Governorate (Russia)

Template:Short description Template:See also Template:Multiple issues Template:Infobox subdivision type A governorate (Template:Langx, Template:Small {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}) was a major and principal administrative subdivision of the Russian Empire. After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, governorates remained as subdivisions in the Byelorussian, Russian and Ukrainian Soviet republics, and in the Soviet Union from its formation in 1922 until 1929. The term is also translated as government or province. A governorate was headed by a governor (Template:Langx), a word borrowed from Latin {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, in turn from Greek {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Template:Langx).Template:Citation needed

Selected governorates were united under an assigned governor-general such as the Grand Duchy of Finland, Congress Poland, Russian Turkestan and others. There were also military governors such as Kronstadt, Vladivostok and others. Aside from governorates, other types of divisions were oblasts (region) and okrugs (district).Template:Citation needed

First reformEdit

File:Subdivisions of Russia in 1708 (en).svg

Division of Russia into eight governorates in 1708

This subdivision type was created by the edict (ukase) of Peter the Great on December 18, 1708 "On the establishment of the gubernias and cities assigned to them", which divided Russia into eight governorates.

Second reformEdit

In 1719, governorates were further subdivided into provinces (Template:Langx). Later the number of governorates was increased to 23. Template:Governorates of the Russian Empire

Changes from 1775: Namestnichestvo (Vice royalty)Edit

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File:Subdivisions of the Russian Empire in 1914.svg

Subdivisions of the Russian Empire in 1914

By the reform of 1775, subdivision into governorates and further into uezds (Template:Langx), was based on population size, and the term guberniya was replaced by the synonym of Russian origin: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), sometimes translated as "viceroyalty", other times as "vicegerency". The term guberniya, however, still remained in use. These viceroyalties were governed by {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) (literal translation: "deputy") or "governors general" ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}). Correspondingly, the term governorate general ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) was in use to refer to the actual territory being governed. The office of governor general had more administrative power and was in a higher position than the previous office of governor. Sometimes a governor general ruled several governorates.

By the ukase of the Russian Senate of December 31, 1796, the office of governorate general was demoted to the previous level of governorate, and Russia was again divided into governorates, which were subdivided into uezds, further subdivided into volosts ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}); nevertheless several governorates general made from several governorates existed until the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Governorates in Poland and FinlandEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The governorate (Template:Langx, Template:Langx, Template:Langx, Template:Langx) system was also applied to subdivisions of the Kingdom of Poland ("Russian Poland") and the Grand Duchy of Finland.

Post-revolutionary changesEdit

After the February Revolution, the Russian Provisional Government renamed governors into governorate commissars. The October Revolution left the subdivision in place, but the governing apparatus was replaced by governorate soviets ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}).

Actual subdivisions of the Soviet Union into particular territorial units was subject to numerous changes, especially during the 1918–1929 period. Because of the Soviet Union's electrification program under the GOELRO plan, Ivan Alexandrov directed the Regionalisation Commission of Gosplan to divide the Soviet union into thirteen European and eight Asiatic oblasts, using rational economic planning rather than "the vestiges of lost sovereign rights".<ref>Ekonomicheskoe raionirovanie Rossii, Gosplan, Moscow 1921</ref> Eventually, in 1929, the subdivision was replaced by the notions of oblast, okrug, and raion. Oblast as a unit was used even before the revolution, although unlike governorates it designated remote areas that usually incorporated huge swaths of land.

In post-Soviet states such as Russia and Ukraine, the term Guberniya is considered obsolete, yet the word gubernator was reinstated and is used when referring to a governor of an oblast or a krai.

Governorates in UkraineEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The Russian Empire had nine governorates in modern-day Ukrainian territories: Chernigov, Kharkov, Kherson, Kiev, Podolia, Poltava, Volhynia, Yekaterinoslav, and Taurida. Additional lands annexed from Poland in 1815 were organized into the Kholm governorate in 1912.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>

After the events of 1917, which led to the declaration of independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic, these governorates became subdivisions, which also annexed Ukrainian-inhabited parts of Mogilev, Kursk, Voronezh and Minsk governorates in 1918.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> By the end of the Soviet–Ukrainian War in 1920, the Bolsheviks had made themTemplate:Huh part of the Ukrainian SSR.<ref name=":1" /> Soviet Ukraine was reorganized into 12 governorates, which were reduced to nine in 1922 upon the Soviet Union's founding, and then replaced with okruhas in 1925.<ref name=":0" />

The West Ukrainian People's Republic in former Austro-Hungarian Empire territory was not subdivided into governorates, and would be annexed by the Second Polish Republic from 1920 until the Soviet invasion of 1939.

Other usesEdit

There is another meaning of the word as it denoted a type of estate in Lithuania of the until 1917.

ReferencesEdit

External linksEdit

Template:Subdivisions of the Russian Empire Template:Slavic terms for country subdivisions

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