| Chernigov Governorate Chernihiv Governorate | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governorate of theRussian Empire (1802–1917) andUkrainian successor states (1917–1925)[a] | |||||||||||||||||
| 1802–1925 | |||||||||||||||||
 Coat of arms | |||||||||||||||||
.png) Chernigov Governorate in 1913 | |||||||||||||||||
.svg) Location in the Russian Empire | |||||||||||||||||
| Capital | Chernigov[b] | ||||||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||||||
• (1897) | 52,396 km2 (20,230 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||||||
• (1897) | 2,298,000 | ||||||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||||||
• Established | 1802 | ||||||||||||||||
• Abolished | 1925 | ||||||||||||||||
| Political subdivisions | uezds:
| ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| Today part of | Bryansk Oblast Chernihiv Oblast Kyiv Oblast Sumy Oblast | ||||||||||||||||
Chernigov Governorate[c] was an administrative-territorial unit (guberniya) of theRussian Empire. It was officially created in 1802 from the disbandedLittle Russia Governorate and had its capital inChernigov[b].
Its borders encompassed the modernChernihiv Oblast, but also included a large section ofSumy Oblast and smaller sections of theKyiv Oblast of Ukraine, in addition to a large part ofBryansk Oblast of Russia.
From 1918 to 1925, it was referred to asChernihiv Governorate[d] as part ofUkrainian successor states of theRussian Empire during and after thecivil war, namely of theUkrainian People's Republic, theUkrainian State and theUkrainian SSR.
When part of the Russian Empire, the governorate consisted of 15uyezds (their administrative centres in brackets):
Of these, 11 were in territory inhabited by Ukrainians: Borzna, Hlukhiv, Horodnia, Kozelets, Konotop, Krolovets, Nizhyn, Novhorod-Siverksyi, Oster, Sosnytsia, and Chernihiv.[2]
Chernigov Governorate covered a total area of 52,396 km², and had a population of 2,298,000, according to the1897 Russian Empire census. In 1914, the population was 2,340,000. In 1918 it became part of Ukraine and transformed into Chernihiv Governorate.
As part of the Ukrainian State and the Ukrainian SSR, the governorate consisted of 18 counties (povits):
In 1919, the northern Mhlyn, Novozybkiv, Starodub, and Surazh counties, with their mixed Ukrainian–Belarusian–Russian population, were transferred from Ukraine to the newly establishedGomel Governorate of the Russian republic.[2]
In 1925, the governorate’s territory was redistributed amongHlukhiv,Konotop,Nizhyn, andChernihiv districts (okruhas).[2]
At the times of the Russian Census of 1897:
At the time of the Imperial census of 1897.[3] Inbold are languages spoken by more people than the state language.
| Language | Number | percentage (%) | males | females |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ukrainian | 1,526,072 | 66.41 | 747,721 | 778,351 |
| Russian | 495,963 | 21.58 | 236,842 | 259,121 |
| Belarusian | 151,465 | 6.59 | 73,691 | 77,774 |
| Yiddish | 113,787 | 4.95 | 54,724 | 59,063 |
| German | 5,306 | 0.23 | 2,664 | 2,642 |
| Polish | 3,302 | 0.14 | 1,775 | 1,527 |
| Persons that didn't name their native language | 74 | >0.01 | 32 | 42 |
| Other[4] | 1,885 | >0.01 | 1,247 | 638 |
| Total | 2,297,854 | 100 | 1,118,696 | 1,179,158 |
