When Description means Control. The example of the Russian General Land Survey in eastern Latvia in 1784–1785

Melchior Jakubowski

Landscape History, 2022, vol. 43, issue 2, 23-43

Abstract: This paper is a case study of Enlightenment’s cadastral landscape recording exemplified by the General Land Survey, taken by the Russian Empire in the newly acquired region of Latgale (contemporary eastern Latvia) in 1784–1785. The surveyors scrupulously described and showed on maps many natural features, such as trees, animals, birds, and fish species, as well as provided insight into social realities by mentioning inhabitants, settlements, local place-names, religious and ethnic relations. However, it was by no means a pure reflection of Latgale’s natural and cultural landscape. The paper argues that the survey in Latgale simultaneously registered the resources, regulated property boundaries, strengthened landlords’ control over peasants, and imposed the rule of the new state. Similarly, as western and central European states, Russia needed a detailed description of the province in order to control it. It was a fundamental change for Latgale, previously belonging to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that had not introduced any cadastre or comparable land survey, therefore performed little control at a local level.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01433768.2022.2143152 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rlshxx:v:43:y:2022:i:2:p:23-43

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rlsh20

DOI: 10.1080/01433768.2022.2143152

Access Statistics for this article

Landscape History is currently edited by Dr Della Hooke

More articles in Landscape History from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().