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
Table 1, page 1 of the Statisticheskie svedeniia o pozharakh
12018-03-08T10:30:04-05:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Incidents of arson per provinceKelly O'Neill1plain2018-03-08T10:30:04-05:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12018-03-08T10:30:39-05:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Losses in rublesKelly O'Neill1plain2018-03-08T10:30:39-05:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12018-03-08T10:30:27-05:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Number of burned householdsKelly O'Neill1plain2018-03-08T10:30:27-05:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12018-03-08T10:29:48-05:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Number of firesKelly O'Neill1plain2018-03-08T10:29:48-05:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12024-03-01T13:44:47-05:00Explore a bit of fire data7The governors didn't like writing reports. Who can blame them?plain2024-03-05T23:58:05-05:00The Central Statistical Committee compiled fire data from two distinct but closely related sources: biweekly reports submitted by provincial governors, and annual summaries compiled by those same provincial governors. The biweekly reports were supposed to include the exact days of each incident, along with the location, cause, number of homes or other buildings burned, and the value of lost property (calculated in rubles) in both town lands and districts.
The Committee found, however, that there were "gaps" and inconsistencies in the reports. The annual summaries often contained different information than what had been submitted in the incremental reports. They tended to offer more detail about cause and value of lost property (neither of which was easy to establish within days of the fire), though it was universally unclear what was included in the tally of burned buildings: some governors included only complete losses, while others described damaged property as well.
In other words, there are many reasons to take the 1865 volume with a grain of salt. The beautifully laid-out tables give us only a rough sense of what burned, when, and where. You won't find many answers in them - or in the maps we made of them - but you will find that they produce an endless list of questions.
