Don Host Oblast
Don Host Oblast (Russian: Область Войска Донского, romanized: Oblast’ Voyska Donskogo) was an oblast of the Russian Empire which consisted of the territory of the Don Cossacks, coinciding approximately with present-day Rostov Oblast in Russia. Its administrative center was Cherkassk, and later Novocherkassk.[1]
Don Host Oblast
Область Войска Донского | |
|---|---|
 Coat of arms | |
.svg.png.webp) Location in the Russian Empire | |
| Country | Russian Empire |
| Established | 1786 |
| Abolished | 1920 |
| Capital | Novocherkassk |
| Area | |
| • Total | 162,888.57 km2 (62,891.63 sq mi) |
| Population (1897) | |
| • Total | 1,712,898 |
| • Density | 11/km2 (27/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 18.61% |
| • Rural | 91.39% |
The province comprised the areas where the Don Cossack Host settled in the Russian Empire. From 1786, the territory was officially named the Lands of the Host of the Don (zemlya Voyska Donskogo), renamed Don Host Province in 1870.
During 1913, the oblast, with an area of about 165,000 km², had about 3.8 million inhabitants. Of these, 55% (2.1 million) were Cossacks in possession of all the land; the remaining 45% of the population being townsfolk and agricultural guest labourers from other parts of Russia.
This subdivision was abolished in 1920; from the major part of it the Don Oblast of the RSFSR was created, which was incorporated into the North Caucasus Krai in 1924.
References
- Smele, Jon (2015). Historical dictionary of the Russian civil wars, 1916-1926. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 334. ISBN 9781442252813.