Map printing in early eighteenth-century Russia

Abstract

The significance of the early eighteenth-century reform period in Russia was that Peter I introduced, with an emphasis on military and administrative sectors, many arts and sciences that were previously almost non-existent in the country.

To start domestic cartographic production in the form of both indigenous surveys and establishment of graphic production facilities was of primary importance. The means for achieving these goals were educating, Russian students abroad, establishing cartographic education and employing foreign experts.

Already in the 1710s there were numerous printing houses involved in map printing and several foreign engravers working on both Russian and foreign material. The volume of map production was variable and dependent on government initiative and military campaigns, but generally print runs remained small.

The standard of map production was generally high from the beginning, due to rigid following of western standards. From the beginning, the new Civilian character set was adopted in cartography. The analysis of two half-century atlases indicates a high level of workmanship and graphic skills, which have been employed in promoting an idea of a strong and modern uniform state, through cartographic standardization and ornamentation of maps. Early Russian cartography serves as an example of a field developed through the allocation of resources within the context of the military, where imposed technical development supersedes the transformation of human and social resources.