Assessment of the State of Cartographic Exploration of the European Part of the Russian Empire as One of the Indicators of the Historical Development of the Territory (1721–1917)

The article is devoted to the issues of determining the level of cartographic exploration and its connection with the historical development of the territory under consideration. The theoretical part considers the concept of cartographic exploration, provides examples of the practice of maintaining catalogs and cartograms of exploration in modern cartography. The article also describes the specifics of the historical assessment of the growth in survey topographic works and the possibilities of taking into account various indicators of exploration, which are relevant for its retrospective assessment: the total number of survey maps for a certain region, the duration of topographic works, the instrumental and methodological base. A description of the methodology for maintaining retrospective cartographic exploration is given: indicators of accounting for growth, a template of the registration card and other methodological standards. The features of the main groups of sources on the history of cartographic exploration are considered. The author’s periodization of the development of exploration of the European part of the Russian Empire from 1720 to the First World War is given, and four stages are characterized with identifying dominant characteristics and the most priority regions for survey work. The article provides a description of individual groups of survey cartographic works, including land maps of the Petrine geodesists, maps of the Geographical Department of the Academy of Sciences, general survey plans, military topographic maps, and others. The significance of thematic and object-oriented mapping is described in relation to the growth of the total array of survey cartography. The article is accompanied by several tables, which compactly present the main factual material of the article: the progress of cartographic works at different stages, indicating the chronological framework and performers. General observations on the article are presented in the form of the two author’s maps indicating the predominant cartographic works for individual periods, which are considered in the article.