Transbaikal Oblast

The Transbaikal Oblast (Russian: Забайкальская область) was a province (oblast) of the Russian Empire, in what is now Buryatia and Zabaykalsky Krai. The oblast was created out of the territory of the Irkutsk Governorate in 1851, and was dissolved in 1917, it was briefly re-established from 1920 to 1922 before it was succeeded by the Transbaikal Governorate.

Transbaikal Oblast
Забайкальская область (Russian)
Oblast of the Russian Empire
1851/1920–1917/1922
Coat of arms of Transbaikal Oblast
Coat of arms

Transbaikal Oblast within the Russian Empire
CapitalNerchinsk, then Chita
Area 
 
613,000 km2 (237,000 sq mi)
Population 
 1897[1]
672,037
History
History 
 Established
1851/1920
 Disestablished
1917/1922
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Irkutsk Governorate
Transbaikal Governorate
Today part ofBuryatia, Zabaykalsky Krai

Geography

The Transbaikal oblast was located in Eastern Siberia, to the south and east of Lake Baikal. Internally it bordered the Irkutsk Governorate to the west and north— separated mostly by Lake Baikal— to the northeast by Yakutsk Oblast and to the east by the Amur Oblast. To the south it bordered the Qing dynasty and later Mongolia and the Republic of China.

History

The Russians first explored Transbaikalia in 1639, when Maksim Perfilyev sailed up the Vitim River up to the mouth of the Tsipa. In 1647, Ivan Pokhabov crossed Lake Baikal and, being friends with the Mongols, explored to Urga. A year later, a proper settlement of the region was founded when the Barguzin fortress was founded, collecting tribute (yasak) from the Tungusic peoples in the region. In 1654 the Nerchinsk fortress was founded, 4 years later it was moved to the mouth of the Nercha and the city of Nerchinsk was founded. In 1665, Selenginsk was founded, followed by Verkhneudinsk the next year. By the end of the 17th century, there were 3 cities and 9 fortresses (ostrogs) in the region. Transbaikalia from the start of its settlement served often as a place of exile.

According to the Supreme Decree presented to the Governing Senate on 11 July 1851, the Transbaikal Oblast, consisting of two districts — Verkhneudinsk and Nerchinsky was separated from the Irkutsk Governorate and became its own region (oblast), while Chita was elevated to a city of regional significance. The Frontier Cossacks, consisting of the Transbaikal City cossack Regiment, the village Cossacks, the Tungus and Buryat regiments as well as the population who lived in the border strip made up the Baikal Cossacks of the Transbaikal Cossack Host, which was obliged to field 600 cavalry regiments. In 1884, the region, previously subservient to the General Government of East Siberia, was re-assigned to the General Governorate of Amur, later it would be transferred again on March 17, 1906 to the General Governorate of Irkutsk. It was abolished in 1917 with the Russian Revolution but was re-established under the Far Eastern Republic in 1920, 2 years later it was abolished again and succeeded by the Transbaikal Governorate, which would later be abolished in 1926.

Administrative Divisions

The region was headed by a military governor, whose position was combined with the positions of the commander of the troops and the chief Ataman. The Cossack villages were distributed among three military departments, whose atamans supervised the regular serving of military service by the Cossacks. stanitsas were subordinated not to atamans, but to (civilian) county chiefs. The Chita district was the most complex, consisting of Cossack villages (stanitsas), peasant volosts, and nomad steppe dumas.

District District capital Coat of arms of the district capital Area in
km²
Population in 1897[2]
1 Akshinskiy district Aksha size= 35,000 34,884
2 Barguzin district Barguzin size= 148,510 25,474
3 Verkhneudinsk district Verkhneudinsk size= 94,575 167,876
4 Nerchinsk district Nerchinsk size= 38,182 94,334
5 Nerchinsky-Zavod district Nerchinsky Zavod size= 100,690 75,737
6 Selenginsk district Selenginsk size= 46,460 102,158
7 Troitskosavask district Troitskosavsk size= 19,175 32,807
8 Chita district Chita size 112,746 138,767

Independent cities

City Population (1897) Subordinate to Coat of arms
1 Mysovsk 1,500 Selenginsk district size=
2 Sretensk 1,400 Nerchinsk district size=

List of military governors

Name Title and/or rank Term
Pavel Ivanovich Zapolsky Major general 28 Oct, 1851 — 9 Aug, 1855
Mikhail Semenovich Korsakov Major general 14 December 1855 — 16 May 1860
Evgeny Mikhailovich Zhukovsky Major general and lieutenant general 16 May 1860 — 11 Sep, 1863
Nikolai Petrovich Dietmar Major general 2 February 1864 — 19 April 1874
Ivan Konstantinovich Pedashenko Major general and lieutenant general 29 May 1874 — 18 April 1880
Luka Ivanovich Illyashevich Major general 18 April 1880 — 15 Mar, 1884
Yakov Dedorovich Barabash Major general 24 June 1884 — 6 February 1888
Mikhail Pavlovich Khoroshkhin Major general 22 Feb, 1888 — 16 May 1893
Evgeniy Iosifovich Matsievskiy Major general and lieutenant general 27 May 1893 — 7 April 1901
Ivan Pavlovich Nadarov Lieutenant general 9 May 1901 — 5 July 1904
Ivan Vasilyevich Kholshchevnikov Lieutenant general 5 July 1904 — 23 February 1906
Arkady Valerianovich Sychevsky Major general 23 Feb, 1906 — 22 Aug, 1906
Mikhail Isaevich Ebelov Lieutenant general 25 October 1906 — 1 Jan, 1910
Vasily Ivanovich Kosov Lieutenant general 23 Jan, 1910 — 23 Mar, 1912
Andrei Ivanovich Kiyashko Major general 23 Mar, 1912 — Feb 1917

Vice-governors and chairmen of the regional government (college)

Name Title and/or rank Term
Apollon Davydovich Lokhvitsky Collegial councilor 6 February 1859 — 18 September 1861
Nikolai Nikolaevich Annekov Collegial councilor 18 September 1861 — 1 December 1861
Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Mordvinov Collegial councilor 16 May 1863 — 12 September 1869
Vladislav Kasperovich Zhelbetr State councilor 27 Mar, 1870 — 24 Sep, 1874
Mikhail Nikolaevich Berestov State councilor (acting) 26 Oct, 1874 — 16 Nov, 1880
Nikolai Petrovich Zalessky State councilor (acting) 16 Nov, 1880 — 26 July 1885
Grigory Ivanovich Semyonov State councilor (acting) 26 Jul, 1885 — 19 Oct, 1889
Leonty Karlovich Kube State councilor (acting) 19 Oct, 1889 — 24 Mar, 1894
Nikolai Fedorovich Nitskevich State councilor 24 Mar, 1894 — 26 Aug, 1898
Yakov Dmitrievich Gologovsky Collegial councilor 10 Sep, 1898 — 30 May 1902
German Karlovich Vilken State councilor 30 May 1902 — 27 Oct, 1903
Nikolai Pavlovich Belomestnov State councilor 27 Oct, 1903 — 5 Feb, 1906
Ignatovich Lieutenant colonel 16 Feb, 1906 — 17 Jun, 1906
Aleksandr Konstantinovich Miller State councilor (acting) 17 Jun, 1906 — 31 Dec, 1908
Nikolai Pavlovich Belomestnov State councilor (acting) 31 Dec, 1908 — 26 June 1911
Mikhail Ivanovich Izmailov State councilor (acting) 26 Jun, 1911 — 1914
Aleksandr Petrovich Naryshkin State councilor (acting) 1914 — 1917

Demographics

There were 590,000 inhabitants in 1892, including 303,200 men. The predominance of men is explained by the annual influx of free and exiled migrants, thanks to this same migration, the population growth of the Transbaikal oblast was slightly higher than the population growth of the empire. The population was mostly located in 7 cities: Barguzin, Selenginsk, Troitskosavsk, Verkhneudinsk, Chita, Nerchinsk and Aksha, with another 750 settlements as well. Cossacks numbered 177,000, or 30.5% of the total population, while peasants numbered 166,000, 28.9% of the total population and foreigners numbered 170,000 (29%). The rest of the population was made up of townspeople, troops, convicts and exiled people, at 4% of the population. Curiously, almost the entire peasant population and more than 4/5 of all Cossacks were Old Believers. Outside of Christianity, Lama Buddhism was the most widespread, whose adherents were mostly Buryats and the Tungus, shamanism was also practiced. By 1860 there were 157 Buddhist and shamanic temples, by the modern day this number decreased by 2/3. The border was guarded by the cossacks, while the peasant population tended to live along the river valleys of rivers like Dzhida, Chikoya, Khilka, Onon and Argun.

Ethnic composition and population in 1897

The population according to the 1897 census was 672,037, consisting of 342,543 men and 329,494 women. Of these, Orthodox Christians numbered 443,009, Buddhists numbered 174,227, and Old Believers numbered 36,623. The urban population was 42,778.

District Great Russians Buryats Evenks Jews Malorussians Mongols Belorussians Chinese
Total 65.1% 26.7% 4.5% 1.2%
Aksha district 86.8% 9.8% 1.8% 1.0%
Barguzin district 40.6% 44.9% 8.3% 4.7%
Verkhneudinsk district 65.0% 31.8% 1.2% 1.1%
Nerchinsk district 94.5% 1.6% 1.4%
Nerchinsky-Zavod district 97.0%
Selenginsk district 37.3% 59.6% 1.6%
Troitskosavsk district 66.4% 32.8%
Chita district 47.1% 28.2% 18.2% 1.4% 2.8%

References

  1. "Первая всеобщая перепись населения Российской Империи 1897 г." [The first general census of the population of the Russian Empire in 1897]. Demoscope Weekly (in Russian).
  2. 1897 Russian general census

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