10622/DN9QDM Kessler, Gijs and Andrei Markevich IISH Data Collection 2017 These GIS maps were created for the visualisation of data on Russian social and economic development from the late 18th to the early twenty-first centuries, available at: https://ristat.org/. The current dataset, pertaining to the Russian Empire in 1897 (both district and province or governorate boundaries) has been cleaned and prepared by Rombert Stapel (IISH). The file format (Geopackage) is an open, non-proprietary, platform-independent and standards-based data format for GIS and can be opened in most GIS software applications. Kessler, Gijs(International Institute of Social History)