Chernigov Governorate

Chernigov Governorate Черниговская губернiя
Governorate of Russian Empire
← 1802–1918 →
Coat of arms of Chernigov Coat of arms
Location of Chernigov Chernigov Governorate 1903
Capital		Chernihiv
History
•	Established	February 27, 1802 1802
•	Disestablished	August 1, 1918 1918
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
Today part of		Chernihiv Oblast Kiev Oblast Bryansk Oblast

The Chernigov Governorate (Russian: Черниговская губерния; 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 Malorossiya Governorate with an administrative centre of Chernihiv. The Little Russian Governorate was transformed into the General Government of Little Russia and consisted of Chernihiv Governorate, Poltava Governorate, and later Kharkiv Governorate.

Chernigov Governorate borders are roughly consistent with 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 governorate consisted of 15 uyezds:

• Borzna County
• Glukhiv County
• Gorodnya County
• Kozelets County
• Konotop County
• Krolevets County
• Nizhyn County
• Novhorod-Siversky County
• Oster County
• Sosnytsia County
• Chernihiv County
• Mhlyn County
• Novozybkov County
• Starodub County
• Surazh County

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. In 1918 it became part of Ukraine and transformed into Chernihiv Governorate.

Principal cities

• Russian Census of 1897

• Nizhyn – 32,113 (Ukrainian – 21,733, Jewish – 7,578, Russian – 2,366)
• Chernihiv – 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)
• Hlukhiv – 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)
• Mhlyn – 7,640 (Russian – 4,840, Jewish – 2,675, Belorussian – 75)
• Sosnytsia – 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. 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	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

External links

• 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