Sazhen

Russian (Imperial)Historical unit (no longer in standard use)

Exactly 7 feet (2.1336 m). The standard Russian fathom, defined by Peter the Great to match the English foot.

1 sazhen = 2.1336 meters (exactly).

About the sazhen

Russian builders, surveyors and rope makers measured with the sazhen, a word usually translated as fathom. In its Imperial form it was three arshins, or exactly seven English feet, giving the 2.1336 m used here. The English link comes from Peter the Great, who redefined the Russian units in terms of English inches and feet instead of replacing them.

Older and informal sazhens were looser. The swung sazhen was the span between the fingertips of outstretched arms, about 1.76 m, while the oblique sazhen, measured from a raised hand to the opposite foot, was 3.5 arshins or 2.4892 m. Land area was counted in square sazhens, and the treasury desyatina contained 2,400 of them.

Five hundred sazhens made a verst. Seven English feet is a convenient size to picture, since it is close to a tall doorway, and a sazhen equals about 2.13 m in metric terms.

Sources: Wikipedia: Sazhen; Wikipedia: Obsolete Russian units of measurement

Sazhen conversion chart

1 sazhen expressed in every other length unit:

More Russian (Imperial) units

• vershok (length)
• arshin (length)
• verst (length)
• zolotnik (weight & mass)
• funt (Russian pound) (weight & mass)
• pood (weight & mass)
• charka (volume)
• shtof (volume)
• vedro (volume)

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