1. Early Mapping: The Tsardom in Manuscript

This first chapter considers the early and often informal attempts at map-making during the period of Russia’s expansion across Siberia, and analyses their implications for the way the nascent empire envisioned itself. There is particular focus here on Muscovite maps, analysing them with relation to information and communication. The chapter then turns its attention to the Great Sketch Maps and Atlases of Siberia, and then to the dissemination of information in the clandestine world of early modern cartography. Finally, Kivelson returns back to the work of Semen Remezov, a cartographer who has been described as the last great representative of a purely Muscovite cartographic tradition. The author notes that these were not maps for publication and distribution, but mainly for reconnaissance and intelligence, and to clarify claims to property.