  a native system of weights and measures was used in imperial russia and after the russian revolution, but it was abandoned in 1924 when the soviet union adopted the metric system. the tatar system is very similar to the russian one, but some names are different. the system existed since ancient rus', but under peter the great, the russian units were redefined relative to the english system. until peter the great the system also used cyrillic numerals, and only in the 18th century peter the great replaced it with the hindu-arabic numeral system. ==length== the basic unit is the russian cubit, called arshin, which has been in use since the 16th century. it was standardized by peter the great in the 18th century to measure exactly twenty-eight english inches (). thus, 80 vershoks = 20 piads = 5 arshins = 140 english inches (). a piad (, âpalmâ, âfiveâ) or chetvert (, âquarterâ) is a hand span, the distance between ends of the spread thumb and index finger. {| class="wikitable" ! unit ! russian ! translation ! ratio ! metricvalue ! english units |- | tochka |  | point |  | 0.254 mm |  inch |- | liniya |  | line |  | 2.54 mm |  inch; cf. line |- | diuym |  | inch |  | 2.54&nbsp;cm | 1 inch |- | vershok |  | âtipâ or âtopâ |  | 4.445 cm |  in; cf. 19" rack unit |- | piad, chetvert | ,  | âpalmâ, quarter |  | 17.78&nbsp;cm | 7 in; cf. span |- | fut |  | foot |  | 30.48&nbsp;cm | 1 ft |- | arshin |  | yard | 1 | 71.12&nbsp;cm |  ft |- | sazhen |  | fathom | 3 | 2.1336 m | 7 ft |- | versta |  | turn (of a plough) | 1500 | 1.0668 km | 3,500 ft |- | milia |  | mile | 10,500 | 7.4676 km | 24,500 ft |} alternative units: * swung sazhen (,
History_of_Russia History_of_science_and_technology_in_Russia Human-based_units_of_measurement Obsolete_units_of_measurement Science_and_technology_in_Russia Systems_of_units Units_of_measurement_by_country