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By articulating together the fields of economic and rural history, social history and imperial history, this paper explores the attempts by the Russian monarchy to conduct land surveys throughout the country from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The central event was the General Land Survey undertaken in 1765, which was a part of the reform policies of Catherine II. It was not designed to create a land tax base, but had the broader goals of identifying and delimiting various types of lands throughout the empire, as well as of providing knowledge of its economic situation. Moreover, it should be noted that the gentry, as a social order, was able to strengthen its land rights and privileges and to settle some land property litigations. In this paper, we investigate the chronology of the implementation of the General Land Survey, the surveying services and practice, as well as its results, which show the diversity of territories and the economic and social realities which characterized the Russian Empire during that time period.