The Taurida Governorate 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 Taurida Oblast was abolished in 1802 in the course of Paul I's administrative reform of the territories of the former Crimean Khanate that was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1783. The governorate's centre was the city of Simferopol. The province was named after the ancient Greek name of Crimea - Taurida.
Today the territory of the governorate is part of the AR Crimea, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine. Since the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and 2022 annexations of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the status of the Crimean peninsula and portions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts are under dispute between Russia and Ukraine; Ukraine and the majority of the international community considers the regions an integral part of Ukraine, while Russia and some of its allies, on the other hand, consider it an integral part of Russia.
Administrative divisions
The governorate comprised three counties (uyezds) on the mainland: Berdyansky Uyezd, centred in Berdyansk Dneprovsky Uyezd, Oleshky Melitopolsky Uyezd, Melitopol
and five counties plus two city authorities (gradonachalstvo) on the peninsula: Yevpatoriysky Uyezd, Yevpatoria Perekopsky Uyezd, Perekop Simferopolsky Uyezd, Simferopol Feodosiysky Uyezd, Feodosiya Yaltinsky Uyezd, Yalta City of Kerch, Yeni-Kale fortress City of Sevastopol
Before 1820 the governorate consisted of seven counties, including Tmutarakan county on the Taman Peninsula on the eastern side of the Kerch Strait. The Yalta and Berdyansk counties formed later. From 1804 to 1829 there also existed the gradonachalstvo of Feodosiya; and in 1914 Yalta county became the gradonachalstvo of Yalta.
In December 1917 the governorate split, with most of its peninsular part forming the Crimean People's Republic (1917-1918), while the rest remained in undefined position including the city of Sevastopol which remained the main naval base of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Republic. The mainland counties were declared part of the Ukrainian People's Republic, yet remained under effective of jurisdiction of the Taurida Governorate.
On the Third Universal of the Tsentralna Rada of the Ukrainian People's Republic proclaimed the territory of the Ukrainian Republic as comprising: Volyn Governorate, Kiev Governorate, Podolia Governorate, Chernigov Governorate, Poltava Governorate, Kharkov Governorate, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Kherson Governorate and Taurida Governorate (not including Crimea).
After occupation of Ukraine by Bolsheviks during the Ukrainian–Soviet War, the Taurida Governorate became finally split between Russian soviet republics of the Donetsk-Krivoi Rog Soviet Republic and Taurida Socialist Republic of Soviets.
Geography
The governorate bordered Yekaterinoslav Governorate and Kherson Governorate to its north. The Strait of Kerch bordered the Free lands of the Don Cossacks. It has natural borders, being surrounded by the waters of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
The mainland and the peninsular parts of the region differ significantly. The total area of the governorate was of which the mainland portion consisted of and is largely black earth steppe land. The population of the whole region was 1,634,700 in 1906. At that time, the mainland part of the governorate was mostly populated by Ukrainians and Russians but had significant ethnic minorities of Germans, Bulgarians, Armenians and Jews, while major ethnic groups of the Crimean peninsula were Crimean Tatars and Russians with German, Greek, Poles, Armenian, and Karaim minorities. Major urban centres were Simferopol, Sevastopol, Theodosia, Bakhchisaray, and Yalta in Crimea, and Aleshki, Berdyansk, and Melitopol on the mainland.
Language
The Imperial census of 1897 found that the population of the governorate consisted of 1,447,790, with 762,804 male and 684,986 female.
In 1897 289,316 people lived in the cities, constituting 19.98% of the total population. The ethnicities of the urban population were Russians (49.1%), Tatars (17.16%), and Jews (11.84%), with only 31 people living in cities who chose not to disclose their identity.