The Tsar's Inbox

Information flowed into St. Petersburg over six decades, with spikes and gaps galore. Understanding the ebbs and flows is an important step toward connecting the history of towns to the history of the empire.

The top component of this visualization is a timeline showing the period in which the town plans were generated and filed: 1766-1831. Hover to see how many features appear on the plans with a particular date. Click to activate the other components of the viz and learn which provinces - and which towns - filed plans that year.

The bottom left component lists the provinces in alphabetical order. Click on a province name to use this component as a filter. The timeline and town lists will respond.

To unselect, click a second time, use the "rest" button on the bottom, or simply refresh the page.