Can you help me identify this Eastern European uniform?

Hi guys!

This is a photo of a distant relative of mine. I don't know much about him, but I do have the picture below. Could anyone tell me anything about it? Period, country, rank, type of forces etc., anything will be a huge help. The word to the right in cyrillic is "Poltava"

Thanks!

Hi,
Welcome to the forum.
The photograph is of an Imperial Russian official (public servant) in a uniform that was worn from the 1880s to the Great War. I would put it at the beginning of the last century.
The badge is very clear but I don't know the branch. It looks like surveyors or engineering perhaps. Perhaps instructing at an academy given the wording at the base of the card. His rank or grade is shown by the passants on the shoulders.
The jacket is virtually black with velvet collar tabs and piping in the branch colour.
Poltava, I thought, was a town/city in Russia.
Hope this helps.

Sean

1904 regulations for the uniforms of civil officials in the Ministry of Agriculture and State Domains. On the left - the general badge for the ministry, in the center -- badge for the Forestry Corps, on the right -- badges for mining engineers and (your fellow) for surveyors. On the bottom is a "shortened sword (15 inches) for officials in the Agency for fishing, seal hunting, and hunting and trapping." The collar tabs are applicable for the uniform in the photograph, but the shoulder straps are the arm-to-neck kind, not back-to-front as for your man.

Hope this helps,
MConrad

Thanks for the clarification, and the lovely illustration