Volhynian Governorate

Volhynian Governorate
Волынская губерния
Governorate of Russian Empire
Ukrainian People's Republic

 

 

1797–1925
 

 

 

 

Coat of arms

Capital Novograd-Volynsky
Zhytomyr (officially since 1804)
History
  Transformed into Volhynian Governorate 1797
  Peace of Riga
  abolished (Okruhas of Ukraine) 1 August 1925
Area
  1897 42.000 km2 (16 sq mi)
Population
  1897 2,989,482 
Density 71,178.1 /km2  (184,350.5 /sq mi)
Political subdivisions Governorates of Russian Empire
Polish occupied territories of Volhynian and Podolian governorates

Volhynian Governorate (Russian: Волынская губерния, Ukrainian: Волинська губернія) was an administrative-territorial unit initially of the Russian Empire, created at the end of 1796 after the Third Partition of Poland from the territory of the short-lived Volhynian Vice-royalty 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

Three partitions of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Until 1796 the guberniya was administrated as a namestnichestvo (Vice-royalty). It was initially centered in Iziaslav and was called the Izyaslav namesnichestvo. It was created mostly out of the Kiev Voivodeship and the east part of the Wolyn Voivodeship.

On 24 October 1795 the Third Partition of Poland happened.

On 12 December 1796 the Volhynian Governorate (guberniya) was created and included the rest of the Wolyn Voivodeship and Kowel Voivodeship.

In 1796 the administration moved to Novograd-Volynsky, but because no buildings were found suited for administrative purposes the seat (capital) was moved again to Zhytomyr.

In 1802 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 the Volhynian Governorate and the Kiev Governorate and the Podolie Governorate were part of the Southwestern Krai General-Governorate, a type of militarized administrative-territorial unit.

In the 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. The majority of the population of the governorate spoke in old Ukrainian language with slight variety of dialects.

During the Ukrainian–Soviet War Zhytomir served as the provisional capital of Ukraine in 1918.

After the Polish-Soviet war in 1920 and according to the Peace of Riga (1921) most of the territory became part of the Second Polish Republic and transformed into Wołyń Voivodeship with the capital in Łuck (Lutsk). The eastern portion existed to 1925 and later split into three okruhas Shepetivka Okruha, Zhytomyr Okruha, and Korosten Okruha.

Heads of Guberniya

Revkom
Volyn Executive Committee

Head of Security Services

Cheka
GPU

Principal cities

Russian Census of 1897

Administrative division

No. Counties (Uyezd) Area,
sq.versta
Population
(1897)
No. of volosts Date of
creation
1 Vladimir-Volynsky 5 695,8 198,688 23 1795
2 Dubno 3 483,0 158,734 13 ?
3 Zhytomir 6 740,0 281,387 ? 1804
4 Zaslavl 3 055,0 93 381 ? ?
5 Kovel 6 728,0 121,326 18 1795
6 Kremenets 3 041,0 196,751 16 ?
7 Lutsk 6 626,0 203,761 16 ?
8 Novograd-Volynsky 6 331,0 273,123 20 1804
9 Ovruch 9 329,0 194,976 16 ?
10 Ostrog 2 694,0 166,882 14 1795
11 Rovno 7 529,0 275,119 ? 1795
12 Starokonstantinov 2 249,8 211,768 ? 1796

Language

Language Number percentage (%) males females
Ukrainian 2,095,537 70.10 1049032 1046505
Yiddish 394,774 13.21 191608 203166
Polish 184,161 6.16 90701 93460
German 171,331 5.73 84949 86382
Russian 104,889 3.51 63862 41027
Czech[3] 27 670 0.93 13855 13815
Tatar 3 817 0.13 3703 114
Belorussian 3 794 0.13 2143 1651
Other[4] 3 412 0.11 2 889 523
Persons,
that did not identified
their native language
97 >0.01 61 36

Religion

Religion Number percentage (%) males females
Eastern Orthodox 2,106,521 70.46
Judaism 395,782 13.24
Roman Catholics 298,110 9.97
Lutherans 163,990 5.49
Baptists 10 375 0.35
Other[6] (Old Believers, Magometians) 14 704 0.49

References

  1. Eberhardt, Piotr; Jan Owsinski (2003). Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-Century Central-Eastern Europe: History, Data, Analysis. M.E. Sharpe. p. 260. ISBN 0-7656-0665-8.
  2. Language Statistics of 1897 (in Russian)
  3. including Slovakian language
  4. Languages, number of speakers which in all gubernia were less than 1000
  5. Religion Statistics of 1897 (in Russian)
  6. Religions, number of believers which in all gubernia were less than 10000

Coordinates: 50°15′16″N 28°39′28″E / 50.2544°N 28.6578°E / 50.2544; 28.6578

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