This 1823 map of Vologda Province is from a larger work, Geograficheskii atlas Rossiiskoi imperii, tsarstva Pol'skogo i velikogo kniazhestva Finliandskogo (Geographical atlas of the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Poland, and the Grand Duchy of Finland), containing 60 maps of the Russian Empire. Compiled and engraved by Colonel V.P. Piadyshev, it reflects the detailed mapping carried out by Russian military cartographers in the first quarter of the 19th century. The map shows population centers (six gradations by size), postal stations, roads (four types), provincial and district borders, monasteries, and factories. Distances are shown in versts, a Russian measure, now no longer used, equal to 1.07 kilometers. Legends and place-names are in Russian and French. The Vologda region rose to significance in the 13th century as an outpost on the northern frontier of the Republic of Novgorod, whose merchants used the waterways in Vologda in their trade routes to the White Sea. The princes of Moscow and Tver later struggled for control over Vologda. The English merchant, Richard Chancellor, visited Vologda in 1553 during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, after sailing into Arkhangelsk and establishing trade relations between England and Russia. English and Dutch merchants came to Vologda in the succeeding centuries, as the region became a conduit for trade both to the White Sea and to Siberia.