Obsolete Russian units of measurement

A native system of weights and measures was used in Imperial Russia and after the Russian Revolution, but it was abandoned in 1924 when the Soviet Union adopted the metric system.

The Tatar system is very similar to the Russian one, but some names are different.

The system existed since ancient Rus', but under Peter the Great, the Russian units were redefined relative to the English system. Until Peter the Great the system also used Cyrillic numerals, and only in the 18th century Peter the Great replaced it with the Hindu-Arabic numeral system.

Length

The basic unit is the Russian cubit, called arshin, which has been in use since the 16th century. It was standardized by Peter the Great in the 18th century to measure exactly twenty-eight English inches (71.1 cm). Thus, 80 vershoks = 20 piads = 5 arshins = 140 English inches.^[1]

A piad (пядь, “palm”, “five”) or chetvert (че́тверть, “quarter”) is a hand span, the distance between ends of the spread thumb and index finger.

Alternative units:

• Swung sazhen (маховая сажень, makhovaya sazhen’, distance between tips of arms stretched sidewards) = 1.76 m
• Skewed, or oblique sazhen (косая сажень, kosaya sazhen’, distance between tip of a raised arm and a tip of an opposite leg slightly put away) = 2.48 m
• Double versta or border versta, (межевая верста, mezhevaya versta), used to measure land plots and distances between settlements = 2 verstas (comes from an older standard for versta)

Area

• Desiatina (десяти́на, “a tenth” or “ten”)
  • Treasury/official desiatina (казённая десяти́на, kazionnaya desiatina) = 10,925.4 m² = 117,600 sq ft = 2,400 square sazhen
  • Proprietor's (владе́льческая десяти́на, vladelcheskaya desiatina) = 14,5672 m² = 156,800 sq ft = 3,200 square sazhen
    • 3 proprietor's desiatinas = 4 official desiatinas

Volume

As in many ancient systems of measurement the Russian distinguishes between dry and liquid measurements of capacity. Note that the chetvert appears in both lists with vastly differing values.

Dry measures

Liquid measures

Weight/mass

The pood was used in Russia, Finland, Belarus and Ukraine. Pood was first mentioned in a number of documents of the twelfth century. It may still be encountered in documents dealing with agricultural production (especially with reference to cereals), and has been revived in determining weights when casting bells in belfries following the rebirth of the Orthodox Churches in the former Soviet lands.

References