The first head-count census (called a "revision") was not without problems: compilation of the tells was longer than expected, and processing them proved to be a massive task. But the system took roots.

The impact of the revision system on Russian society can be judged by a work of literature: Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls, the main story of which is built around the specifics of revisions, showing us how the process became a matter of course for the entire population of the Russian empire.

«In ten years 140 revisions were carried out.»

Over 140 years, the heirs of Peter the Great held 10 revisions, and their results give historical researchers a firm basis for studying the demography of the Russian Empire and its regions.

Historians estimate that the population of the empire grew from 14 million people in 1719 to 74 million people in 1857. Contemporaries also appreciated the revision as an excellent source of information for scientific and social research. A book by Ivan Kirilov, written in 1726–1727 and published in 1731, was one of the first of these works and offered a brief analysis of data from the first revision.

Mikhail Lomonosov, the most famous Russian scientist of his time and contemporary of the first revision, wrote that Peter the Great "made a great effort to increase domestic and foreign taxes without impoverishment of the people. And, being far-sighted by nature, he took care that not only great profits for the treasury would be generated, but also the general tranquility and security of the subjects would be established by a single institution”.

«If a serf (reported a case of concealment, he and his family would be released from serfdom»

The unwillingness of people to submit to a census that made them liable for taxation was a recurrent problem for Russia's rulers. In the revision of 1811 it was established that if a serf (a bonded peasant) reported a case of concealment, he and his family would be rewarded by release from serfdom. However, the revision of 1811 was never completed. It was cut short by Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812.

It was clear by the middle of the 19th century that the system of revisions required updating, since it failed to count all of the people living in Russia. Revisions were abolished after the abolition of serfdom in the 1860s.