1. Photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-
Gorskii (1863-1944) undertook a
photographic survey of the Russian Empire
with the support of Tsar Nicholas II. He used
a specialized camera to capture three black
and white images in fairly quick succession
and then using red, green and blue filters
recombined the images to produce color
photos that were ahead of their time. The
high quality of Gorskii’s pics make it difficult
for viewers to believe that they are looking
100 years back in time
2. The Russian Empire was a state that
existed from 1721 until the Russian
Revolution in 1917. It was the second
largest contiguous empire in world
history, surpassed only by the Mongol
Empire, the third largest empire the
British Empire. At one point in 1866, it
stretched from eastern Europe, across
Asia, and into North America. By the
end of the 19th century the size of the
empire was about (8,600,000 sq mi) or
almost 1/6 of the Earth's landmass.