14. A. Wilbrecht, Karta Charkovskago Namiestnichestva, Sankt Peterburg, 1792. COLLBN Port 163 N 108
In 1792, a reference atlas of Russia was published in Saint Petersburg. It contained an overview of the Empire and a map for each governorate. Five maps relate to present-day Ukraine: Chernihiv, Novhorod-Siversky, Kharkiv, Yekaterinoslav (today Dnipro) and Kyiv. Here is the map of the Kharkov Governorate, divided into fifteen judicial districts. The cartouche depicts Kharkov's coat of arms with the horn of plenty and the snake staff of Mercury, the god of (grain) trade, who sits below. Ukraine found itself at the centre of major political and religious shifts. The Hetmanate vanished from the map, the border between the Orthodox Church and the Uniate and Catholic Churches was pushed westwards and the one between Christianity and Islam southwards. Circa 1792 empress Catherine created the 'Pale of Settlement', prohibiting former Polish and Lithuanian Jews from moving into Russian heartlands; most of Ukraine became part of the Pale.