Taurida Governorate

Taurida Governorate Таврическая губернiя
Governorate of Russian Empire
← 1802 (1783)–1917 →   →
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Taurida
Capital		Simferopol
History
•	Established	October 8 (old style), 1802 1802 (1783)
•	Disestablished	1917
Area
•	1918	63,538 km2 (24,532 sq mi)
Population
•	1906	1,634,700

The Taurida Governorate (Russian: Таврическая губернiя, modern spelling Таврическая губерния, Ukrainian: Таврiйська губернiя, Crimean Tatar: Tavrida guberniyası) or the Government of Taurida was an historical governorate of the Russian Empire. It included the Crimean Peninsula and the mainland between the lower Dnieper River and the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. It was formed after the Taurida Oblast was abolished in 1802 in the course of Paul I's administrative reform of the South-Western territories that had been annexed from the Crimean Khanate. The governorate's centre was the city of Simferopol. The province was named after the ancient Greek name of Crimea--Taurida.

Administrative divisions

The governorate was divided into eight counties (uyezds) and two city municipalities (gradonachalstvo),
three of them on the mainland:

• Berdyansky Uyezd (Berdyansk - Бердянскъ)
• Dneprovsky Uyezd (centre Aleshki - Алешки)
• Melitopolsky Uyezd (Melitopol - Мелитополь)

and five in Crimea:

• Yevpatoriysky Uyezd (Yevpatoria - Евпаторiя)
• Perekopsky Uyezd (Perekop - Перекопъ)
• Simferopolsky Uyezd (Simferopol - Симферополь)
• Feodosiysky Uyezd (Theodosia - Ѳеодосiя)
• Yaltsky Uyezd (Yalta - Ялта)
• city of Kerch - Керчь
• city of Sebastopol - Севастополь

Before 1820 the governorate consisted of seven counties that included Tmutarakan county on the Taman peninsula across the Strait of Kerch. Later were created Yalta and Berdyansk counties. In 1804-29 there also existed the separate city of Theodosia and in 1914 Yalta county became the autonomous city of Yalta.

In 1917 the governorate was split, with most of its peninsular part forming the Crimean People's Republic, less the city of Sevastopol which remained the main naval base of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Republic, while the rest became part of Ukrainian People's Republic.

The territory of the Ukrainian Republic was proclaimed by the Third Universal on November 20, 1917 (November 7 by Old Style) of the Tsentralna Rada encompassing the Volyn Governorate, Kiev Governorate, Podolie Governorate, Chernigov Governorate, Poltava Governorate, Kharkov Governorate, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Kherson Governorate and Taurida Governorate (not including Crimea).

Geography

The governorate bordered Yekaterinoslav Governorate and Kherson Governorate to its north. The Strait of Kerch bordered the Free lands of the Don Cossacks. It has natural borders, being surrounded by the waters of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

The mainland and the peninsular parts of the region differ significantly. The total area of the governorate was 63,538km² of which the mainland portion consisted of 38,405km² and is largely black earth steppe land. The population of the whole region was 1,634,700 in 1906. At that time, the mainland part of the governorate was mostly populated by Ukrainians and Russians but had significant ethnic minorities of Germans, Bulgarians, Armenians and Jews, while major ethnic groups of the Crimean peninsula were Crimean Tatars and Russians with German, Greek, Poles, Armenian, and Karaim minorities. Major urban centres were Simferopol, Sevastopol, Theodosia, Bakhchisaray, and Yalta in Crimea, and Aleshki (now Tsyurupynsk), Berdyansk, and Melitopol on the mainland.

Language

The linguistic composition of the uyezds (povits) of Taurida in 1897. Ukrainians in yellow, Russians in red, Crimean Tatars in green, Germans in gray, Yiddish speakers in blue, and others in purple. (Ukrainian)

• The Imperial census of 1897 found that the population of the governorate consisted of 1,447,790, with 762,804 male and 684,986 female.

Language	Number	Percentage (%)
Ukrainian (Little Russian)	611,121	42.21
Russian (Great Russian)	404,463	27.94
Belarusian (White Russian)	9,726	0.67
Polish	10,112	0.70
Czech	1,962	0.14
Bulgarian	41,260	2.85
Romanian	2,259	0.16
Italian	1,121	0.08
German	78,305	5.41
Roma	1,433	0.10
Yiddish	55,418	3.83
Greek	18,048	1.25
Armenian	8,938	0.62
Estonian	2,210	0.15
Tatar	196,854	13.60
Turkish	2,197	0.15
Persons that did not identify their native language	71	<0.01
Other	2,292	0.16

In 1897 289,316 people lived in the cities, constituting 19.98% of the total population. The ethnicities of the urban population were Russians (49.1%), Tatars (17.16%), and Jews (11.84%), with only 31 people living in cities who chose not to disclose their identity.

Religion

• By the Imperial census of 1897 there were around 1,100,000 Eastern Orthodox followers, just over 30,000 Catholic, around 70,000 Protestant Christians and about the same number of Judaic followers. Only 13% of population were Muslims (known in the Russian Empire as Magometians) who mainly lived in the peninsular portion of the guberniya, Crimea itself. They were the main force that after the next 10 years established the first Muslim democratic state of the Crimean People's Republic. Beside the Magometians and Jews there were only eight (8) other non-Christian followers in the whole guberniya (not necessarily Atheists).

Religion	Number	Percentage (%)
Eastern Orthodox	1,069,556	73.88
Magometians (Muslims)	190,800	13.18
Judaism (Krymchaks, Subbotniks)	60,752	4.20
Lutherans	42,654	2.95
Roman Catholics	29,393	2.03
Menonites	25,508	1.76
Old Believers	13,724	0.95
Armenian-Gregorians	7,494	0.52
Qārāʾîm	6,166	0.43
Armenian-Catholics	1,206	0.08
Other (Reformators, Anglicans, Baptists, others)	537	0.04

History

For further history see: History of Crimea

In 1783, the Khanate of Crimea was annexed by Catherine the Great’s Russia. Soon after this the Taurida Oblast was established. During the reign of Paul I the oblast was abolished, but soon (in 1802) re-established as a governorate (guberniya). It was a part of the Russian Empire until the Russian Revolution of 1918.

Following the 1917 October Revolution, the ethnic Tatar government proclaimed the Crimean People's Republic on December 13, 1917, which was the first Muslim Democratic state. The Tatar republic covered the peninsular portion of the former governorate, while its northern counties ended up temporarily under jurisdiction of the Yekaterinoslav Governorate. However neither Ukraine nor the Crimea managed to hold on to their territories and were overrun by Bolshevik Red Guards in the winter of 1917-18. Briefly in early 1918 the bolsheviks split the governorate territories between the Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic and the Donetsk-Krivoi Rog Soviet Republic before being overrun by the forces of the Ukrainian People's Republic with military assistance from the German Empire.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

External links

• Map of Taurida (1882)