Desiatina

a Russian unit of land.

Known from the end of the 15th century, the desiatina was originally measured as two chetverts (1.092 hectares) and consisted of a square with sides measuring one-tenth of a

verst (0.10668 km), the square being 2,500 square sazhens (1 sazhen’ = 213.36 cm). In a 1753 decree concerning land boundaries, the official desiatina was defined as 2,400 square sazhens (1.0925 hectares). From the 18th through the early 20th century, there also existed the “household” or “oblique” desiatina (80 × 40 = 3,200 square sazhens), the “household circle” desiatina (60 × 60 = 3,600 square sazhens), the “hundred” desiatina (100 × 100 = 10,000 square sazhens), the “melon field” (80 × 10 = 800 square sazhens), and others. After the October Revolution, with the adoption of the metric system of measurement, the use of the desiatina was limited by a decree of Sept. 14, 1918, of the Sovnarkom (Council of People’s Commissars) of the USSR; since Sept. 1, 1927, the use of the measure has been prohibited.