Vladimir S. Kusov: Zemli Bol’šoj Moskvy. Kartografičeskie proizvedenija XVII–XVIII stoletij. Moskva: Russkij mir, 2008. ISBN: 978-5-89577-079-5

Vladimir S. Kusov: Zemli Bol’šoj Moskvy. Kartografičeskie proizvedenija XVII–XVIII stoletij. Moskva: Russkij mir, 2008. 220 S., zahlr. Abb., Ktn. ISBN: 978-5-89577-079-5.

A handsomely produced book, printed on fine-quality, glossy paper and replete with beautifully reproduced images and maps in black and white and elegant color, V. S. Kusov’s “Zemli Bol’shoi Moskvy” falls into the hybrid category of “scholarly-popular” publications. It would serve as a marvelous gift for a Russian-speaking map enthusiast or anyone with an interest in the local history of Moscow and its environs. At the same time, its plethora of listings of places, landholders, and estate data from the Moscow Guberniia and its remarkable retrospective reconstruction of the geography of the region in the eighteenth century make it a valuable resource for historians.

Kusov, one of the pre-eminent historians of Russian cartography, operates in two, equally valuable modes. His careful archival research and painstaking bibliographic work is evident in his two indispensable catalogues of Muscovite maps (Chertezhi zemli russkoi XVI–XVII vv. Moskva 1993, and Moskovskoe gosudarstvo XVI – nachala XVIII veka: Svodnyi katalog russkikh geograficheskikh chertezhei. Moskva 2007), while his interpretive daring and originality are vividly featured in his Kartograficheskoe iskusstvo Russkogo gosudarstva (Moskva 1989). The newest book, “Zemli Bol’shoi Moskvy”, offers some of each, and, further, demonstrates Kusov’s abilities not only as a historian but also as a practicing cartographer.

The book is divided into two distinct parts. The first section, “The History of Boundary Measurements (mezhevanie) and Cartography in the Moscow Lands”, provides an efficient overview of cartographic developments in the Moscow area from the fifteenth through the late eighteenth century. The general outlines of the history of Russian cartography are familiar from Kusov’s earlier publications and other studies, but the sustained focus on Moscow and the surrounding provinces offers some surprises. For instance, although fully one-fifth of the one thousand surviving sketch maps (chertezhi) from the seventeenth century represent the Moscow region, none depict the city as a whole, and only a handful focus on the central landmarks of the capital city itself. Far more depict segments of the suburbs or of outlying regions. In his survey of the development of Russian cartography, Kusov passes rapidly over the Muscovite era and devotes most of his attention to the eighteenth century. He tracks the shifting boundaries of the province with each sequential reorganization, and details the particulars of the maps produced throughout the century. The treatment of each set of maps is straightforward and descriptive, but is enlivened by the author’s palpable enthusiasm for the maps themselves and for the delights of archival discovery. His energetic description of the vast map-model of the Black Sea constructed on Khodynka Field in commemoration of Russian victories in 1775, complete with miniatures seas, forts, and fleets, conveys this enthusiasm, as does his treatment of the discovery of a published version of a map of Nikitskii Province from the 1780s. Kusov shares with the reader the process of detective work by which he identifies this print as evidence that a plan was in the works in the 1780s to publish a complete atlas of Moscow Guberniia. The plan, like so many others, never reached fruition, but this one published map, bearing the numeration “11”, betrays the fact that it was intended to appear as number 11 in alphabetical order among the uezdy, or provinces, that comprised Moscow Guberniia.

In this long section, discussion alternates between consideration of the various laws and decrees mandating complete and accurate land surveys and the actual maps and information resulting (or not resulting) from those decrees. Not surprisingly, most of the rulers’ ambitious plans for mapping every bit of their territory led to only incomplete, fragmentary implementation, but the on-going commitment to the effort is clearly evident in the unbroken series of orders issuing from St. Petersburg. Moreover, although Kusov does not remark upon it, the motivation behind that commitment is equally clear. One decree after another expounds on the need to complete an accurate survey of all property boundaries in order to eliminate the endless legal disputations over property rights. The impulse for mapping, therefore, came not from a foucauldian effort on the part of the state to know and therefore to control population and resources, but rather as a response to the insistence of private property holders to their rights in land.

In the final pages of “The History of Boundary Measurements (mezhevanie) and Cartography in the Moscow Lands”, Kusov places his own work in the sequence of efforts to map the Moscow region. On the basis of the surveys, maps, and other documentary data, he has reconstructed a map of “The Lands of Contemporary Moscow and its Environs at the End of the 18th Century”. An astounding piece of retrospective cartography, the map includes a wealth of information on each province, town, hamlet, village, and estate within the boundaries of present-day Moscow Province. Reproduced in its totality and in two representative segments blown up to a more revealing scale, the map is a dream-come-true for anyone interested in tracking down particular locations from an earlier era. If this map could be made available in an interactive mode on the web, it would become an invaluable resource.

The final section of the book, “Description of Landholdings Reflected in the Map of the Lands of Contemporary Moscow and its Environs at the End of the 18th Century”, provides textual elaboration of the fine-grained geographic data illustrated on the map. Drawing on the property surveys and detailed maps of individual estates preserved in the archive of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents (RGADA), fond 1354, this section lists each hamlet, village, and uninhabited plot of each district making up Moscow Province in the late eighteenth century. Two complete indexes, one of landholders’ names and one of toponyms, make these listings easily accessible and usable for historical-geographic research.

With this beautiful book, Kusov successfully reaches a dual ‘scholarly-popular’ audience. His unpretentious writing style, clear chronological narrative, and glorious illustrations will enlighten and entertain popular readers, while his detailed listings and skillful retrospective cartography will offer cause for celebration among historians attempting to situate their research in the murky places of the past.

Valerie Kivelson, Ann Arbor, MI