Manifesto on the Empire’s General Land Survey promulgated

On September 19 (30) 1765 the government under Catherine II promulgated the “Manifesto on General Land Survey embracing the whole Empire with General Regulations to the General Land Survey Commission and a highly approved register on sale prices of lands in governorates and provinces, appended to it”.

The principal aim for holding the 1765 General Land Survey was a precise demarcation of the landholdings of individuals and drawing boundary lines between them and state lands. For each land survey and a district (Russian: uezd) land survey books and plans were compiled. They indicated landholders, location and total number of lands, their distribution into holdings and a list of holdings in provinces and governorates.

Plans were accompanied by alphabetical registers with the description of landholdings and undertaken surveys. What is more, during the general land survey were compiled economic notes, which contained information on the quality of arable lands. Along with institutions responsible for land survey conduction, land data was also collected by the Corps of Military Topographers, Mountain Hydrographic Corps, Means of Communication Corps and Land Survey Chancery.

For the first time boundaries of each separate landholding of any size was recognized de jure, and besides accurate geodesic land measures were carried out. Plans for individual landholdings were drawn up on a scale of 100 sagenes to an inch (1:8400). These were then incorporated into general district plans on scale of 1 verst to an inch (1: 42000).

Moreover, during the land survey there was no necessity to submit relevant written documents, only an amicable agreement of neighbors — adjacent landholders — was needed. In case there were no arguments, land surveyor conducted his surveys on the tentative boundary indicated by landowners, without checking it, and later provided each landowner with a map — geometric special plan with an enormous official seal with a sign: “with care and mercy of the Empress Catherine II. In case the landowners could not come to an amicable agreement, to settle the argument they were to prove their rights to the landholding in the court.

Within 1766–1794 the land survey was directed by the Senate Land Survey Expedition in St. Petersburg, being also a supreme appeals instance countrywide. In 1794 this structure was renamed the Senate Land Survey Department. At the same time operational management was assigned to the Land Survey Chancery in Moscow, which was subordinate to the Senate Land Survey Department. Main field works were fulfilled by land survey offices, located in provinces. Every year the latter sent geodetic teams to districts to carry out land surveys. The land survey office was governed by three members and a prosecutor. They headed office clerks and geodetic specialists.

The General Land Survey was held in the second half of 18th c. - first half of 19th c. and embraced 35 provinces of Russia, which numbered 188 264 landholdings totaling 300,8 million ha.

Lit.: Герман И. Е. История русского межевания. М., 1914; Милов Л. В. Генеральное межевание // Большая советская энциклопедия. Т. 6. М., 1971; Милов Л. В. Исследование об «Экономических примечаниях» к Генеральному межеванию. М., 1965.

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Полное собрание законов Российской империи, с 1649 года. СПб., 1830. Т. 17. № 12474. С. 329;

Энциклопедический словарь/ под ред. проф. И. Е. Андреевского. СПб., 1892. Т. 8. С. 318.