Estonia Governorate
The Estonia governorate (mostly written Esthland until the middle of the 19th century ; Russian Эстляндская губерния , Estljandskaja gubernija ; initially Reval governorate ) was from 1719 to 1918/1920 the northernmost of the three (initially two) Baltic Sea governorates and comprised the northern half of the Russian Empire present-day Estonia . The capital was Reval (now Tallinn ). Estonia had its own state parliament, the Estonian Knighthood , which met every three years.
Expansion and administrative structure
The governorate of Estonia, including the associated islands, was between 58 ° 19 'u. 59 ° 49 'north latitude and between 22 ° 2' and 28 ° 12 'east longitude. It bordered in the north on the Gulf of Finland , in the east on the governorate of Saint Petersburg ( separated from it by the Narva ), in the south on Livonia and the Peipus Sea and in the west on the Baltic Sea and covered an area of 20,247 km². The length of the water borders was 838 km.
The administration was set up as in the rest of Russia. Estonia was divided into four districts :
- Harrien ( Harju ) (capital Reval)
- Jerwen ( Järve ) (capital Weissenstein , Paide )
- die Wiek ( Lääne ) (capital Hapsal , Haapsalu )
- Wierland ( Viru ) (capital Wesenberg , Rakvere )
history
After the city of Reval and the Estonian knighthood surrendered to Tsar Peter the Great of Russia in the Great Northern War on September 29, 1710 , and as a result Estonia was united with the Russian Empire in the Nystad Peace of 1721 , it became a Russian government . This had already been formed before the peace treaty on May 29, 1719 as the Reval Governorate . The relatively free position that the peasants enjoyed under Swedish rule was more and more restricted and the manors were given civil and criminal jurisdiction again. The general exhaustion after the Nordic wars, impoverishment and depopulation, the great plague from 1708 to 1714 and other unfavorable circumstances contributed to numbing the population against their suffering. It was not until the reign of Catherine II in 1764 that the peasant question was stimulated again, but not brought to its goal. By a ukase of July 3, 1783, the governorate was transformed into the governorship of Reval and initially divided into five districts and from 1784 into four districts. Under Paul I. all governorships of Russia were dissolved and on December 12th July. / 23 December 1796 greg. also this governorate restored, now as the governorate of Estonia.
With the granting of Estonian autonomy by the Provisional Government of Russia on March 30th jul. / April 12, 1917 greg. the Ujesde Fellin , Jurjew , Ösel , Pernow and Werro as well as part of the Ujesds Walk (former Russian names) were given over to the Estonia governorate from the governorate of Livonia to the south . With the proclamation of the independent Republic of Estonia on February 24, 1918, the governorate de facto ceased to exist, de jure with the recognition of independence through the Peace of Tartu on February 2, 1920.
Statistics for the year 1885
The population (1882: 379,875 inhabitants, i.e. 19 per 1 km ²) mostly professed the Protestant religion , only four percent belonged to the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches . The number of live births was 11,704 in 1884, 8,453 of those who died, and 2,741 of married couples. The urban population represented around 16% of the total population. Until 1885 the official language was German , the German-speaking population, which is mainly represented in the cities, was called Estonians in contrast to the Estonians . About 5,000 Swedish farmers lived on some islands and in the coastal area .
Agriculture was the main occupation of the inhabitants. The main products were rye , oats , barley and potatoes , as well as buckwheat , hemp and flax , less wheat . The average net yield of grain production for 1883 is estimated to be more than two million hectoliters . There was also fruit growing and forestry . The rearing of cattle was important; 1873: 63,620 horses (mostly of the small but powerful Estonian breed), 189,672 head of cattle, 241,236 sheep, 52,000 pigs and 1,566 goats. Of the total area of the flat land in 1873 there was 16.58% on arable land, 25.47% on meadow land, 16.28% on pasture land, 18.98% on logging and 22.68% on marshes etc. Apart from the mills, there were in 1884: 202 factories and similar commercial establishments with around 7,000 workers and a production value of 28 million rubles. The brandy distillery was important, with 157 factories producing 158 million degrees of alcohol.
Trade was largely restricted to the ports of Reval , Baltischport ( Paldiski ), Kunda and Hapsal , which remained ice-free longer than Saint Petersburg or Kronstadt and were therefore very important for the Russian Empire. The value of imports by sea via Reval in 1884 was 69.4 million rubles, and via Baltischport it was 367,274 rubles; The value of the export was over Reval 19.4 million rubles, from Baltischport nothing was exported in 1884 (1883 for 1 million rubles). The imports consisted of raw cotton, machines and machine parts, manufactured goods, wool, tropical fruits, herrings, salt, coal, wine etc .; exports to alcohol, grain, flax.
In terms of teaching establishments, Estonia (1878) had 3 classical grammar schools, 29 secondary schools, middle schools, district schools and daughter schools, 22 urban elementary schools and 543 rural elementary schools, including 12 middle schools. Parochial schools. There was one elementary school for every 575 rural residents in the country. The rural schools were attended by 21,961 children of both sexes, so there was one school child for every 14 residents. To train teachers for these elementary schools, the Ritter- und Landschaft held two seminars.
See also
literature
- Paul Anton Fedor Konstantin Possart: The Russian Baltic Sea provinces of Courland, Livonia and Esthland . Volume 2: Statistics and Geography of the Esthland Governorate . JF Steinkopf, Stuttgart 1846.
