Tbilisi Governorate

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Coat of arms of the governorate
Map from 1903 (in Russian)

The Tbilisi Governorate ( Russian Тифлисская губерния / Tifliskaja gubernija , Georgian ტფილისის გუბერნია / Tpilisis gubernia ) was an administrative unit in the General Gouvernement Caucasus of the Russian Empire .

According to today's terms, it encompassed the eastern part of Georgia (especially Kartlien and Tushetia ) and some regions in northeastern Armenia . Most of the territory of the internationally unrecognized Republic of South Ossetia also belonged to the Tbilisi Governorate. In addition there was the area around Zaqatala in today's Azerbaijan , which formed the Okrug Sakatal . This had a special status insofar as it was under military administration.

It bordered the governorates of Kutais , Yelissavetpol and Yerevan, as well as the Terek , Dagestan and Kars Oblasti .

Including the Sakatal, it had an area of ​​44,846 km 2 , the capital was Tbilisi (today Tbilisi in Georgian ).

The governorate was created in 1846 when the Georgia-Imereti governorate was divided . There were border changes in 1850 with the transfer of the Ujesdy Alexandropol , Yerevan and Nakhichevan to the newly formed Yerevan governorate , in 1867 when the Ujesds Akhaltsikhe was taken over from the Kutais governorate and in 1868 when the Yelissavetpol governorate was spun off and divided up with the Ujesd of the same name. After the end of the First World War , the Transcaucasian regions of Russia became temporarily independent, but the governorate continued to exist in the early years of the Soviet Union until the formation of the Rajons in the Georgian SSR in 1930.

From an economic point of view, agriculture and cattle breeding were of particular importance, with Glauber's salt and naphtha being the main minerals . The main trade route was the Georgian Military Road , after 1900 the railroad became important, the routes to Yerevan and Telavi were built.

On January 4, 1900, an earthquake destroyed ten villages in Tbilisi Governorate; about 900 people were killed.

Around 1900 the governorate was divided into the following Ujesdy (districts):

In addition there was the aforementioned Okrug Sakatal.

population

According to the first all-Russian census of 1897, the governorate had 1,051,032 inhabitants.

Of these, 465,537 were Georgians (counting without Imeretians, Mingrelians and Swans), 196,189 Armenians, 107,383 Tatars (i.e. Azerbaijanis), 79,082 Russians, 67,268 Ossetians, 34,130 Avars , 27,118 Greeks and 24,722 Turks. There were also smaller groups of Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, Persians, Kurds, Chechens, Assyrians, as well as Dargin and other Lesgian groups. Niederkartlien and the area around Tbilisi was the main settlement area for the Caucasus Germans; 8,340 German-speaking people were identified in 1897.

Web links

Commons : Tbilisi Governorate  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Coron-Verlagsgesellschaft mbH (Hrsg.): The Coron-Chronik - the 20th Century: 1900-1903 . S. 8. Stuttgart, ISBN 3-577-17101-4 .