Volhynia Governorate

Volhynia Governorate, also known as Volyn Governorate,^[a] was an administrative-territorial unit (guberniya) of the Southwestern Krai of the Russian Empire. It consisted of an area of 71,736 square kilometres (27,697 sq mi) and a population of 2,989,482 inhabitants. The governorate bordered Grodno and Minsk Governorates to the north, Kiev Governorate to the east, Podolia Governorate to the south, Lublin and Siedlce Governorates, and after 1912, Kholm Governorate and Austria to the west. Its capital was in Novograd-Volynsky until 1804, and then Zhitomir. It corresponded to most of modern-day Volyn, Rivne and Zhytomyr Oblasts of Ukraine and some parts of Brest and Gomel Regions of Belarus.

Volhynia Governorate Волынская губерния
Governorate
Coat of arms
Location in the Russian Empire
Country	Russian Empire
Krai	Southwestern
Established	1795
Abolished	1925
Capital	Novograd-Volynsky (until 1804) Zhitomir (from 1804)
Area
• Total	71,736 km2 (27,697 sq mi)
Population  (1897)
• Total	2,989,482
• Density	42/km2 (110/sq mi)
• Urban	7.82%
• Rural	92.18%

It was created at the end of 1796 after the Third Partition of Poland from the territory of the short-lived Volhynian Vice-royalty and Wołyń Voivodeship. After the Peace of Riga, part of the governorate became the new Wołyń Voivodeship in the Second Polish Republic,^[1] while the other part stayed as a part of the Ukrainian SSR until 1925 when it was abolished on resolution of the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee and Counsel of People's Commissars.^[2]

Volyn Governorate map in 1913

History

Three partitions of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Until 1796, the guberniya was administered as a Viceroyalty (namestnichestvo). It was initially centred in Izyaslav and was called the Izyaslav Viceroyalty. It was primarily created from the Kiev Voivodeship and the eastern part of the Wolyn Voivodeship.

On 24 October 1795, the Third Partition of Poland was imposed by Prussia, the Habsburg monarchy, and the Russian Empire.

Then, on 12 December 1796, Volhynia Governorate was established, encompassing the remaining territory of the Wolyn Voivodeship and the Kowel Voivodeship.

In 1796, the administration moved to Novograd-Volynsky. However, due to the lack of suitable buildings for administrative purposes, the capital was moved once again to Zhitomir (Zhytomyr).

In 1802, Zhitomir was purchased the properties of Prince Ilyinsky, and in 1804, it officially became the seat of Volhynia Governorate.

From 1832 to 1915, Volhynia Governorate, along with Kiev Governorate and Podolia Governorate, formed part of the Southwestern Krai General-Governorate–a militarized administrative-territorial unit.

In the 1880s, the general-governorate was extended to include other governorates.

In 1897, the population of the guberniya was 2,989,482 and by 1905, it had grown to 3,920,400. The majority of the population in the governorate spoke the Ukrainian language with slight variety of dialects.

During the Ukrainian–Soviet War Zhitomir served as the provisional capital of Ukraine in 1918.

After the Polish-Soviet war in 1920, and according to the Peace of Riga (1921) most of the territory became part of the Second Polish Republic and transformed into the Wołyń Voivodeship, with the capital in Łuck (Lutsk). The eastern portion existed until 1925 and was later split into three okruhas: Shepetivka Okruha, Zhytomyr Okruha, and Korosten Okruha.

Heads of Guberniya

Revkom

• 1919 Mikhail Kruchinskiy (concurrently the head of Volyn Cheka)

Volyn Executive Committee

• 1920 Oleksandr Shumsky
• 1920 Vasiliy Averin
• – 1921 Danylevych
• 1921–1922 Ivan Nikolayenko

Head of Security Services

Cheka

• 1919 Vasyl Viliavko
• 1919 M.Shuf
• 1919 Mikhail Kruchinskiy
• November 1919 – December 1919 Vsevolod Balytsky
• December 1919 Vasyl Levotsky (acting)
• – 2 November 1921 Semen Kesselman (Zapadny)
• January 1922 – 2 June 1922 Janis Biksons

GPU

• -1923 Pavel Ivonin
• March 1923 – October 1923 Foma Leoniuk
• 1 July 1923 – 1 September 1924 Symon Dukelsky
• 1924 – 1925 Aleksandr Safes (Grozny)

Principal cities

Russian Census of 1897

• Zhytomir – 65 895 (Jewish – 30 572, Russian – 16 944, Ukrainian – 9 152)
• Rovno – 24 573 (Jewish – 13 704, Russian – 4 278, Ukrainian – 4 071)
• Kremenets – 17 704 (Ukrainian – 8 322, Jewish – 6 476, Russian – 1 863)
• Kovel – 17 697 (Jewish – 8 502, Russian – 4 828, Ukrainian – 2 093)
• Novograd-Volynsky – 16 904 (Jewish – 9 363, Russian – 2 939, Ukrainian – 2 662)
• Starokonstantinov – 16 377 (Jewish – 9 164, Ukrainian – 4 886, Russian – 1 402)
• Lutsk – 15 804 (Jewish – 9 396, Russian – 2 830, Ukrainian – 1 478)
• Ostrog – 14 749 (Jewish – 9 185, Ukrainian – 2 446, Russian – 2 199)
• Dubno – 14 257 (Jewish – 7 096, Russian – 2 962, Ukrainian – 2 474)
• Zaslavl – 12 611 (Jewish – 5 991, Ukrainian – 3 990, Russian – 1 722)

Administrative division

County		Capital	Arms of capital	Area	Population (1897 census)
Transliteration name	Russian Cyrillic
Vladimir-Volynsky	Владиміро-Волынскій	Vladimir-Volynsky		6,482.1 km2 (2,502.8 sq mi)	198,688
Dubensky	Дубенскій	Dubno		3,963.8 km2 (1,530.4 sq mi)	158,734
Zhitomirsky	Житомірскій	Zhitomir		7,670.5 km2 (2,961.6 sq mi)	281,387
Zaslavsky	Заславскій	Zaslavl		3,476.7 km2 (1,342.4 sq mi)	93,381
Kovelsky	Ковельскій	Kovel		7,656.8 km2 (2,956.3 sq mi)	121,326
Kremenetsky	Кременецкій	Kremenets		3,460.8 km2 (1,336.2 sq mi)	196,751
Lutsky	Луцкій	Lutsk		7,540.8 km2 (2,911.5 sq mi)	203,761
Novograd-Volynsky	Новоградъ-Волынскій	Novograd-Volynsky		7,205 km2 (2,782 sq mi)	273,123
Ovruchsky	Овручскій	Ovruch		10,616.9 km2 (4,099.2 sq mi)	194,796
Ostrozhsky	Острожскій	Ostrog		3,065.9 km2 (1,183.8 sq mi)	166,882
Rovensky	Ровенскій	Rovno		8,568.4 km2 (3,308.3 sq mi)	275,119
Starokonstantinovsky	Староконстантиновскій	Starokostiantinov		2,560.4 km2 (988.6 sq mi)	211,768

Demographics

Language

Imperial census of 1897.

According to the Russian Empire Census on 28 January [O.S. 1897] 15 January, the Volhynian Governorate had a population of 2,982,482, including 1,502,803 men and 1,486,679 women. The majority of the population indicated Ukrainian^[b] to be their mother tongue, with significant Jewish, Polish, German, and Russian speaking minorities.^[5]

Linguistic composition of the Volhynian Governorate in 1897^[5]

Language	Native speakers	Percentage
Ukrainian[b]	2,095,537	70.26
Jewish	394,774	13.24
Polish	184,161	6.17
German	171,331	5.74
Russian[b]	104,889	3.52
Czech	27,670	0.93
Tatar	3,817	0.13
Belarusian[b]	3,794	0.13
Bashkir	983	0.03
Mordovian	375	0.01
Romanian	314	0.01
Chuvash	308	0.01
Gypsi	286	0.01
French	154	0.00
Cheremis	143	0.00
Latvian	113	0.00
Lithuanian	103	0.00
Votyak	102	0.00
Not-specified	97	0.00
Others	531	0.01
Total	2,982,482	100.00

Religion

• By the Imperial census of 1897.^[6] In bold are religions with more members than the Eastern Orthodox.

Religion	Number	percentage (%)	males	females
Eastern Orthodox	2,106,521	70.46
Judaism	395,782	13.24
Roman Catholics	298,110	9.97
Lutherans	163,990	5.49
Baptists	10 375	0.35
Other[7] (Old Believers, Magometians)	14 704	0.49

Notes

1. • Russian: Волы́нская губе́рния, pre-1918: Волы́нская губе́рнія, romanized: Volýnskaya gubérniya
   • Ukrainian: Воли́нська губе́рнія, romanized: Volýnsʼka hubérniia
2. Prior to 1918, the Imperial Russian government classified Russians as the Great Russians, Ukrainians as the Little Russians, and Belarusians as the White Russians.^[3] Also, the Belarusian Democratic Republic which the White Russians identified themselves as "Belarusian".^[4]

References

1. Eberhardt, Piotr; Jan Owsinski (2003). Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-Century Central-Eastern Europe: History, Data, Analysis. M.E. Sharpe. p. 260. ISBN 0-7656-0665-8.
2. Vermenych, Ya Volhynian Governorate (Волинська губернія). Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine.
3. Hamm, Michael F. (2014). Kiev: A Portrait, 1800–1917. Princeton University Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-4008-5151-5.
4. Fortson IV, Benjamin W. (2011). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction. John Wiley & Sons. p. 429. ISBN 978-1-4443-5968-8.
5. Первая всеобщая перепись населения Российской Империи 1897 г. [The first general census of the population of the Russian Empire in 1897]. www.demoscope.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 1 May 2023.
6. Religion Statistics of 1897 (in Russian)
7. Religions, number of believers which in all gubernia were less than 10000

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