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A governorate (Russian: губе́рния, romanized: gubérniya, pre-1918 spelling:губе́рнія, IPA:[ɡʊˈbʲernʲɪjə]ⓘ) was a major and principal administrative subdivision of the Russian Empire. After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, governorates remained as subdivisions in the Byelorussian, Russian and Ukrainian Soviet republics, and in the Soviet Union from its formation in 1922 until 1929. The term is also translated as government or province. A governorate was headed by a governor (губернатор, gubernator), a word borrowed from Latin gubernator, in turn from Greek kyvernítis (Greek: κυβερνήτης).[citation needed]
Division of Russia into eight governorates in 1708
This subdivision type was created by the edict (ukase) of Peter the Great on December 18, 1708 "On the establishment of the gubernias and cities assigned to them", which divided Russia into eight governorates.
Second reform
In 1719, governorates were further subdivided into provinces (Russian: провинции, romanized: provintsii). Later the number of governorates was increased to 23.
By the reform of 1775, subdivision into governorates and further into uezds (Russian: уезды), was based on population size, and the term guberniya was replaced by the synonym of Russian origin: namestnichestvo (наместничество), sometimes translated as "viceroyalty", other times as "vicegerency". The term guberniya, however, still remained in use. These viceroyalties were governed by namestniki (наместник) (literal translation: "deputy") or "governors general" (генерал-губернатор, general-gubernator). Correspondingly, the term governorate general (генерал-губернаторство, general-gubernatorstvo) was in use to refer to the actual territory being governed. The office of governor general had more administrative power and was in a higher position than the previous office of governor. Sometimes a governor general ruled several governorates.
By the ukase of the Russian Senate of December 31, 1796, the office of governorate general was demoted to the previous level of governorate, and Russia was again divided into governorates, which were subdivided into uezds, further subdivided into volosts (волость); nevertheless several governorates general made from several governorates existed until the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Actual subdivisions of the Soviet Union into particular territorial units was subject to numerous changes, especially during the 1918–1929 period. Because of the Soviet Union's electrification program under the GOELRO plan, Ivan Alexandrov directed the Regionalisation Commission of Gosplan to divide the Soviet union into thirteen European and eight Asiaticoblasts, using rational economic planning rather than "the vestiges of lost sovereign rights".[1] Eventually, in 1929, the subdivision was replaced by the notions of oblast, okrug, and raion. Oblast as a unit was used even before the revolution, although unlike governorates it designated remote areas that usually incorporated huge swaths of land.
In post-Soviet states such as Russia and Ukraine, the term Guberniya is considered obsolete, yet the word gubernator was reinstated and is used when referring to a governor of an oblast or a krai.
After the events of 1917, which led to the declaration of independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic, these governorates became subdivisions, which also annexed Ukrainian-inhabited parts of Mogilev, Kursk, Voronezh and Minsk governorates in 1918.[2][3] By the end of the Soviet–Ukrainian War in 1920, the Bolsheviks had made them[clarification needed] part of the Ukrainian SSR.[3] Soviet Ukraine was reorganized into 12 governorates, which were reduced to nine in 1922 upon the Soviet Union's founding, and then replaced with okruhas in 1925.[2]
¹ Italics indicates renamed or abolished governorates, oblasts, etc on 1 January 1914. ² An asterisk (+) indicates governorates formed or created with renaming after 1 January 1914. ³ Ostsee or Baltic general-governorship was abolished in 1876.
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