Before you is one of the most grandiose illustrated compendiums about the peoples of the Russian Empire - "Les Peuples de la Russie, ou description des mœurs, usages et costumes des diverses nations de l’empire de Russie," published in Paris in 1812, 1813. The text was authored by Count Charles de Rehberg, while the ethnographic material was summarized by Georges-Bernard Depping. The two volumes in elephant folio format contain 95 out of 96 aquatint engravings, printed in color and hand-finished with watercolor.

The publication was conceived as a visual encyclopedia of the multifaceted empire. The engravings, executed from the drawings of Emelyan Mikhailovich Korneev by masters Skotnikov, Melnikov, Mants, Gross, and others, depict the costumes, customs, and types of dozens of peoples - from Don Cossacks and Kalmyks to the inhabitants of the Aleutian and Kuril Islands, that is, Russian America. Each plate is accompanied by captions in French and Russian, making the book accessible to both European and Russian readers.