The Russian Empire in Europe and Asia

The continent-spanning empire of Russia in the early 19th century.

This lovely engraved map of the Russian Empire offers a straightforward overview of the country’s geography and political organization at the close of the Napoleonic era. Attractive contemporary hand color distinguishes several of the empire’s immense regional governorates—Tobolsk, Irkoutsk, Caucasus, and Oufa. In contrast, Russia’s European possessions were divided into much smaller, tightly packed provinces that are left unlabeled as a unified zone within the image. A fascinating variety of settlements, geographic features, and ethnic groups are identified throughout the vast territory.

Of particular interest is the treatment of the high Arctic, which captures the immediate cartographic footprint of recent frontier exploration. The New Siberian Islands are identified here as ‘Pervoi’ and ‘Utoroi’—marvelous English phonetic transliterations of the Russian words for ‘First’ (Pervyy) and ‘Second’ (Vtoroy), reflecting the numerical shorthand used by Siberian fur traders in the field. Immediately north is the ‘Newly Discovered Coast’ representing the earliest European renderings of Kotelny Island.

The map was engraved by Ebenezer Bourne and published in London by Robert Wilkinson. While the plate itself is imprinted with an 1814 date, this specific sheet was issued within the desirable second edition (1816) of Wilkinson’s General Atlas of the World.