This 1822 map of Yaroslavl 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. Founded in 1010 by Yaroslav the Wise, Yaroslavl became a key municipality in Russian history. Archeological evidence shows that it was an early Scandinavian (Rus’) settlement from the Viking era, evolving later into a Slavic trading center on the Volga River. Yaroslavl withstood numerous attacks by the Golden Horde in the 13th and 14th centuries. It continued, nevertheless, to emerge as an economic and political center along the main route from Moscow to Arkhangelsk on the White Sea (and from there by ship to Western Europe). Muscovy ultimately absorbed Yaroslavl in the mid-15th century, after which it became a northern outpost involved in the subsequent upheavals of the Russian state, such as the Time of Troubles from 1598 to 1613 (the interregnum between the fall of the Rurik dynasty and the establishment of the Romanovs). Yaroslavl Province rose to further economic and administrative prominence under Catherine the Great in the late 18th century and absorbed neighboring ancient Russian cities, such as Rostov Veliky (Rostov the Great).