Taurida Governorate[a] was an administrative-territorial unit (guberniya) of the Russian Empire. It included the territory of the Crimean Peninsula and the mainland between the lower Dnieper River with the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.[1] It formed after Taurida Oblast was abolished in 1802 during the course of Paul I's administrative reform of the territories of the former Crimean Khanate which were annexed by Russia in 1783. The governorate's centre was the city of Simferopol. The name of the province was derived from Taurida (Greek: Ταυρική), a historical name for Crimea.
In 1783, the Khanate of Crimea was annexed by Catherine the Great’s Russia. Soon after, Taurida Oblast was established. During the reign of Paul I the oblast was abolished, but in 1802 re-established as a governorate (guberniya). It was a part of the Russian Empire until the Russian Revolution of 1918.
The mainland and the peninsular parts of the region differ significantly.
The total area of the governorate was 63,538 km2 (24,532 sq mi) of which the mainland portion consisted of 38,405 km2 (14,828 sq mi) and is largely black earthsteppe 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, Berdyansk, and Melitopol on the mainland.[1]
Administrative divisions
Taurida Governorate Map
The governorate comprised three counties (uyezds) on the mainland:
Before 1820 the governorate consisted of seven counties, including Tmutarakan county on the Taman Peninsula on the eastern side of the Kerch Strait. The Yalta and Berdyansk counties formed later. From 1804 to 1829 there also existed the gradonachalstvo of Feodosiya; and in 1914 Yalta county became the gradonachalstvo of Yalta.
In December 1917 the governorate split, with most of the peninsula forming the Crimean People's Republic (1917-1918), while the rest remained in qn undefined status including the city of Sevastopol, which remained the main naval base of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Republic. The mainland counties were declared part of the Ukrainian People's Republic, yet remained under the effective jurisdiction of the Taurida Governorate.
After occupation of Ukraine by Bolsheviks during the Ukrainian–Soviet War, the Taurida Governorate became finally split between Russian soviet republics of the Donetsk-Krivoi Rog Soviet Republic and Taurida Socialist Republic of Soviets.
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. (in Ukrainian)
The Imperial census of 1897[5] found that the population of the governorate consisted of 1,447,790, with 762,804 male and 684,986 female.
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[9] 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).
¹ Italics indicates renamed or abolished governorates, oblasts, etc on 1 January 1914. ² An asterisk (*) indicates governorates formed or created with renaming after 1 January 1914. ³ Ostsee or Baltic general-governorship was abolished in 1876.
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