Dagestan Oblast
The Dagestan Oblast was a province of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. It roughly corresponded to most of present-day southeastern Dagestan within the Russian Federation. The Dagestan oblast was created in 1860 out of the territories of the former Caucasian Imamate, bordering the Terek Oblast to the north, the Tiflis Governorate and Zakatal Okrug to the west, the Elizavetpol Governorate to the south, and Baku Governorate to the east. The administrative center of the oblast was Temir-Khan-Shura.
Administrative divisions
The districts of the Dagestan oblast in 1917 were as follows:Bold line denotes the largest city.
Demographics
Russian Empire Census
According to the Russian Empire Census, the Dagestan oblast had a population of 571,154 on, including 283,279 men and 287,875 women. The plurality of the population indicated Avar-Andean to be their mother tongue, with significant Dargin, Kyurin, Kazi-Kumukh, Kumyk, and Tatar speaking minorities.| Language | Native speakers | % |
| Avar-Andean | 158,550 | 27.76 |
| Dargin | 121,375 | 21.25 |
| Kyurin | 94,596 | 16.56 |
| Kazi-Kumukh | 76,381 | 13.37 |
| Kumyk | 51,209 | 8.97 |
| Tatar | 32,143 | 5.63 |
| Russian | 13,111 | 2.30 |
| Jewish | 7,361 | 1.29 |
| Tat | 2,998 | 0.52 |
| Ukrainian | 2,895 | 0.51 |
| Nogai | 1,909 | 0.33 |
| Persian | 1,720 | 0.30 |
| Armenian | 1,636 | 0.29 |
| Polish | 1,630 | 0.29 |
| Arabic | 912 | 0.16 |
| Chechen | 757 | 0.13 |
| Lithuanian | 520 | 0.09 |
| Georgian | 375 | 0.07 |
| German | 261 | 0.05 |
| Belarusian | 38 | 0.01 |
| Other | 777 | 0.14 |
| TOTAL | 571,154 | 100.00 |
'''Linguistic composition of uezds in the Dagestan Oblast in 1897'''