It is currently used by several countries for their national geodetic surveys, but will be replaced in the next decades by modern ellipsoids of satellite geodesy.
It is based on 10 meridian arcs and 38 precise measurements of the astronomic latitude and longitude (see also astro geodesy).
Therefore, it is optimal for National survey networks in these regions, although its axes are about 700 m shorter than that of the mean Earth ellipsoid derived by satellites.
Every reference ellipsoid deviates from the worldwide data (e.g. of satellite geodesy) in the same way as the pioneering work of Bessel.
The Soviet Union forced its satellite states in Eastern Europe to use the Krasovsky ellipsoid of about 1940.