About

The Imperiia Project is a historical geographic information system that exists for a simple purpose: to promote the study of Russia's spatial history.

In slightly more expansive terms, the project aims to

1. make available a series of annotated datasets and historical maps related to the physical infrastructure, demographics, culture, and economy of the tsarist state;
2. assist instructors in bringing interactive engagement with maps and geographical information into the history classroom;
3. encourage conversation among researchers, instructors and students interested in the spatial history of the empire.

What else do you need to know before digging in? 

Visual materials - maps, paintings, lithographs, postcards, icons, photographs, etc. - are rich sources of historical spatial information. These image galleries are as important to the development of the Imperiia Project as the datasets that animate the maps.