Administrative units of the Russian Empire in the Baltic region (1721-1918)
For information about independent Baltic countries, see
Baltic states
.
Governorate in Baltic, Russian Empire
The
Baltic governorates
,
[a]
originally the
Ostsee governorates
,
[b]
was a collective name for the administrative units of the
Russian Empire
set up in the territories of
Swedish Estonia
,
Swedish Livonia
(1721) and, afterwards, of the
Duchy of Courland and Semigallia
(1795).
History
[
edit
]
The
Treaty of Vilnius of 1561
included the
Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti
by which the Polish King
Sigismund II Augustus
guaranteed the
Livonian estates
several privileges, including religious freedom with respect to the
Augsburg Confession
, the
Indigenat
(
Polish
:
Indygenat
), and continuation of the traditional German jurisdiction and administration.
[1]
The terms regarding religious freedom forbade any regulation of the traditional Protestant order by religious or secular authorities, and ruled that cases of disagreements be judged only by Protestant scholars. When in 1710
Estonia and Livonia capitulated to Russia
during the
Great Northern War
, the capitulations explicitly referred to the
Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti
, with the respective references being confirmed in the
Treaty of Nystad
(1721).
[2]
The
dominions
of
Swedish Estonia
(in what is now northern Estonia) and
Swedish Livonia
(in what is now southern Estonia and northern Latvia) became the governorates of
Reval
and
Riga
, when they were conquered by Russia during the
Great Northern War
, and then ceded by
Sweden
in the
Treaty of Nystad
in 1721. Notably, both Reval Governorate and Riga Governorate were each at the time subdivided into one province only: the province of Estonia and the province of Livonia, respectively. In the period of the so-called Regency, 1783?1796, the Regent's (later Governor-General's) Office in Riga was created. It consisted of two subdivisions dealing with local matters and Russian affairs.
After an administrative reform in 1796, the Reval Governorate was renamed Governorate of Estland (Эстляндская губерния), and Riga Governorate renamed Governorate of Livland (Лифляндская губерния). The third Baltic province of Courland was annexed into Russian Empire after the
third partition of the Polish?Lithuanian Commonwealth
in 1795.
The Baltic Governor-General (Прибалтийский генерал-губернатор) was the representative of the
Russian Emperor
in the provinces of Livland, Estland and Courland. He was appointed by the Emperor and was subject to the latter as well as to the Senate. His duties were regulated by laws and instructions from central authorities. From the beginning of the 19th century he acted as an intermediate between the ministries in
Saint Petersburg
and administration of the Baltic governorates on spot.
The Governor-General, the highest local executive official and military authority, was in charge of the internal order in the provinces and had to take care of their overall security. He was in charge of recruiting troops and had to keep an eye on the garrisons and fortifications. His civil duties included supervising the provincial administration and prisons, maintaining land roads and bridges, issuing passports, and overseeing collection of state taxes and customs duties. He appointed and dismissed higher officials. The Office of the Baltic Governor-General was abolished at the beginning of the
russification
in the Baltic Provinces in 1876.
Similarly to
guberniyas
of the autonomous
Grand Duchy of Finland
, the Baltic Governorates until the end of 19th century were not a subject to the common civil and administrative laws of the
Russian Empire
, but did not have monetary, fiscal and passport system of their own.
[3]
Like
guberniyas
of the
Kingdom of Poland
they were treated as an integral entity and the Russian law provided them the preservation of local authorities.
[4]
In Baltics these were
Landtags
. The special legislation which set rules for municipal administration and entrepreneurship according to local traditions, as well as the privileges to the local nobility in the Baltics was known under the collective name of
Ostsee Right
(
Russian
:
Остзейское право
).
From the end of the 18th century through 1917 names and territories of the
Governorate of Courland
(
German
:
Kurlandisches Gouvernement
,
Russian
:
Курляндская губерния
), the
Governorate of Livland
(
German
:
Livlandisches Gouvernement
,
Russian
:
Лифляндская губерния
) and the
Governorate of Estland
(
German
:
Estlandisches Gouvernement
,
Russian
:
Эстляндская губерния
) remained unchanged; the
February Revolution
of 1917 was followed by an internal redistribution of Latvian and Estonian lands between the latter two. The
October Revolution
of 1917 and the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
of 1918 created the prerequisites for declaration of independence of these governorships from Russia as the independent states of
Estonia
and
Latvia
.
List of governors-general
[
edit
]
Listing
[
edit
]
Coat of arms
|
Unofficial flag
|
Russian
|
Transliteration
|
Historic German
|
Historic English
|
Modern English
|
Current area
|
|
|
Эстляндская губерния
|
Estlyandskaya guberniya
|
Est(h)landisches Gouvernement
|
Est(h)onia
|
Estonia
|
North Estonia
|
|
|
Лифляндская губерния
|
Liflyandskaya guberniya
|
Livlandisches Gouvernement
|
Livonia
|
Livonia
|
South Estonia, North Latvia (
Vidzeme
)
|
|
|
Курля?ндская губерния
|
Kurlyandskaya guberniya
|
Kurlandisches Gouvernement
|
Courland
|
Curonia
|
West Latvia, South Latvia (
Kurzeme
,
Zemgale
)
|
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]