Until 1796, the guberniya was administered as a Viceroyalty (namestnichestvo). It was initially centred in Izyaslav and was called the Izyaslav Viceroyalty. It was primarily created from the Kiev Voivodeship and the eastern part of the Wolyn Voivodeship.
Then, on 12 December 1796, Volhynia Governorate was established, encompassing the remaining territory of the Wolyn Voivodeship and the Kowel Voivodeship.
In 1796, the administration moved to Novograd-Volynsky. However, due to the lack of suitable buildings for administrative purposes, the capital was moved once again to Zhitomir (Zhytomyr).
In 1802, Zhitomir was purchased the properties of Prince Ilyinsky, and in 1804, it officially became the seat of Volhynia Governorate.
In the 1880s, the general-governorate was extended to include other governorates.
In 1897, the population of the guberniya was 2,989,482 and by 1905, it had grown to 3,920,400. The majority of the population in the governorate spoke the Ukrainian language with slight variety of dialects.
During the Ukrainian–Soviet War Zhitomir served as the provisional capital of Ukraine in 1918.
After the Polish-Soviet war in 1920, and according to the Peace of Riga (1921) most of the territory became part of the Second Polish Republic and transformed into the Wołyń Voivodeship, with the capital in Łuck (Lutsk). The eastern portion existed until 1925 and was later split into three okruhas: Shepetivka Okruha, Zhytomyr Okruha, and Korosten Okruha.
Heads of Guberniya
Revkom
1919 Mikhail Kruchinskiy (concurrently the head of Volyn Cheka)
According to the Russian Empire Census on 28 January[O.S. 1897]15 January, the Volhynian Governorate had a population of 2,982,482, including 1,502,803 men and 1,486,679 women. The majority of the population indicated Ukrainian[lower-alpha 2] to be their mother tongue, with significant Jewish, Polish, German, and Russian speaking minorities.[5]
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Linguistic composition of the Volhynian Governorate in 1897[5]
Prior to 1918, the Imperial Russian government classified Russians as the Great Russians, Ukrainians as the Little Russians, and Belarusians as the White Russians. [3] Also, the Belarusian Democratic Republic which the White Russians identified themselves as "Belarusian".[4]
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Volhynian_Governorate, and is written by contributors.
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