Description

This publication, which consists of three volumes, constitutes the first major comprehensive ethnographic survey of the different nationalities living within the Russian Empire at the end of the 18th century. It was a highly significant scholarly achievement for its time. The book is inscribed to Catherine the Great (1729–96), who had an abiding interest in a modern, scientific categorization and description of the peoples and expanses in her realm. She encouraged and welcomed to Russia many foreign specialists who could assist in this task, including scholars who had the ...