Courland Governorate


Courland Governorate, also known as the Province of Courland or Governorate of Kurland, and known from 1795 to 1796 as the Viceroyalty of Courland, was an administrative-territorial unit and one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire. Its area roughly corresponded to Kurzeme, Zemgale and Sēlija of modern-day Latvia.

History

The governorate was created in 1795 out of the territory of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, which was incorporated into the Russian Empire as the Viceroyalty of Courland with its capital at Mitau following the third partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
In 1915, during the World War I, Courland was occupied by the German Empire and included into the Ober Ost military administration. While the local Baltic German nobility was cooperating with the German administration, several Latvian leaders from Courland retreated to the neighboring governorates of Livonia and Estonia, still held by Russian forces. After the Russian Revolution in March 1917, those Latvian leaders formed the Provisional Land Council of Courland that met at 27 April 1917 in the Estonian city of Tartu, and was recognized by the Russian Provisional Government as the representative body of the occupied Courland Governorate. At the same time, the Provisional Government in Petrograd appointed Latvian politician Jānis Čakste as the commissar of Courland, a newly created post that replaced the old office of governor. Since Courland was under German control, Čakste and the Provisional Land Council focused their activities on assisting war refugees who fled from Courland, mainly to Livonia and Estonia.
In September–October 1917, German forces advanced from Couland and took the city of Riga and the main Baltic islands, and in November 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution broke out in Russia. Already on 16 November 1917, the Latvian Provisional National Council was created in Valka on 30 November, and it proclaimed Latvia as an autonomous province within the ethnographic boundaries of the Latvian people that included Courland. On 15 January 1918, the same body proclaimed Latvia as independent republic.
Already in February 1918, German forces proceeded further and occupied the entirety of Livonia and Estonia, but Soviet Russia continued to claim sovereignty over all occupied regions, including Courland, until the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918, when it accepted the loss of the Courland Governorate. On 8 March 1918, representatives of the Courlandian Baltic Germans met in Jelgava and proclaimed the creation of an independent state, named the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia in reference to the historical duchy of the same name. They offered the Courlandian ducal throne to the German emperor, thus trying to establish Courland as a client state of the German Empire. Already on March 15, Germany recognized the newly proclaimed state, that in reality existed only formally since all effective power over the region was still held by German military administration of Ober Ost. On 5 November 1918, Courland was united with neighboring Livonia–Estonia to form the United Baltic Duchy, but that political project failed, since on 18 November 1918, the Republic of Latvia was proclaimed, thus uniting all Latvian lands, including Courland.

Geography

The governorate was bounded in the north by the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Riga and the Governorate of Livonia; west by the Baltic Sea; south by the Vilna Governorate and Prussia and east by the Vitebsk Governorate and Minsk Governorate. The population in 1846 was estimated at 553,300.
It was situated between 55°41' and 57°45' N. Of its total border of 1,260 versts, the sea border is 320 versts. The border with Prussia is only 6 versts long and lacks natural boundaries.
The surface area of the province is 26,112 square versts.

Subdivisions

After the annexation to the Russian Empire, the Kurzeme Governorate united the lands of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia and the Piltene district, both of which retained their previous administrative divisions.
After the administrative reform of 1819, the area of Pilten was incorporated into the territory of the province as the district of Windau and the district of Hasenpoth. After the reform of 1819, the castle lord of Kandava moved to Talsi. The area of Palanga up to the Prussian border was also added to the Kurzeme province from the Vilna Governorate. The province was divided into ten districts, or Hauptmannschaft, whose administrative authorities were located in the towns of the same name, with the exception of Talsi and Ilūkste, which had only the rights of towns. Each district had its own court with a local police force. Until 1864, every two districts were merged into Oberhauptmannschaft, which contained the Oberhauptmann and the Evangelical Lutheran Church dean's districts under the authority of the Oberhofgericht.
The counties of the governorate were:

Law

The highest court is the Courts of Kurland, the courts of appeal are the Higher Hauptmanns Courts, The courts of first instance are the Hauptmannsgericht, the county courts for the peasantry, and the lowest level of the court system for the peasantry are the parish courts.

Administration

The province of Courland was governed by a governor appointed by the emperor. The representative body of local government was the Landtag, which consisted of parish commissioners elected by the parishes by parish assemblies, In the parish meetings all large landowners of the parish could participate, the executive body - a noble committee headed by a land commissioner was elected to conduct its sessions.
The residence of the governors was in Jelgava Castle, where the governorate's administrative offices were also located. During the existence of the Baltic Governorate, the governors of Kurzeme were subordinate to the governor-general of the Baltic Provinces., who resided in the Riga Castle.
Until Russification, almost all governors of Courland were German-Baltic noblemen. Until then, the language of administration in the highest authorities and courts of the province was German, but in the parish courts, according to the Courland peasant laws, the records were also kept in Latvian.
  • 1795 – 1796 Baron Peter Ludwig von der Pahlen
  • 1796 – 1798 Count Gustav Matthias Jakob von der Wenge genannt Lambsdorff
  • 1798 – 1800 Baron Wilhelm Carl Heinrich von der Oest genannt Driesen
  • 1800 – 1808 Nikolay Ivanovich Arsenyev
  • 1808 Jakob Maximilian von Brieskorn
  • 1808 – 1811 Baron Jan Willem Hogguer
  • 1811 Jakob Maximilian von Brieskorn
  • 1811 – 1816 Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Sivers
  • 1812 Jules de Chambaudoin and Charles de Montigny
  • 1812 Jacques David Martin
  • 1816 – 1824 Emannuel von Stanecke
  • 1824 – 1827 Paul Theodor von Hahn
  • 1827 – 1853 Christoph Engelbrecht von Brevern
  • 1853 Aleksandr Petrovich Beklemishev
  • 1853 – 1858 Pyotr Aleksandrovich Valuyev
  • 1858
  • 1858 – 1868 Johann von Brevern
  • 1868 – 1885 Paul Frommhold Ignatius von Lilienfeld-Toal
  • 1885 Aleksandr Alekseyevich Manyos
  • 1885 – 1888 Konstantin Ivanovich Pashchenko
  • 1888 – 1891 Dmitry Sergeyevich Sipyagin
  • 1891 – 1905 Dmitry Dmitriyevich Sverbeyev
  • 1905 – 1906 Woldemar Alexander Valerian von Boeckmann
  • 1906 – 1910 Leonid Mikhailovich Knyazev
  • 1910 Nikolay Dmitriyevich Kropotkin
  • 1910 – 1915
  • 1915–1917 Tatishchev, Pyotr Vasilyevich Gendrikov, Strakhov.

Economy

In the 19th century the province was predominantly agrarian. In 1817, serfdom was abolished in the province and peasants were granted personal freedom, but all land remained the property of landlords. In 1863 the peasants received the right to buy land as personal property, and a class of land owning peasants began to form. The land owning peasants, along with the German landlords, were the main suppliers of commercial agricultural products. The main crops grown in the province were rye, wheat, barley, peas, oats, and potatoes. Horticulture and gardening are well developed.
Industry of the province is mostly manufacturing. In 1912 there were about 200 factories and plants and about 500 cottage industries.
Railway construction was developing on the territory of the province. The Riga - Mitava railroad was built in 1867 and in 1871-76 a section of the Libava - Romena railroad. All in all the length of the railway lines in the province was over 560 versts.
Education in the province was better than the Russian average. In the 1910s there were 8 secondary schools, 13 special secondary schools, 790 lower secondary schools in the province. In the province in 1913 there were 33 hospitals with 1,300 beds.

Language

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