This 1822 map of Penza 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. Increasing numbers of Russians settled in the Penza region in the 16th and 17th centuries as the tsars fortified the area against Tatar incursions. The forces of Emelian Pugachev, the famous leader of a peasant rebellion against Catherine the Great, occupied the town of Penza in 1774. In subsequent years, Penza Province became an important agricultural and industrial center within the Russian Empire.