A verst (, ) is an obsolete Russian unit of length defined as 500 sazhen. This makes a verst equal to . Plurals and variants In the English language, verst is singular with the normal plural versts. In Russian, the nominative singular is , but the form usually used with numbers is the genitive plural – 10 verst, 25 verst, etc. – whence the English form. A (, literally 'border verst') is twice as long as a verst. "The verst of the 17th century was 700 sazhens or 1.49 km as against the 500 sazhens or 1.067 km it became at the time of Peter the Great." Finnish virsta In Finland, a was originally 1,068.84 m according to the Swedish standard, but the Russian verst of 1,066.8 m replaced it after the province was annexed to the Russian Empire in 1809. A was originally 600 (fathoms, 1.781 m), but was then changed to 500 , since the Russian was longer, 2.134 m. A Finnish was defined as of a , the Finnish language name for the pre-metric Swedish mil, used in Finland since the early 17th century (see Obsolete Finnish units of measurement). Metrication replaced with the kilometre in the 1880s. References External links Conversion table Units of length Customary units of measurement