General?nai?a? Karta Kaluzhsko? Gubernii S? pokazaniem? pochtovykh? i bol?shikh? proi?e?zzhikh? dorog?, stant?s?i? i razstoi?a?nii?a? mezhdu onymi verst?.

This 1822 map of Kaluga Province is from a larger work, Geograficheskii atlas Rossiiskoi imperii, tsarstva Pol'skogo i velikogo kniazhestva Finliandskogo (Geographical atlas of the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Poland, and the Grand Duchy of Finland), containing 60 maps of the Russian Empire. Compiled and engraved by Colonel V.P. Piadyshev, it reflects the detailed mapping carried out by Russian military cartographers in the first quarter of the 19th century. The map shows population centers (six gradations by size), postal stations, roads (four types), provincial and district borders,monasteries, and factories. Distances are shown in versts, a Russian measure, now no longer used, equal to 1.07 kilometers. Legends and place-names are in Russian and French. Kaluga was founded in the 14th century, as a fortress guarding the southwestern approaches to Moscow. In the medieval era, Muscovy and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania vied for control of the region. Kaluga was also the scene of the standoff between Russian and Mongol forces at the Ugra River in 1480, a climactic event that marked the end of 250 years Mongol rule over Moscow. In 1812, Imperial Russian field marshal Mikhail Kutuzov frustrated Napoleon's attempt to escape from Moscow along the Kaluga Road. This forced the French army back to the Smolensk Road, which the French had laid waste on their invasion of Russia, leaving little for them to forage for their troops and horses on the long retreat back to the Russian border.