Verst

Obsolete Russian unit of length

A verst (Russian: верста, versta) is an obsolete Russian unit of length defined as 500 sazhen. This makes a verst equal to 1.0668 kilometres (3,500 feet).

Highway location verst marker in Ruzhany, Russian Empire. Napoleon Orda, 1863

## Plurals and variants[edit]

In the English language, verst is singular with the normal plural versts. In Russian, the nominative singular is versta, but the form usually used with numbers is the genitive plural verst – 10 verst, 25 verst, etc. – whence the English form.

A mezhevaya versta (Russian: межевая верста, literally 'border verst') is twice as long as a verst.

"The verst of the 17th century was 700 sazhens or 1.49 km as against the 500 sazhens or 1.067 km it became at the time of Peter the Great."[1]

## Finnish virsta[edit]

In Finland, a virsta was 1,068.84 m according to the Swedish standard, defined in 1827 as 1⁄10 of a peninkulma, the Finnish language name for the pre-metric Swedish mil, used in Finland since the early 17th century (see Obsolete Finnish units of measurement), or 600 syli (Swedish fathoms, 1.781 m). Metrication replaced virsta with the kilometre in the 1880s.[2]

## References[edit]

1. ^ Raymond H Fisher, The Voyage of Semen Dezhnev, Hakluyt Society,1981, p. 176, citing Dal's Tolkovyy Slovar.
2. ^ Konu, Mia. Palvelukseen halutaan yksi raitis imettäjä - notiiseja ja reklaameja 1800-luvun sanomalehdistä. Nemo, Helsinki 2009.

## External links[edit]

Look up verst in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

* Conversion table