Telegrafnaia Karta Rossiiskoi Imperii, Masshtab; 40 Verst V Angliiskom; Diumie. 9 Sh. 35796. (4.) (Still Image)

Telegrafnaia Karta Rossiiskoi Imperii, Masshtab; 40 Verst V Angliiskom; Diumie. 9 Sh. 35796. (4.)

Maps
Russian Empire
Telegraphs
Communication Maps

    This map shows the telegraphic network present in the Russian Empire in 1895. Telegraph lines are shown in red, and telegraph stations are marked with red dots. Black lines indicate roads and other paths of postal travel such as steamship routes. This map is entirely focused on the territory of the Russian Empire and contains almost no information about areas on its border. As this map is not focused on travel infrastructure, it does not tell us a great deal about the physical spread of cholera. The information that can be gleaned from this map instead, is how information about cholera may have traveled across the Russian Empire.
    The map suggests a Russia that was more interconnected by communication than it had ever been before. This idea begs several questions. How did this dynamic change social structures? How did it change cultural narratives? How can we relate these ideas to major outbreaks of cholera and the social unrest that followed?
    A more focused line of questioning could concentrate on the role that class may have played in relation to this telecommunication network. Was access to information determined by social class? Was there an appreciable difference in the time it took for information to disseminate to people of different social and economic standings? This line of thinking might also lead us to think about the map in more specific spatial terms. Can we notice any discrepancies in how this telecommunication network is distributed? A followup idea to this could be comparing the economic or political contexts of areas found to have noticeably different telecommunication infrastructure. How might these potential differences have affected the outcomes of cholera outbreaks?
    A potential limitation of this map is that it offers us no information about the telecommunication infrastructure of territories bordering the Russian Empire. As the cholera epidemics we are investigating were global phenomena, having a better understanding of global telecommunications could prove relevant in contextualizing the case study of the effects in the Russian empire. Being able to compare relative development and advancement of telecommunication infrastructure could potentially help us to arrive at conclusions drawn from the outcomes of cholera epidemics in their respective regions. As it stands, this map is likely to be most effectively utilized in comparing and contrasting outcomes of locations contained within the Russian Empire.

A. Ilyin's Cartographic Establishment. St. Petersburg

British Library

1895

Archive: Mapping the World: Maps and Travel Literature
Collection: British Library: 19th Century European Sheet Maps

JPG

Russian

Primary Source Media

Manuscript Number: 35796. (4.)

Russian Empire, 1895

Map