LAKE ILMEN, NOVGOROD, STARAYA RUSA,Great lakes Region,Russia,Antique_Historical Map

HISTORICAL RELIEF MAP CHART SHOWING TERRAIN, TOPOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONS

Lake Ilmen (Russian: Finnish: Ilmajärvi), a lake in Novgorod Oblast of Russia. Ilmen is about 45 km long ang 35 km wide, its average absolute level is 18 m, average surface area is 982 km² (may vary from 733 to 2,090 km² depending on water level). It is rather shallow, its maximum depth does not exceed 10 meters. The lake is fed by 52 inflowing rivers, the four main ones being Msta, Pola, Lovat River, Shelon and is drained through a single outlet, the Volkhov, into the Lake Ladoga, and subsequently via the Neva into the Gulf of Finland. The city of Novgorod lies six kilometers below the lake's outflow. NOVGOROD, a government of N.W. Russia, bounded W. and N. by the governments of St Petersburg and Olonets, S.E. by Vologda, Yaroslav and Tver, and S.W. by Pskov, stretching from SW. to N.E. 450 m. Area, 47,223 sq. m. . The S. is occupied by the Valdai plateau, in which are the highest elevations of middle Russia (600 to over iooo ft.), as well as the sources of nearly all the great rivers of the country. The plateau is deeply furrowed by valleys with abrupt slopes, and descends rapidly towards the basin of Lake Ilmen in the \V. (only 60 ft. above the sea-level). The N.E. of the government belongs to the lacustrine region of N.\V. Russia. This tract is dotted over with innumerable sheets of water, of which Byelo-ozero (White Lake) and Vozhe are the largest of more than 3000. Inimense marshes, overgrown with thin forests of birch and elm, occupy more than one-seventh of the entire area of the government; several of them have an area of 300 to 450 sq. m. each. They admit. of being crossed only when frozen. Six centuries ago they were even less accessible, but the slow upheaval of N.W. Russia, going on at the rate of 3 or more feet per century, has exercised a powerful influence upon the drainage of the country. Of recent years artificial drainage has been carried out on a large scale. The forests still occupy 55% of the total area of the government. Staraya Russa is an old town located 99 km south of Velikiy Novgorod. It is the administrative center of the Starorussky District of the Novgorod Oblast in Russia and a wharf on the Polist River (Lake Ilmen basin). Thought to have originated in the mid-10th century, Staraya Russa was first mentioned in chronicles for the year 1076 as one of three main towns of the Novgorod Republic, alongside Pskov and Ladoga. Its name is derived from the time of the Varangians, who called themselves Rus and settled in the vicinity to control important trade routes leading from Novgorod to Polotsk and Kiev. The wooden settlement of Russa was burned to ashes in 1190 and 1194. In 1478, it was incorporated into Muscovy together with Novgorod. The word Staraya (Old) was prefixed to the name in the 15th century, to distinguish it from newer settlements called Russa. In the 15th-17th centuries, the ancient merchant town changed into a prosperous industrial centre, with saltworks as the principle business activity. When Ivan the Terrible ascended the throne, Staraya Russa was the fourth most populous city in Russia, after Moscow, Pskov and Novgorod. During the Time of Troubles it was held by Polish brigands and heavily depopulated. Only 38 people lived there in 1613. In 1824, tsar Alexander I created the so-called military settlements near Staraya Russa, which would be a stage for an uprising in 1831 as part of the Cholera Riots. The town was fictionalized as Skotoprigonievsk in Dostoyevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov (1879-80).

1890s Wood Engraving, Antique Map

Approximate Overall Size: 7 X 10 1/2 inches

CONDITION: Book Plate INTEXT MAP - Excellent Condition. Beautiful with excellent detail. There is Text on Front and Back Side.