Poltava Governorate

Poltava Governorate Полтавская губерния
Governorate of the Russian Empire (1802–1917) and Ukrainian successor states (1917–25)
1802–1925
Coat of arms
Poltava Governorate in 1913
Location in the Russian Empire
Capital	Poltava
Area
• (1897)	49,894 km2 (19,264 sq mi)
Population
• (1897)	2,778,151
History
• Established	1802
• Abolished	1925
Political subdivisions	15 uezds (1802–1923) 7 okruhas (1923–25)
Preceded by Succeeded by Little Russia Governorate (1796–1802) Kremenchutsky Okruha Lubensky Okruha Poltavsky Okruha Prylutsky Okruha Romensky Okruha
Today part of	Poltava Oblast Kharkiv Oblast Kyiv Oblast Sumy Oblast

Poltava Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (guberniya) of the Russian Empire. It was officially created in 1802 from the disbanded Little Russia Governorate and had its capital in Poltava.

Its borders encompassed the modern Poltava Oblast of Ukraine, in addition to Berestyn, Pereiaslav, Romny and Zolotonosha.

It was bordering the Chernigov and Kursk Governorates to the north, Kiev Governorate to the west, Kharkov Governorate to the east and the Kherson and Yekaterinoslav Governorates to the south.

History

In 1802, the Little Russia Governorate was disbanded and its territory split between the new Chernigov and Poltava Governorates.

The governorate was part of the Ukrainian People's Republic from 1917 to 1920, interrupted in 1918 by the Ukrainian State.

After the formation of the Ukrainian SSR, the territory was wholly included into the new Soviet Republic. Initially the governorate system was retained – although variations included the Kremenchug Governorate which was temporarily formed on its territory (August 1920 – December 1922), and the passing of the Pereyaslavsky Uyezd to the Kiev Governorate. However, on June 3, 1925, the governorate was liquidated and succeded by five okruhas (which already were its subdivisions as of March 7, 1923): Kremenchutsky, Lubensky, Poltavsky, Prylutsky and Romensky (the remainding two okrugs existed within the governate, Zolotonoshsky and Krasnohradsky, were also liquidated).

Demographics

The governorate had a population of 2,778,151 according to the 1897 Russian Empire census. Most people (90.13%) lived on the countryside, while a tenth (9.87%) lived in towns and cities. In 1914, the population had increased to 2,794,727.

Largest towns and cities

According to the 1897 census, nine settlements had more than 10,000 people.

Russian census of 1897

• Kremenchug – 63,007 (Jewish – 29,577, Ukrainian – 18,980, Russian – 12,130)
• Poltava – 53,703 (Ukrainian – 30,086, Russian – 11,035, Jewish – 10,690)
• Romny – 22,510 (Ukrainian – 13,856, Jewish – 6,341, Russian – 1,933)
• Priluki – 18,532 (Ukrainian – 11,850, Jewish – 5,719, Russian – 821)
• Pereyaslav – 14,614 (Ukrainian – 8,348, Jewish – 5,737, Russian – 468)
• Kobeliaki – 10,487 (Ukrainian – 7,708, Jewish – 2,115, Russian – 564)
• Zenkov – 10,443 (Ukrainian – 8,957, Jewish – 1,261, Russian – 187)
• Lubny – 10,097 (Ukrainian – 5,975, Jewish – 3,001, Russian – 960)
• Mirgorod – 10,037 (Ukrainian – 8,290, Jewish – 1,248, Russian – 427)

In bold are cities with a population of over 50,000.

Native Languages

By the 1897 census, Ukrainian was by far the most native spoken language in the governorate, followed by Yiddish and Russian.

Comparison with other governorates (1897)

Language	Number	percentage (%)	males	females
Ukrainian	2,583,133	92.98	1,276,578	1,306,555
Yiddish	110,352	3.97	53,860	56,492
Russian	72,941	2.63	38,851	34,090
German	4,579	0.16	2,257	2,322
Polish	3,891	0.14	2,782	1,109
Belarusian	1,344	0.05	823	521
Persons that did not identify their native language	92	<0.01	65	27
Other	1,819	0.07	1,323	496

In bold are native languages spoken by more people than the state language.

Religion

By the 1897 census, the majority religion in the governorate and virtually the state religion was Eastern Orthodox Christianity with some of the population following Judaism. Other religions were much less common.

Religion	Number	percentage (%)	males	females
Eastern Orthodoxy	2,654,645	95.55	1,314,851	1,339,794
Judaism	110,944	3.99	54,073	56,871
Other (Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, Old Believers)	12,562	0.45	7,615	4,947

Administrative divisions

The governorate was divided into 15 uezds (povits in Ukrainian):

Uezd	Administrative seat		Area	Population (1897 census)
Transliteration (Cyrillic)	Coat of arms	Transliteration (Cyrillic)
Gadyachsky (Гадячский)		Gadyach (Гадячъ)	2,460.9 km2 (950.2 sq mi)	142,806
Zenkovsky (Зеньковский)		Zenkov (Зеньковъ)	2,250.5 km2 (868.9 sq mi)	140,304
Zolotonoshsky (Золотоношский)		Zolotonosha (Золотоноша)	4,425.5 km2 (1,708.7 sq mi)	227,594
Kobelyaksky (Кобелякский)		Kobeliaki (Кобеляки)	3,672.8 km2 (1,418.1 sq mi)	217,875
Konstantinogradsky (Константиноградский)		Konstantinograd (Константиноградъ)	6,079.2 km2 (2,347.2 sq mi)	230,310
Kremenchugsky (Кременчугский)		Kremenchug (Кременчугъ)	3,429.2 km2 (1,324.0 sq mi)	244,894
Lokhvitsky (Лохвицкий)		Lokhvitsa (Лохвица)	2,640.9 km2 (1,019.6 sq mi)	150,985
Lubensky (Лубенский)		Lubny (Лубны)	2,344.0 km2 (905.0 sq mi)	136,613
Mirgorodsky (Миргородский)		Mirgorod (Миргородъ)	2,659.3 km2 (1,026.8 sq mi)	157,790
Pereyaslavsky (Переяславский)		Pereyaslav (Переяславъ)	4,091.6 km2 (1,579.8 sq mi)	185,306
Piryatinsky (Пирятинский)		Piryatin (Пирятинъ)	3,268.1 km2 (1,261.8 sq mi)	163,505
Poltavsky (Полтавский)		Poltava (Полтава)	3,389.0 km2 (1,308.5 sq mi)	227,795
Priluksky (Прилукский)		Priluki (Прилуки)	3,274.7 km2 (1,264.4 sq mi)	192,502
Romensky (Роменский)		Romny (Ромны)	2,600.7 km2 (1,004.1 sq mi)	186,497
Khorolsky (Хорольский)		Khorol (Хороль)	3,311.0 km2 (1,278.4 sq mi)	173,375

External links

• Poltava Guberniya – Article in Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian)
• Poltava Governorate – Historical coat of arms (in Ukrainian and English)
• Chernihiv gubernia – Article in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine