This 1821 map of Kharkiv 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 (seven gradations by size), postal stations, roads (four types), state, provincial and district borders, factories, monasteries, and forts. 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 territory depicted on the map lies within present-day eastern Ukraine. This region had settlements as far back as the Scythians and Sarmatians, Iranian peoples who spread from Central Asia to Eastern Europe around the fifth century BC. Until the early modern period, however, the area remained sparsely populated. Migrants streamed in during the Khmelnytskyi Uprising in 1654, when the Cossacks sought help from the Russians against Polish interests in the Ukraine. While technically self-governing, the Kharkiv region soon received a voevoda (military official), typically appointed by Moscow. Following the victory of Peter the Great in the Battle of Poltava (1709), the tsarist government began to absorb the new territory into its administrative system. After numerous combinations with neighboring regions, this ultimately led to the formation of Kharkiv Province within the Russian Empire.