Taurida Governorate

The Taurida Governorate (Таврическая губернiя, modern spelling Таврическая губерния, Таврiйська губернiя, ) or Government of Taurida was a 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 defunct Taurida Oblast in was abolished in 1802 in course of Paul I administrative refrom of the South-Western territories that were 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.

It was devided into eight uyezds and two city municipalities (градоначальство), of them on the mainland:

• Berdyansk uyezd (Berdyansk - Бердянскъ)
• Dnieper uyezd (centre Aleshki - Алешки)
• Melitopol uyezd (Melitopol - Мелитополь)

and in Crimea:

• Eupatoria uyezd (Eupatoria - Евпаторiя)
• Perekop uyezd (Perekop - Перекопъ)
• Simferopol uyezd (Simferopol - Симферополь)
• Theodosia uyezd (Theodosia - Ѳеодосiя)
• Yalta uyezd (Yalta - Ялта)
• city of Kerch - Керчь
• city of Sebastopol - Севастополь

Geography

The mainland and the peninsular parts of the region differed a lot. The total area of the governorate was 39,497 km² of which the mainland portion consisted of 23,583 km² and is largely black earth steppe land. The population of the whole region was 1,634,700 in 1906. At that time, mainland part of the governorate was mostly populated by Ukrainians and Russians but had significant ethnic minorities of Germans, Bulgarians, and Armenians and Jews, while major ethnic groups of the Crimean peninsula were Crimean Tatars and Russians with German, Greek, 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.

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 (province) 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 governorate was reformed as the Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic (Russian: Советская Социалистическая Республика Тавриды - Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika Tavridy) briefly in early 1918 before being overrun by the World War I Central Powers. After the reassertion of Soviet control in 1921, the lands of the governorate were divided between the peninsular Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic under the Russian SFSR and the mainland portions which accrued to the Ukrainian SSR and were divided between what would become (in 1932) the Kherson and Dnepropetrovsk Oblasts. Today the mainland portion forms parts of Kherson and Zaporizhia Oblasts while Crimea is the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, all subdivisions of Ukraine.

References

External links

• Map of Taurida (1882)