Yekaterinoslav Governorate

Yekaterinoslav Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Yekaterinoslav. Covering an area of, and being composed of a inhabitant of 2,113,674 by the census of 1897, it bordered Poltava Governorate to the north, Don Host Oblast to the east, Sea of Azov to the southeast, Taurida Governorate to the south, and Kherson Governorate to the west, and covered the area of the Luhansk, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts of modern Ukraine.

Location

The government was created in 1802 when the Novorossiya Governorate was split into three governorates. The Yekaterinoslav Governorate bordered to the north with the Kharkov Governorate and Poltava Governorate, to the west and southwest with the Kherson Governorate, to the south with the Taurida Governorate and Sea of Azov, and to the east with Don Host Oblast.

Administrative divisions

The governorate was created in place of Novorossiysk Governorate in 1802 and encompassed a huge area of the southern Ukraine. Officially, the new governorate was created as Ekaterinoslav Governorate in 1802 and subdivided into the following uyezds with centres in:

Taganrog city 1802–1887
Rostov upon Don city 1802–1887

Changes in Russian Empire

1874, the Mariupol uyezd was split off the Aleksandrovsk uyezd.
1887, Rostov-na-Donu city as well as Taganrog city with its uyezd were transferred back to the Don Host Oblast.

Ukraine

1918, Taganrog uyezd was transferred once again, but without the Taganrog city and later again returned to the Don Voisko Province. The Ukrainian People's Republic passed the law for the reformation of the Ukrainian administrative division dividing the governorate into five new lands. The law has failed to be implemented and was canceled due to the conservative coup d'état of Pavlo Skoropadsky and establishment of the Ukrainian State. Thus the territory of the governorate was left unchanged and sustained without any major changes until 1919.

South Russia

1919 Krivyi Rih uyezd was created partially out of the newly annexed lands of the Kherson Governorate.

Soviet Ukraine

1920 Governorate yielded few territories in favor of the newly created Olexandrivsk (Alexandrovsk) Governorate and Donetsk Governorate
1922 Zaporizhia Governorate, as renamed, was abolished and its territories returned under the subordination of Yekaterinoslav Governorate together with some of Kremenchuk Governorate.
1923 All Governorates uyezds were reformed into seven okrugs with two of them liquidated on 3 June 1925.
On 1 August 1925, the Yekaterinoslav Governorate administration was discontinued.

Okrugs (okruhas)

List of okruhas of Ukraine upon the dissolution of the Governorate:

Demographics

The governorate's population, a majority of peasants, was 662,000 in 1811, 902,400 in 1851, 1,204,800 in 1863, and 1,792,800 in 1885. From the second half of the 19th century, with the founding of Yuzovka, the governorate became the coal-mining and metallurgical center of the then Ukraine, incorporating the Dnieper Industrial Region and the Donbass (Donets Basin).
Its population increased to 2,113,674 by 1897. The nationalities within the governorate were Ukrainians – 68.9%, Russians – 17.3%, Jews, Germans, Greeks, and Tatars. In 1924, the governorate had 3,424,100 inhabitants, living in 5,165 settlements, 36 of them being cities and urban-type settlements. The largest social class was that of workers.

Principal cities

The data is taken from demoscope.ru. Here is also the most common language composition.

Yekaterinoslav – 112,839,
Mariupol – 31,116
Lugansk – 20,404
Bakhmut – 19,316
Aleksandrovsk – 18,849
Pavlograd 15,775
Novomoskovsk – 12,883
Verkhnedneprovsk – 6,501
Slavianoserbsk – 3,122

From the turn of the 19th century until 1887 city of Rostov-na-Donu and all the Taganrog uyezd were part of the governorate, but before the census of 1897 took place they were transferred to the Don Oblast. Note that the biggest city of the guberniya was the city of Rostov-na-Donu while Taganrog was not much smaller and the third in size. Here is the data on them:

Rostov-na-Donu – 119,476
Taganrog – 51,437

Language

By the Imperial census of 1897.

Religion

By the Imperial census of 1897.

Governors

;General-Governors

1823–1844 Mikhail Vorontsov

;Governors

1802–1803 Sergei Bekleshov
1803–1809 Pyotr Berg
1809–1817 Kirill Gladkiy
1817–1820 Ivan Kalageorgiy
1820–1823 Viktor Shemiot
1823–1824 Trofim Tsalaban
1824–1828 Alexei Svyechin
1828–1831 Dmitriy Zakhorzhevskiy
1831–1832 Otto Frank
1832–1836 Nikanor Longinov
1836–1837 Dmitriy Safonov

Chairmen of the Governorate

;Revkoms

26 October 1917 – ? Emmanuil Kviring
November 1919 – 1920 Sergei Minin

;Ispolkom

February 1919 – 1920 Vasiliy Averin
1920 – 1921 Ivan Klymenko
1921 Stepan Vlasenko
? – 1923 Yakov Kuznetsov
1923 – 1924 Samokhvalov
February 1925 – August 1925 Ivan Gavrilov

Chekists

;As an independent governmental organization1919: Vasyl Valiavko '1919–1920: Aleksandr Alpov '
;As part of the State Political Directorate (GPU)24 May 1922 – 16 February 1923: Izrail Leplevskiy '1923: P. Onishchenko1 September 1924 – 1 September 1925''': Semyon Dukelsky

Notable people

Fedir Shchus, also Fyodor Shuss or Feodosiy Shchus, was an Anarchist revolutionary, commander in the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine of Nestor Makhno.
Viktor Bilash, was the Anarchist Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine under Nestor Makhno.