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 there time. The high quality of Gorskiis pics make it difficult for viewers to believe that they are looking 100 years back in time

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.

Self-portrait, Prokudin-Gorskii seated on rock beside the Karolitskhali River in the Caucasus Mountains near the eastern coast of the Black Sea 1915

An Armenian woman poses for ProkudinGorskii on a hillside near Artvin (in present

Volga-Baltic Waterway, Russia

Washing brown iron ore at the Shilovskii near the village of Makarovo, Russia 1909

Mills in Ialutorovsk district of Tobolsk Province Siberia,

A woman is seated on the Sim River, part of the Volga watershed

A switch operator poses on the Trans-Siberian Railroad near the town of Ust Katav,

Gates at the Cathedral of the Transfiguration in the city of Tver, Russia

Hut in the forest for woodcutters, Ural mountain region, Russia 1908

Turkmen man posing with camel loaded with sacks, probably of grain or cotton, Central Asia 1907

General view of Artvin (now in Turkey) from the small town of Svet, 1910

Prokudin-Gorskii (right front) rides along on a handcar outside Petrozavodsk on the Murmansk railway along Lake Onega in 1910

Trinity Cathedral in the city of Ialutorovsk, Siberia, Russia

View of the Solovetskii monastery Solovetski, Russia

Prokudin-Gorskii at a night camp on the bank of the Chusovaia River,

Isfandiyar Jurji Bahadur, Khan of the Russian protectorate of Khorezm (Khiva, now a part of modern

Trans-Siberian Railway crossing the Kama River near Perm, Ural Mountains Region,

Church of the Exaltation of the Cross. Ostashkov, Russia 1908

Finland was part of the Russian Empire until 1917

Near the small town of Iustilia, Finland on the Saimaa Canal 1907

View of Suzdal along the Kamenka River, Russia 1910

Emir Seyyid Mir Mohammed Alim Khan, the Emir of Bukhara (present-day Uzbekistan) 1910

A group of Jewish children with a teacher in Samarkand, (in modern

A group of women in Dagestan, Russia

Peasants harvesting hay along the Mariinskii Canal, Russian Empire 1909

Site of a rescue station, Onega Lake, Russian

Shroud with image of the the Venerable Evfrosiniia, Evfrosiniia Monastery, Suzdal, Russia 1910

A man and woman pose in Dagestan, Russia

Nikolaevskii Cathedral in the city of Mozhaisk,

Kyn, Russia 1912

Dalmatov Monastery, Siberia Russia

A chapel sits on the site where the city of Belozersk was founded in ancient times, photographed in 1909

Sart woman in purdah in Samarkand,

A boy sits in the court of Tillia-Kari mosque in Samarkand, present-day Uzbekistan

Spinning yarn in the village of Izvedovo, Russia 1907

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prokudin-Gorskii