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Topographical Description of Russia

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In this section, Arsen'ev describes the towns and "remarkable places" of the empire based on their proximity to seas, lakes, and rivers. By organizing his work in this way, he makes the argument that water is the fundamental element of Russian geography.

Wait a moment. It would be more accurate, really, to say the Arsen'ev exposes the fact that water - or the hydrographic structure of the empire - is the fundamental element of Russian geography. The more time you spend exploring Imperiia, the more evidence you will find for this claim.

But should you decide to dig no further into our data, allow us to offer up this evidentiary gem: of the 264 notable towns arrayed along river banks and sea coasts, 225 (85%) are cross-listed as district towns in the Short Universal Geography. In other words, towns located on important bodies of water were almost always vested with administrative authority. *Not so fast!

This page has paths:

  1. Geography 101 Kelly O'Neill

Contents of this path:

  1. Towns of the Baltic coast (19)
  2. Towns located on the great lakes and on the rivers that belong to the lakes system (18)
  3. Towns of the Northern Dvina system (8)
  4. Towns of the Kama system (9)
  5. Towns of the Ural River (3)
  6. Towns of the Volga system (29)
  7. Towns of the Oka system (22)
  8. Towns of the Don system (17)
  9. Towns of the Azov coast (2)
  10. Towns of the Dnieper system (42)
  11. Towns of the Bug system (6)
  12. Towns of the Dniester system (9)
  13. Towns of the Danube system (3)
  14. Port towns of the Black Sea (11)
  15. Towns of the Western Dvina system (11)
  16. Towns of the Nemen system (5)
  17. Towns of the Vistula system (13)
  18. Towns of the Varta River (2)
  19. Towns on the rivers of the Caucasus (14)
  20. Towns of the Caspian coast (5)
  21. Towns of the Ob system (9)
  22. Towns of the Enisei system (3)
  23. Towns on the waters of Baikal (1)
  24. Towns of the Lena system (2)
  25. Towns belonging to the basin of the Eastern Ocean (4)

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