Volhynian Governorate

Volhynian Governorate (Russian: Волынская губерния, Ukrainian: Волинська губернія) was an administrative-territorial unit initially of the Russian Empire, created in 1792 after the Second Partition of Poland from the territory of the Kiev Voivodeship and Wołyń Voivodeship. After the Peace of Riga, part of the governorate became the new Wołyń Voivodeship in the Second Polish Republic,^[1] while the other part stayed as a part of the Ukrainian SSR until 1925.

History

Volhynian Governorate was created on December 12, 1796 after all three partitions of Poland have occurred and included the rest of the Wolyn Voivodeship and Kowel Voivodeship. Until 1796 the gubernia was administrated as a namestnichestvo (Vice-royalty). Initially centered in Iziaslav it was called the Izyaslav namesnichestvo that was created mostly out of the Kiev Voivodeship and the eastern part of the Wolyn Voivodeship. In 1796 the administration temporarily relocated to Novograd-Volynsky, but because no buildings were found suited for administrative purposes the seat (capital) was moved again to Zhytomyr for a time being. In 1802 the city of Zhytomyr was finally bought out of the properties of Prince (knyaz) Ilyinsky and in 1804 it became officially the seat of the Volyn Governorate. From 1832 to 1915 together with Kiev Governorate and Podolie Governorate was part of the Southwestern Krai General-Governorate, a type of militarized administrative-territorial unit. In 1880s the general-governorate was extended and included also other governorates.

In 1897 the population of the gubernia was 2,989,482 and in 1905 - 3,920,400. Majority of the population of the governorate spoke in old Ukrainian language with slight variety of dialects.

After the Polish-Soviet war in 1920 and according to the Peace of Riga the territory became part of the Second Polish Republic and transformed into Wołyń Voivodeship with the capital in Łuck (Lutsk).

Heads of Guberniya

Revkom

• 1919 Mikhail Kruchinskiy (concurrently the head of Volyn Cheka)

Volyn Executive Committee

• 1920 Oleksandr Shumsky
• 1920 Vasiliy Averin
• - 1921 Danylevych
• 1921-1922 Ivan Nikolayenko

Head of Security Services

Cheka

• 1919 Vasyl Viliavko
• 1919 M.Shuf
• 1919 Mikhail Kruchinskiy
• November 1919 - December 1919 Vsevolod Balytsky
• December 1919 Vasyl Levotsky (acting)
• - November 2, 1921 Semen Kesselman (Zapadny)
• January 1922 - June 2, 1922 Janis Biksons

GPU

• -1923 Pavel Ivonin
• March 1923 - October 1923 Foma Leoniuk
• July 1, 1923 - September 1, 1924 Symon Dukelsky
• 1924 - 1925 Aleksandr Safes (Grozny)

Principal cities

Russian Census of 1897

• Zhytomir - 65 895 (Jewish - 30 572, Russian - 16 944, Ukrainian - 9 152)
• Rovno - 24 573 (Jewish - 13 704, Russian - 4 278, Ukrainian - 4 071)
• Kremenets - 17 704 (Ukrainian - 8 322, Jewish - 6 476, Russian - 1 863)
• Kovel - 17 697 (Jewish - 8 502, Russian - 4 828, Ukrainian - 2 093)
• Novograd-Volynsky - 16 904 (Jewish - 9 363, Russian - 2 939, Ukrainian - 2 662)
• Starokonstantinov - 16 377 (Jewish - 9 164, Ukrainian - 4 886, Russian - 1 402)
• Lutsk - 15 804 (Jewish - 9 396, Russian - 2 830, Ukrainian - 1 478)
• Ostrog - 14 749 (Jewish - 9 185, Ukrainian - 2 446, Russian - 2 199)
• Dubno - 14 257 (Jewish - 7 096, Russian - 2 962, Ukrainian - 2 474)
• Zaslavl - 12 611 (Jewish - 5 991, Ukrainian - 3 990, Russian - 1 722)

Administrative division

Language

• By the Imperial census of 1897.^[2] In bold are languages spoken by more people than the state language.

Religion

• By the Imperial census of 1897.^[5] In bold are religions with more members than the Eastern Orthodox.

References