(Plural, sazheni) In Russia, a unit of length. Also romanized as sagen, sagene and saschen; in the 19ᵗʰ century, sashine and sasheen.
Early in the 18ᵗʰ century, as part of his program for modernizing the nation the Tsar Peter the Great issued a ukase redefining traditional Russian units of length in terms of the English foot. The sazhen was made equal to 7 English feet (about 2.134 meters). This legal definition was repeated in later years, for example, in a ukase issued on 11 October 1835.
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Last revised: 20 May 2003.