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The Imperiia Project

Sparked your curiosity!

But how can you find answers if you aren't sure what questions to ask?

Try selecting a question from the list below and using the maps to find the answer. Fair warning: extracting information from maps requires careful observation and extracting information from interactive maps requires lots of clicking.

Then – this is the fun part – ask yourself what factors might explain what you found. Compose two or three hypotheses or research questions (in other words, questions that begin with the words “why” or “how”), and start digging into the history books. We recommend you run, don't walk, to the library to find Cathy Frierson’s groundbreaking All Russia is Burning! A cultural history of fire and arson in late Imperial Russia (University of Washington Press, 2002).

Question Bank

How many arson events took place in each province each year?
What percentage of fire events were caused by arson in each province each year?
Of all the episodes of arson, what percentage took place in each province each year?
What percentage of fire events took place in the district lands (rural areas), as opposed to the town lands, of each province each year?
How many fire events took place per square verst in the district lands (rural areas), as opposed to the town lands, of each province each year?
Of all the fire events that took place in district lands in a given year, what percentage took place in each province?
Of all the fire events that took place in town lands in a given year, what percentage took place in each province?
How many households burned in the district lands of each province each year? Compare this with the town lands.
What percentage of all households in the district lands of each province burned each year?
What percentage of all households in the town lands of each province burned each year?
Of all the burned households in district lands in a given year, what percentage were in each province?
Of all the burned households in town lands in a given year, what percentage were in each province?
What was the cost (in rubles) of fire events in the district lands of each province each year? Compare with the town lands.
What was the cost (in rubles per square verst) of fire events in the district lands of each province each year?
Of all the losses (in rubles) in district lands in a given year, what percentage were in each province? Compare with the town lands.
What was the cost of fire events in the district lands of each province each year calculated as rubles per burned household?
What was the cost of fire events in the town lands of each province each year calculated as rubles per burned household?

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Up in Flames The 1860s were a volatile time in the Russian Empire.

In the wake of a catastrophic loss in the Crimean War and subsequent signing of the Treaty of Paris (1856), Tsar Alexander II and his government were forced to reckon with an array of forces threatening to pull apart the foundation of imperial society. The emancipation of the serfs (1861) was an event of world significance and certainly the single most important result of the great reckoning. But it was no panacea and marked the beginning of a decade of reform and reaction.

Peasant unrest was rife, though it rose and fell, until the very last days of the empire. And throughout those years, as in centuries prior, it was intimately linked with fire. But the Ministry of Internal Affairs went to great lengths to define fire as an apolitical force. In 1865 the ministry's Central Statistical Committee published a lengthy report on over 66,000 fires documented over a five-year period (1860-1864). In it they acknowledged what they called "temporary" factors such as peasant confusion and anger (about the pace of emancipation and the goals of land redistribution policies) but insisted that the phenomenon of fire be understood as the result of geographical and climatic forces.

Fire, they wrote, was "one of the most characteristic features of daily life in Russia, and one of the most frequent manifestations of the struggle with nature" waged by peasants from time immemorial. This so-called struggle with nature, explained tsarist officials, was to blame for "the slow pace of capital accumulation and the slow development of economic and civil life." And it was rooted in two simple facts: Russia was 1) built of wood and 2) located on a vast plain that was subject to searing, drying summers, and dreadfully cold winters that necessitated the use of fire for survival.

Fire was inescapable. It was everywhere.

But it wasn't everywhere all at once. In fact, maybe it's worth finding out which parts of the empire were burning, and when.

It is a worthy goal: between 1842 and 1864, the number of fires taking place annually in the European part of the Russian Empire doubled. This trend was out of line with population growth, and there was no demonstrable decline in living standards. What do you make of the statisticians' claim that the rising flames in rural and urban areas should be attributed to better record keeping and a few geographical quirks?
Want to get your hands on the data? Read about (and access) it here.

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Ready for some spatial thinking?