versta

plural verstas · plural versty

1. alternativeAlternative form of verst.

   [A]s soon as one travelled more than a hundred versty from any of [the] country’s larger cities, all political issues simply vanished into utter silence.

   2025, Alexander Wolfheze, “Russia”, in A Traditionalist History of the Great War, Book III: Into The Abyss, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, →ISBN, chapter 4 (Armies and Navies), page 451

   3 more examples

   The new and, to Mila, welcome détente almost came to an untimely end in Torzhok, where Varya insisted on stopping for ‘an hour or so’ to buy gloves, boots and slippers from the famous leather-workers of the town, despite Maxim’s terse remark that they were still about 60 versty from Tver, where the jäger had recommended they stay for dinner and lodging.

   1985, Dinah Dean, chapter 2, in The River of Time, [United States]: Cover & Page, published 2022, →ISBN

   The law mandated that provincial authorities resettle those who had committed a criminal offense 60 versty (63.6 kilometers) from the nearest provincial city, while it allowed free volunteers to return home, but only under guard.

   1997, Abby M. Schrader, “Containing the Spectacle of Punishment: The Russian Autocracy and the Abolition of the Knout, 1817–1845”, in Slavic Review, volume 56, numbers 3–4, Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 640

   We arrived at another village, this is 8 versty [1 versta = 3500 ft.] to the southwest—it is more convenient for us here because we are stationed alone[, i.e., apart from the other units in this area] and are all together, and there are 2 companions there and machine guns are placed every 3 and 6 versty.

   1999, Nicholas II, Alexandra Feodorovna, translated by Joseph T. Fuhrmann, The Complete Wartime Correspondence of Tsar Nicholas II and the Empress Alexandra: April 1914–March 1917, London: Bloomsbury Academic, →ISBN, page 377