A small but lovingly designed edition contains brief essays on the population and nature of some areas of the European part of Russia at the end of the 19th century. The goal of the authors of the publication, edited by Professor of Moscow University Nikolai Yuryevich Zograf, is to briefly answer questions that arise from the reader "when a motley string of peoples inhabiting the Russian state passes by his eyes." The publication also contains explanations of the so-called "tables" - wonderful illustrations based on drawings with a pen and pencil L. L. Balyakin.