This 1821 map of Poltava 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. Founded as early as the 12th century, Poltava was under Polish and Lithuanian control for centuries. The Poltava region became a stronghold of independent-minded Cossacks who sought military support from Russia under Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi in 1654. A later hetman, Ivan Mazepa, allied with King Charles XII of Sweden against the Russians. The Battle of Poltava (1709), in which the forces under Peter the Great defeated the Swedes and their Cossack allies, was a turning point in European history. It marked the decline of the Swedish Empire and the rise of Imperial Russia. It pointed to Peter’s eventual victory in the Great Northern War (1700−21) with Sweden. It also meant the demise of Cossack power and influence.