Vitebsk Governorate
The Vitebsk (Russian Витебская губерния / Witebskaja Gubernija ) was an administrative unit of the Russian Empire. Today, the area mostly belongs to Belarus, the north-western part of Latvia and the northern and eastern Russia. It bordered on the provinces Pskov, Smolensk, Mogilev, Minsk, Vilnius, Courland and Livonia, and comprised 43,984 km ² ( by Strelbitsky 45,166 km ²), with the capital of Vitebsk.
The government consisted of eleven counties in 1900:
- Drissa (now Werchnjadswinsk )
- Gorodok ( weißruss. Haradok )
- Lepel
- Newel
- Polotsk ( weißruss. Polotsk )
- Sebezh
- Welisch
- Vitebsk
- Daugavpils / Dvinsk ( Daugavpils lett )
- Ljuzin ( lett Ludza )
- Reschiza ( lett Rezekne )
The latter three were in the order time to Livonia and were later "Polish Livonia ", called by the country people Niflant and Iflant. It is around the present Latgale.
Vitebsk once formed a part of the Principality of Polotsk, came in the 14th century in Lithuania and was a voivodeship (province of Vitebsk ). It was 1772 when the first partition of Poland to Russia and in 1796 united with Mohiljow for governorship Belarus in 1802 but separated from it again and organized as a separate province. It existed until 1924.
Statistics
The population comprised 1897 1.489.246 inhabitants. It consisted of 788 599 Belarusians, Latvians, 264 062, 198 001 Russians, 174,240 Jews, 50,377 Poles and 7,361 Germans. The religion after 1897 there was 24% Roman Catholic and 61 % Orthodox. The city population was predominantly Polish and Jewish, while the rural population consisted predominantly of White Russians ( in the northwest Latvians ). As everywhere in the western parts of the Russian Empire in the 19th century there was a strong tendency to Russification, which were intensified in 1890.
The marshes of the area took over 4700 km ². From the area accounted for 27.2 percent of arable, 34.6 on forest, 18.6 on meadows and pastures, 19.6 per cent of infertile land.
The number of marriages was 1885 8.044, the 50 779 births, the deceased 32 245.
Vitebsk was not one of the most fertile provinces, and the crops showed only in the best years to be sufficient for the population. 1887 provided the harvest of 2.6 million hl rye, 2.6 million hectoliters of potatoes and 1.9 million hl oats. The livestock amounted in 1883 to 455 312 head of cattle, 229 530 horses, 265 854 grobwollige sheep, 216 274 pigs. The potato often had to replace the bread. Flax was grown a lot and formed a main article of export via Riga.
The industry was at the end of the 19th century was not significant: 672 factories with 2936 workers and a production value of 7.887 million rubles. Major industries were flour mills, brandy manufacture, leather processing, brewery and tobacco industries.
Trade was by the Dvina, the Beresinakanal ( the Daugava connects to the Dnieper ), and how on the other hand carried by the railway from Vitebsk to Smolensk after Dvinsk and especially marketed flax, linseed, timber and skins. The imports consisted in significant quantities of cereals from Smolensk, cloths from Grodno, colonial and haberdashery from Riga and Moscow. The most important trading center was Vitebsk.
Vitebsk had 1885 330 elementary schools with 12,433 students, 9 middle schools with 1983 pupils and two schools with 282 pupils, namely, a spiritual and a teacher training college.