Kherson Governorate

Template:Short description Template:Template other Kherson Governorate,Template:Efn known until 1803 as Nikolayev Governorate,Template:Efn was an administrative-territorial unit (guberniya) of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Kherson. It encompassed in area and had a population of 2,733,612 inhabitants. At the time of the census in 1897, it bordered Podolia Governorate to the northwest, Kiev Governorate to the north, Poltava Governorate to the northeast, Yekaterinoslav Governorate to the east, Taurida Governorate to the southeast, Black Sea to the south, and Bessarabia Governorate to the west. It roughly corresponds to what is now most of Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad and Odesa Oblasts in Ukraine and some parts of Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk Oblasts.

The economy of the governorate was mainly based on agriculture. During the grain harvest, thousands of agricultural laborers from the parts of the Empire found work in the area. The industrial part of the economy, consisting primarily of flour milling, distilling, metalworking industry, iron mining, beet-sugar processing, and brick industry, was underdeveloped.

File:Kherson Governorate.png

Map of Kherson province, 1913

Administrative divisions

The governorate bordered Bessarabia Governorate to the west, with Kiev and Poltava Governorates to the north, to the east was Yekaterinoslav Governorate, and southward was Taurida Governorate.

From 1809, the governorate consisted of five uyezds: Khersonsky Uyezd, Aleksandriysky Uyezd, Ovidiopol, Tiraspolsky Uyezd, and Yelisavetgradsky Uyezd. The city of Odessa was separate, as it carried a special status. In 1825, Odessky Uyezd and in 1834, Ananyevsky Uyezd were added into the territorial division of the Kherson Governorate. A seventh uyezd – Bobrynets, existed from 1828 to 1865. The cities of Odessa and Nikolayev (in 1803–1861) and their surrounding vicinity were governed separately: Odessa by a gradonachalnik (Template:Langx), answerable directly to the tsar and (from 1822) the governor-general of Novorossiya and Bessarabia, and Nikolayev by a military governor.

In 1920, while being under Bolshevik rule, the governorate's territory, , was divided to form the newer Odessa Governorate. Kherson Governorate was renamed as Mykolaiv Governorate in 1921, and in 1922 – it was merged with Odessa Governorate. In 1925, Odessa Governorate was abolished, and its territory was divided into six okruhas: Kherson, Kryvyi Rih, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Pershotravneve, and Zinoviivske. In 1932, much of this territory was incorporated into the new Odesa Oblast, now an administrative division o modern Ukrainian nation, which was divided to form Mykolaiv Oblast.

County		Capital	Arms of capital	Area	Population (1897 census)
Transliteration name	Russian Cyrillic
Aleksandriysky	Александрійскій	Aleksandriya	File:Oleksnandria.emblem.2.gif		327,199
Ananyevsky	Ананьевскій	Ananev	File:Ananyiv coat of arms project (Kene).png		187,226
Yelisavetgradsky	Елисаветградскій	Yelisavetgrad	File:Coat of Arms of Yelisavetgrad (project).png		507,660
Odessky	Одесскій	Odessa	File:Odessa COA Kene project.png		532,729
Tiraspolsky	Тираспольскій	Tiraspol	File:Coat of arms of Tiraspol 1868.svg		206,568
Khersonsky	Херсонскій	Kherson	File:Coat of arms of Kherson 1878.svg		532,956
Nikolayev War Governorate	Николаевское воѣнное губернаторство	Nikolayev	File:Николаев.Герб 1883.jpg		92,000

Principal cities

From the Russian Census of 1897

File:Ukraine Cherson 2St.-Ekater.jpg

Cathedral dedicated to Saint Catherine (Russian: Свято-Екаерининский Собор) in Kherson that was the governorate's seat at the tim

• Odessa – 403,815 (Russian – 198,233, Jewish – 124,511, Ukrainian – 37,925)
• Nikolayev – 92,012 (Russian – 61,023, Jewish – 17,949, Ukrainian – 7,780)
• Yelizavetgrad – 61,488 (Jewish – 23,256, Russian – 21,301, Ukrainian – 14,523)
• Kherson – 59,076 (Russian – 27,902, Jewish – 17,162, Ukrainian – 11,591)
• Tiraspol – 31,616 (Russian – 14,013, Jewish – 8,568, Ukrainian – 3,708)
• Ananiv – 16,684 (Ukrainian – 7,205, Romanian – 4,174, Jewish – 3,514)
• Voznesensk – 15,748 (Jewish – 5,879, Ukrainian – 5,644, Russian – 2,583)
• Bobrinets – 14,281 (Ukrainian – 9,529, Jewish – 3,464, Russian – 837)
• Aleksandriya – 14,007 (Ukrainian – 7,658, Jewish – 3,687, Russian – 2,364)
• Beryslav – 12,149 (Ukrainian – 8,852, Jewish – 2,639, Russian – 524)
• Dubossary – 12,089 (Jewish – 5,326, Romanian – 3,383, Ukrainian – 2,841)
• Novogeorgiyevsk – 11,594 (Russian – 6,631, Ukrainian – 3,372, Jewish – 1,424)
• Ochakov – 10,786 (Ukrainian – 5,204, Russian – 3,508, Jewish – 1,430)
• Novomirgorod – 9,364 (Russian – 7,025, Jewish – 1,617, Ukrainian – 572)
• Grigoriopol – 7,605 (Romanian – 3,740, Russian – 1,832, Jewish – 832)
• Olviopol – 6,884 (Ukrainian – 5,022, Jewish – 1,480, Russian – 271)
• Ovidiopol – 5,187 (Ukrainian – 2,785, Russian – 1,997, Jewish – 387)
• Maiaky – 4,575 (Russian – 2,865, Ukrainian – 944, Jewish – 644)

Demographics

Until 1858, a third of the population (military settlers, admiralty settlements, foreign colonists, etc.) was subject to martial law. The gubernia had a population of about 245,000 in 1812; 893,000 in 1851; 1,330,000 in 1863; 2,027,000 in 1885; 2,733,600 in 1897; and 3,744,600 in 1914. In the 1850s it consisted of Ukrainians (68–75 %), Romanians (8–11 %), Russians (3–7 %), Jews (6 %), Germans (4 %), Bulgarians (2 %), Poles, Greeks, and Gypsies. In 1914, Ukrainians composed only 53% of the population, while Russians made up 22% and Jews – 12%. Urban dwellers made up 10 to 20 percent of the population until the 1850s, after which the proportion of urban dwellers increased, to about 30% in 1897. Migration within the Russian Empire mainly accounted for the area's population growth, with 46% of the population born outside of the governorate in 1897.

Russian Empire Census

According to the Russian Empire Census on 28 January [O.S. 15 January] 1897, the Kherson Governorate had a population of 2,733,612, including 1,400,981 men and 1,332,631 women. The majority of the population indicated Little RussianTemplate:Efn to be their mother tongue, with significant Russian, Jewish, Romanian, and German speaking minorities.

Linguistic composition of the Kherson Governorate in 1897

Language	Native speakers	Percentage
Little RussianTemplate:Efn	1,462,039	53.48
Great RussianTemplate:Efn	575,375	21.05
Jewish	322,537	11.80
Romanian	147,218	5.39
German	123,453	4.52
Polish	30,894	1.13
Bulgarian	25,685	0.94
White RussianTemplate:Efn	22,958	0.84
Greek	8,257	0.30
Tatar	3,152	0.12
Armenian	2,070	0.08
Roma	1,671	0.06
French	1,353	0.05
Czech	1,351	0.05
Italian	834	0.03
Swedish	662	0.02
Latvian	619	0.02
Turkish	508	0.02
Lithuanian	478	0.01
English	475	0.01
Estonian	303	0.01
Georgian	201	0.01
Mordavian	170	0.01
Other languages	919	0.03
TOTAL	2,733,612	100.00

Religious composition of the Kherson Governorate in 1897

Faith	Male	Female	Both
			Number	Percentage
Eastern Orthodox	1,123,860	1,067,219	2,191,079	80.15
Judaism	168,425	171,485	339,910	12.43
Roman Catholic	53,140	42,087	95,227	3.48
Lutheran	29,229	27,328	56,557	2.07
Old Believer	13,923	14,131	28,054	1.03
Baptist	2,719	2,696	5,415	0.20
Mennonite	2,734	2,652	5,386	0.20
Reformed	2,507	2,503	5,010	0.18
Muslim	1,964	403	2,367	0.09
Armenian Apostolic	1,307	905	2,212	0.08
Karaite	954	1,054	2,008	0.07
Anglican	80	83	163	0.01
Armenian Catholic	59	19	78	0.00
Buddhist	13	11	24	0.00
Other Christian denomination	64	55	119	0.00
Other non-Christian denomination	3	0	3	0.00
Total	1,400,981	1,332,631	2,733,612	100.00

External links

• Kherson Guberniya – Article in Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary Template:In lang
• Kherson Guberniya – Historical coat of arms Template:In lang
• Kherson gubernia – Article in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
• From Kherson Governorate to Kherson Oblast. Kherson regional universal science library of Oles Honchar.