29Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-09T11:35:34-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Torn apart.3The Handbook is an assemblage of another kind, too...plain2021-01-21T17:43:35-05:002020-09-04T10:57Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-09T11:49:26-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5This changes everything.2Baedeker's Russia was meant to be split open....plain2021-01-21T17:44:07-05:002020-09-04T10:58Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-09T11:53:09-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5The declaration.2"A Baedeker guidebook is a goldmine for the map-obsessed."plain2021-01-21T17:44:36-05:002020-09-08T12:42Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-09T11:55:41-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Expression of doubt.2But I began to wonder. Just how many maps must a guidebook have between the covers to qualify as a goldmine?...plain2021-01-21T17:44:58-05:002020-09-08T12:43Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-09T11:57:33-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5The goldemyn.2I have never set foot in - or even laid eyes on - one myself...plain2021-01-21T17:45:59-05:002020-09-08T12:44Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-09T11:59:37-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Enter the metaphor.4No memory labours longer from the deep...plain2021-01-21T17:47:06-05:002020-09-08T12:45Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-09T12:11:26-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5And, enter Cleopatra.6drinking the Libyan sun to sleepplain2021-01-21T17:47:48-05:002020-09-08T12:46Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-09T12:22:41-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f52,372 pieces...3of cartographic evidence of the pastplain2021-01-21T17:49:38-05:002020-09-09T08:59Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-09T12:30:05-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5and a portion of wanderlust.3plain2021-01-21T17:50:58-05:002020-09-09T10:19Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-09T12:36:11-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Russia.2maybe, just maybe, it is Russia you are afterplain2021-01-21T17:52:00-05:002020-09-09T10:29Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-11T09:44:43-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Notes4There are certain things a traveler ought to know before entering Russia.plain2021-01-21T17:57:48-05:002020-09-10T17:18Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-11T09:45:39-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Yes, notes.2I shall. Baedeker would want me to.plain2020-09-11T10:29:51-04:002020-09-10T21:38Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-11T09:47:42-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Dis-arranged.4I will zigzag haphazardly through the carefully arranged sections according to my own whimplain2021-01-21T17:59:10-05:002020-09-11T08:51Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-11T09:49:03-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5An empire of smoke.11Note #1: It is an empire of smoke. "The Russian smokes even at meals, between the courses."(xxxi) 25 cigarettes cost a handful of kopeks, but cigars cost an arm and a leg. Darn customs duties.plain2021-01-21T18:06:58-05:002020-09-11T09:21Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-11T10:28:07-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5A coffee desert7Note #2. In the whole of Russia, "cafes exist in a few towns only."plain2021-01-21T18:06:18-05:002020-09-11T10:26Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-11T13:22:15-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5in which one might yet stay classy.11"Beer-salons, tea-rooms, and eating-houses are frequented by the lower classes only."plain2021-01-21T18:04:45-05:002020-09-11T12:50Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-11T16:08:18-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5The scent of fish and pickles4To eat in Russia is to eat zakuski...plain2021-01-21T18:05:32-05:002020-09-11T15:42Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-11T16:30:28-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5and a flask of good, cheap wine.3Note #5. Foreign wines come at a price. The savvy traveler will opt for wine from Bessarabia, Crimea, or the Caucasus: "good and cheap" at a ruble per flask.plain2021-01-21T18:09:17-05:002020-09-11T15:50Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-11T16:36:04-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5A place for tea.7plain2021-01-21T18:11:53-05:002020-09-11T15:57Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-15T14:57:36-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5So here's a generous offer4a few packing notesplain2021-01-21T18:12:32-05:002020-09-15T12:15Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-09-15T15:36:38-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5regarding underwear and cigars7(so as long as you can survive on 2 cigars per day & keep each pair of gloves clean for 5, all will be well)plain2021-01-21T18:13:16-05:002020-09-15T12:59Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-10-02T09:11:58-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5bound books, gunpowder, and hot water4plain2021-01-21T18:17:08-05:002020-09-15T13:36Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-10-02T09:14:46-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5linens and insect powder.2plain2020-10-02T09:39:02-04:002020-09-15T14:55Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-10-02T09:20:31-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Then onto the perils of sleighs6plain2020-10-02T10:08:07-04:002020-09-17T13:53Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-10-02T10:10:38-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5And the consolation of tigers.4plain2021-01-21T18:23:23-05:002020-09-17T17:57Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-10-02T13:56:12-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5It is time that must be settled.8plain2020-10-26T11:51:03-04:002020-10-02T13:14Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-10-26T10:44:27-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Time, at the moment, is unsettled.7Let me explain.plain2021-01-21T19:30:59-05:002020-10-02T13:21Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12020-10-26T17:04:24-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5And feasting, avoided.8We wouldn't want the nameday of a grand prince to maroon us in some unmapped backwater town.plain2021-01-21T19:35:25-05:002020-10-26T16:55Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
