Chernigov Governorate

Черниговская губернiя Chernigov Governorate Governorate of Russian Empire ← 1802–1925 →   → An old map showing the Chernigov Governorate. Capital Chernigov History  - Established February 27 1802  - Disestablished August 01 1925 Area  - (1897) 52,396 km2 (20,230 sq mi) Population  - (1897) 2,298,000       Density 43.9 /km2  (113.6 /sq mi) Political subdivisions uezds: 15 (1795-1919) 11 (1919-1923) okrugs: 5 (1923-1925)

Chernigov Governorate (English) Черниговская губернiя (Pre-1918 Russian) Чернігівська губернія (Ukrainian)
300px Chernigov Governorate
Coat of Arms
Established	1802
Abolished	1923
Political status Region	Governorate European Russia
Area
Area - Rank	46,042.3 verst² n/a
Population (1897 census)
Population - Rank - Density - Urban - Rural	2,297,854 inhabitants n/a 49.9 inhab. / verst² n/a n/a
Government
Governor Last Head	n/a n/a

The Chernigov Governorate (Russian: Черниговская губернiя; translit.: Chernigovskaya guberniya), also known as the Government of Chernigov, was a guberniya in the historical Left-bank Ukraine region of the Russian Empire, which was officially created in 1802 from the disbanded Malorossiya Governorate with an administrative centre of Chernigov (modern Chernihiv). Its modern borders are roughly consistent of the modern Chernihiv Oblast, but also included a large section of Sumy Oblast and smaller sections of the Kiev Oblast of Ukraine, in addition to most of the Bryansk Oblast, Russia.

Administrative division

The coat of arms of the Chernigov Governorate.

The governorate consisted of 15 uyezds:

• Borzna - Борзна,
• Glukhov - Глухов,
• Gorodnya - Городня,
• Kozelets - Козелец,
• Konotop - Конотоп,
• Krolevets - Кролевец,
• Nezhin- Нѣжинъ,
• Novgorod-Seversky - Новгород-Северский,
• Oster - Остёр,
• Sosnitsa - Сосница,
• Chernigov - Чернигов,
• Mglin - Мглин,
• Novozybkov - Новозыбков,
• Starodub - Стародуб,
• Surazh - Сураж.

The Chernigov Governorate covered a total area of 52,396 km², and had a population of 2,298,000, according to the 1897 Russian Empire census. In 1914, the population was 2,340,000. After the formation of the Ukrainian SSR the territory was partitioned along ethnic borders with the four northern uyezds with mostly Belorussian and Russian population (Mglin, Novozybkov, Starodub, Surazh) were transferred to the newly formed Gomel Governorate (then part of the RSFSR), and in 1926 - to the Bryansk Governorate.

On March 7, 1923 the territory of Chernigov Governorate was reorganized into five okrug:

1. Konotop
2. Nizhyn
3. Novhorod-Siversky
4. Snovsk (liquidated on June 10, 1925)
5. Chernihiv

Principal cities

• Russian Census of 1897

• Nezhin - 32,113 (Ukrainian - 21,733, Jewish - 7,578, Russian - 2,366)
• Chernigov - 27,716 (Ukrainian - 10,085, Jewish - 8,780, Russian - 7,985)
• Konotop - 18,770 (Ukrainian - 10,290, Jewish - 4,415, Russian - 3,565)
• Novozybkov - 15,362 (Russian - 11,055, Jewish - 3,787, Belorussian - 303)
• Glukhov - 14,828 (Ukrainian - 8,621, Jewish - 3,837, Russian - 2,217)
• Borzna - 12,526 (Ukrainian - 10,846, Jewish - 1,515, Russian - 109)
• Starodub - 12,381 (Russian - 7,255, Jewish - 4,897, Ukrainian - 133)
• Krolevets - 10,384 (Ukrainian - 8,328, Jewish - 1,815, Russian - 209)
• Berezna - 9,922 (Ukrainian - 8,349, Jewish - 1,354, Russian - 144)
• Novgorod-Seversky - 9,182 (Ukrainian - 4,884, Jewish - 2,941, Russian - 1,296)
• Mglin - 7,640 (Russian - 4,840, Jewish - 2,675, Belorussian - 75)
• Sosnitsa - 7,087 (Ukrainian - 5,068, Jewish - 1,840, Russian - 158)
• Korop - 6,262 (Ukrainian - 5,309, Jewish - 865, Russian - 77)
• Oster - 5,370 (Ukrainian - 3,229, Jewish - 1,596, Russian - 399)
• Kozelets - 5,141 (Ukrainian - 2,834, Jewish - 1,632, Russian - 468)
• Pogar - 4,965 (Russian - 3,800, Jewish - 1,159, Germans - 6)
• Gorodnya - 4,310 (Ukrainian - 2,349, Jewish - 1,248, Russian - 604)
• Surazh - 4,006 (Jewish - 2,400, Belorussian - 978, Russian - 559)
• Novoye Mesto - 1,488 (Russian - 1,421, Jewish - 67)

Language

• By the Imperial census of 1897^[1]. In bold 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[2]	1,885	>0.01	1,247	638
Total	2,297,854	100	1,118,696	1,179,158

See also

• List of governors of Chernigov Governorate

References and notes

1. ^ Language Statistics of 1897 (Russian)
2. ^ Languages, number of speakers which in all gubernia were less than 1000

External links

• whp - Information
• Chernigov Guberniya - Article in Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (Russian)
• Chernigov Governorate - Historical coat of arms (Ukrainian)/(English)
• Chernihiv gubernia - Article in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine