Vilna Governorate

Vilna Governorate
Governorate
Coat of arms of Vilna Governorate
Coat of arms
Location in the Russian Empire
Location in the Russian Empire
CountryRussian Empire
KraiNorthwestern
Established1795
Abolished1918
CapitalVilnius
Area
 • Total
41,907.9 km2 (16,180.7 sq mi)
Highest elevation
(Aukštojas Hill)
293.84 m (964.0 ft)
Population
 (1897)
 • Total
1,591,207
 • Density37.9691/km2 (98.3396/sq mi)
 • Urban
12.44%
 • Rural
87.56%
Coat of arms of the Vilna Governorate used since 1845

The Vilna Governorate[a] was a province (guberniya) of the Northwestern Krai of the Russian Empire that existed from 1795 to 1918. Established after the Third Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, it encompassed territories of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania and was one of the administrative divisions created by the Russian Empire to replace the institutions of the dissolved Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

In 1897, the governorate covered an area of 41,907.9 square kilometres (16,180.7 mi2) and had a population of 1,591,207 inhabitants. It bordered the following governorates: Minsk to the south, Grodno to the southwest, Suwałki to the west, Kovno and Courland to the north, and Vitebsk to the east. Its capital, Vilnius, also served as the seat of the Vilna Governorate-General, which existed until 1912.

History

Following the Third Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, the former lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (themselves part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) were annexed by the Russian Empire. The Russians established two administrative units: the Vilnius Governorate and the Slonim Governorate. On 12 December 1796, by order of Tsar Paul I, these were merged into a single administrative unit called the Lithuania Governorate, with its capital in Vilnius.[1]

On 9 September 1801, Tsar Alexander I divided the Lithuanian Governorate into two: the Lithuania Vilnius Governorate and the Lithuania Grodno Governorate. Around 1840–1843, during the administrative reforms of Tsar Nicholas I, the word "Lithuania" was officially erased from both names and the Vilna Governorate and Grodno Governorate were established.[2]

In 1843, another reform created the new Kovno Governorate out of seven western districts of the Vilna Governorate, including most of Samogitia. In exchange, the Vilna Governorate received the districts of Vileyka and Dzisna from the Minsk Governorate and Lida from the Grodno Governorate.[3] Thereafter, the Vilna Governorate consisted of the districts of Vilnius, Trakai, Dzisna, Ashmyany, Lida, Vileyka and Švenčionys. This administrative structure remained in place until the outbreak of World War I, when the region came under German occupation as part of the Ober Ost military administration.

  • Maps of the Vilna Governorate
  • Vilna Governorate (light green), 1795–97, with modern Lithuania outlined
    Vilna Governorate (light green), 1795–97, with modern Lithuania outlined
  • Vilna Governorate (light green), 1843–1915, with modern Lithuania outlined
    Vilna Governorate (light green), 1843–1915, with modern Lithuania outlined
  • Vilna Governorate in 1897
    Vilna Governorate in 1897

Demographics

Main article: Demographic history of the Vilnius region

Plater's statistics of 1825

Count Stanisław Plater was the first one in 1825 to publish approximate statistics on the ethnic makeup of the Vilnius Governorate, which then included most, but not all, of Lithuania.[4] His work's purpose was to show the area's indicative ethnic composition.[4] In the case of the Vilnius Governorate, before a major redrawing of the governorate's borders in 1843, he concluded that it was majority Lithuanian.[4][5]

Stanisław Plater's statistics in 1825[6][7][5]
Language People Percentage

of total

Lithuanian 780,000 65%
Yiddish 180,000 15%
Polish 100,000 8,3%
Russians 80,000 6,7%
Ruthenians 50,000 4,2%
Tatars 10,000 0,8%
Total 1,200,000 100%

Due to the lack of systematic primary data on nationalities, Plater resorted to comparing the revision censuses and religious distribution statistics to provide the general statistics on the population's ethnic distribution.[4] He referred to nobles and townspeople, with the exception of soldiers and Jews, as Poles, whereas he separated the peasants into Lithuanians, Ruthenians, or Russians (which refers to the Old Believers).[4] Overall, the total number of Catholics in the Vilnius Governorate was 930,000, i.e. ¾ of the population.[4][8]

Plater's ethnic and social classification of the population also reflected the contemporary thought among the elite classes, where in addition to a class difference, an ethnic dividing line was also drawn compared to the lower classes.[7] Thus, Plater categorically renamed the Lithuanians of the traditional political Lithuanian nation as Poles, whereas the lower classes in his view were termed as Lithuanians.[7][9] A similar attitude could be found elsewhere in Europe, for example, the Hungarian nobility called itself as Natio Hungarica, in contrast to the commoners they called Magyars.[7]

In 1856, a clear example of the ethno-social alienation between a Polish-speaking Lithuanian noble and a Lithuanian-speaking peasant was documented when the poet and writer Władysław Syrokomla, who traditionally considered himself a Lithuanian, traveled through the Dūkštos parish.[7] Somewhere between the Geišiškės and Europa estates, Syrokomla spoke to a villager in Polish, but the latter replied in Lithuanian that he did not understand him, upon which Syrokomla disappointedly exclaimed that: "A Lithuanian in a Lithuanian land could not speak to a Lithuanian".[7]

Russian Empire Census

According to the Russian Empire census on 28 January [O.S. 15 January] 1897, The Vilna Governorate had a population of 1,591,207, including 790,880 men and 800,327 women. According to the census, the majority of the population indicated Belarusian to be their mother tongue, which followed by a significant Lithuanian and Jewish speakers.[10]

Linguistic composition of the Vilna Governorate in 1897[10]
Language Native speakers Percentage
White Russian[b] 891,903 56.05
Lithuanian 279,720 17.58
Jewish 202,374 12.72
Polish 130,054 8.17
Great Russian[b] 78,623 4.94
German 3,873 0.24
Tatar 1,969 0.12
Little Russian[b] 919 0.06
Latvian 471 0.03
Gypsi 182 0.01
Others 1,119 0.07
Total 1,591,207 100.00
Religious composition of the Vilna Governorate in 1897[13]
Faith Male Female Both
Number Percentage
Roman Catholic 460,627 475,222 935,849 58.81
Eastern Orthodox 214,225 201,070 415,295 26.10
Judaism 98,193 106,493 204,686 12.86
Old Believer 12,686 12,987 25,673 1.61
Lutheranism 2,172 2,291 4,463 0.28
Islam 2,572 1,803 4,375 0.27
Karaite 251 325 576 0.04
Reformed 92 85 177 0.01
Armenian Catholic 22 25 47 0.00
Armenian Apostolic 9 3 12 0.00
Mennonite 2 0 2 0.00
Anglican 0 2 2 0.00
Other Christian denomination 19 16 35 0.00
Other non-Christian denomination 10 4 14 0.00
Total 790,880 800,327 1,591,207 100.00

Subdivisions

The counties (uezd) of the Vilna Governorate in 1897 was composed of seven uezds as follows:[10]

County Capital and

the largest city

Arms of capital Area Population
(1897 census)
Transliteration

name

Russian Cyrillic 1897[14]
Vileyskiy Вилейскій Vileyka 3.560
6,363.13 km2
(2,456.82 mi2)		 208,013
Vilenskiy Виленскій Vilna 154.132
6,185.14 km2
(2,388.10 mi2)		 363,313
Disnenskiy Дисненскій Disna 6.756
5,779.30 km2
(2,231.40 mi2)		 204,923
Lidskiy Лидскій Lida 9.323
5,606.20 km2
(2,164.57 mi2)		 205,767
Oshmyanskiy Ошмянскій Oshmyany 7.214
6,885.39 km2
(2,658.46 mi2)		 233,559
Smorgonskiy Сморгонскій Smorgon ---
5,979.20 km2
(2,308.58 mi2)		 241,565
Sventsyanskiy Свѣнцянскій Sventsyany 6.025
5,228.03 km2
(2,018.55 mi2)		 172,231
Trokskiy Трокскій Troki 3.240
5,862.27 km2
(2,263.44 mi2)		 203,401

Ethnic composition

Russian authorities periodically performed censuses. However, they reported strikingly different numbers:[15]

Year Total Lithuanians Poles Belarusians Russians Jews Other
1862 838,464 418,880 50% 154,386 18% 146,431 17% 14,950 2% 76,802 9% 27,035 3%
1865 891,715 210,273 24% 154,386 17% 418,289 47% 27,845 3% 76,802 9% 4,120 0%
1883 1,192,000 417,200 35% 281,312 24% 239,592 20% N/a 176,416 15% 77,480 7%
1897 1,561,713 274,414 18% 126,770 8% 880,940 56% 75,803 5% 197,929 13% 5,857 0%
1909 1,550,057 231,848 15% 188,931 12% 570,351 37% 408,817 26% 146,066 9% 4,094 0%

Governors

Name In office
Yakov Bulgarov 1797–1799
Ivan Friesell 1799–1801
Dmitry Lanskoy 1802–1804
Ivan Rickman 1804–1806
Prokopy Bogmevsky 1806–1808
Nikolay Brusilov 1808–1810
Aleksandr Lavinsky 1811–1816
Friedrich Drutsky-Lyubetsky 1816–1823
Pyotr Gorn 1823–1830
Dmitry Obreskov 1830–1832
Grigory Doppelmayr 1832–1836
Dmitry Bantysh-Kamensky 1836–1838
Yuri Dolgorukov 1838–1840
Aleksey Semyonov 1840–1844
Nikolay Zherebtsov 1844–1846
Mikhail Begichev 1846–1851
Arkady Rosset 1851–1857
Mikhail Pokhvisnev 1857–1863
Ivan Galler 1863–1863
Stepan Panyutin 1863–1868
Ivan Shestakov 1868–1869
Yegor Steblin-Kamensky 1869–1882
Aleksandr Zhemchuzhnikov 1882–1885
Nikolay Grevenits 1885–1895
Aleksandr Frese 1895–1896
Ivan Cheplevsky 1896–1899
Nikolai Gruzinsky 1899–1901
Viktor Wahl 1901–1902
Konstantin Palen 1902–1905
Sergey Tatishchev 1905–1906
Dmitry Lyubimov 1906–1912
Pyotr Veryovkin 1912–1916
Aleksandr Tolstoy 1916–1917

See also

Notes

  1. ^
  2. ^ a b c Prior to 1918, the Imperial Russian Government classified Russians as the Great Russians, Ukrainians as the Little Russians, and Belarusians as the White Russians. After the creation of the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1918, the Little Russians identified themselves as "Ukrainian".[11] Also, the Belarusian Democratic Republic which the White Russians identified themselves as "Belarusian".[12]

References

  1. ^ Kulakauskas, Antanas (2002). "Administracinės reformos". Gimtoji istorija. Nuo 7 iki 12 klasės (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Elektroninės leidybos namai.
  2. ^ "Литовская губерния". Брокгауз и Ефрон (in Russian). 1890–1906.
  3. ^ Simas Sužiedėlis, ed. (1970–1978). "Administration". Encyclopedia Lituanica. Vol. I. Boston, Massachusetts: Juozas Kapočius. pp. 17–21. LCCN 74-114275.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Merkys 2004, p. 24.
  5. ^ a b Merkys 2006, p. 41.
  6. ^ Plater 1825, p. 206.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Merkys 2004, p. 25.
  8. ^ Merkys 2006, p. 28.
  9. ^ Merkys 2006, p. 42.
  10. ^ a b c Первая всеобщая перепись населения Российской Империи 1897 г. Распределение населения по родному языку и уездам 50 губерний Европейской России [The First General Census of the Russian Empire of 1897. Breakdown of population by mother tongue and districts in 50 Governorates of the European Russia]. www.demoscope.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-04-27.
  11. ^ Hamm, Michael F. (2014). Kiev: A Portrait, 1800–1917. Princeton University Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-4008-5151-5.
  12. ^ Fortson IV, Benjamin W. (2011). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction. John Wiley & Sons. p. 429. ISBN 978-1-4443-5968-8.
  13. ^ Первая всеобщая перепись населения Российской Империи 1897 г. Распределение населения по вероисповеданиям и регионам [The first general census of the population of the Russian Empire in 1897. Breakdown of population by religions and regions]. www.demoscope.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  14. ^ "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". www.demoscope.ru. Retrieved 2024-10-10.
  15. ^ Nikolajew, Christina Juditha (2005). Zum Zusammenhang zwischen nationaler Identitätsbildung und Katholischer Kirche in Litauen (PDF) (in German). Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. p. 16.[permanent dead link]

Sources

54°41′00″N 25°17′00″E / 54.6833°N 25.2833°E / 54.6833; 25.2833

allikas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilno_Governorate