Volhynian Governorate


Volhynian Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit initially of the Russian Empire, 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, 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.

History

Until 1796 the guberniya was administrated as a namestnichestvo. It was initially centered in Iziaslav and was called the Izyaslav namesnichestvo. It was created mostly out of the Kiev Voivodeship and the east part of the Wolyn Voivodeship.
On 24 October 1795 the Third Partition of Poland happened.
On 12 December 1796 the Volhynian Governorate was created and included the rest of the Wolyn Voivodeship and Kowel Voivodeship.
In 1796 the administration moved to Novograd-Volynsky, but because no buildings were found suited for administrative purposes the seat was moved again to Zhytomyr.
In 1802 Zhytomyr was finally bought out of the properties of Prince Ilyinsky and in 1804 it became officially the seat of the Volyn Governorate.
From 1832 to 1915 the Volhynian Governorate and the Kiev Governorate and the Podolie Governorate were part of the Southwestern Krai General-Governorate, a type of militarized administrative-territorial unit.
In the 1880s the general-governorate was extended and included also other governorates.
In 1897 the population of the gubernia was 2,989,482 and in 1905 – 3,920,400. The majority of the population of the governorate spoke in old Ukrainian language with slight variety of dialects.
During the Ukrainian–Soviet War Zhytomir served as the provisional capital of Ukraine in 1918.
After the Polish-Soviet war in 1920 and according to the Peace of Riga most of the territory became part of the Second Polish Republic and transformed into Wołyń Voivodeship with the capital in Łuck. The eastern portion existed to 1925 and later split into three okruhas Shepetivka Okruha, Zhytomyr Okruha, and Korosten Okruha.

Heads of Guberniya

;Revkom
;Volyn Executive Committee
;Cheka
;GPU
Russian Census of 1897
No.Counties Area
sq. versts		Population
No. of volostsDate of
creation
1Vladimir-Volynsky Uyezd5 695.8277,265231795
2Dubensky Uyezd3 483.0195,058131795
3Zhitomirsky Uyezd6 740.0433,859201804
4Zaslavsky Uyezd3 055.0208,742161795
5Kovelsky Uyezd6 728.0211,493181795
6Kremenetsky Uyezd3 041.0219,934161795
7Lutsky Uyezd6 626.0252,550161795
8Novograd-Volynsky Uyezd6 331.0348,950201804
9Ovruchsky Uyezd9 329.0205,390161795
10Ostrozhsky Uyezd2 694.0169,351141795
11Rovensky Uyezd7 529.0273,001171795
12Starokonstantinovsky Uyezd2 249.8193,889131796

Language