Kholm Governorate (Russian Empire)

Kholm Governorate Холмская губерния
Governorate of the Russian Empire
1913–1918
Coat of arms
Location in the Russian Empire
Capital	Kholm
Area
•	10,460 km2 (4,040 sq mi)
Population
•	896,316
History
• Creation of Kholm Governorate	8 September 1913
• Act of 5th November	1916
• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk	1918
• Second Treaty of Brest-Litovsk	1918
• Armistice of 11 November	11 November 1918
Political subdivisions	Governorates of the Russian Empire
Preceded by Succeeded by Siedlce Governorate Lublin Governorate Regency Kingdom of Poland Kholm Governorate
Today part of	Poland

Kholm Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (guberniya) of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Kholm (Chełm).

It was created from the eastern parts of Siedlce Governorate and Lublin Governorate in 1912. It was separated from Privislinsky Krai and joined to Kiev General Governorate as "core Russian territory", as a precaution in case the territories of Privislinsky Krai should be taken from the Russian Empire in an upcoming war. Another reason for this administrative change was to facilitate Russification and conversion of the non-Eastern Orthodox Christians to Orthodoxy.

Kholm Governorate was officially excluded from Privislinsky Krai by Tsar's decree of 4 April 1915.

According to Russian statistical sources for 1914, while the area of the governorate was 10,460 square kilometres (4,040 sq mi), it was inhabited by 896,316 inhabitants of whom 404,633 (45.1%) were Roman Catholics, 327,322 (36.5%) Orthodox Christians, 29,123 Protestants and 135,238 Jews. Russian data was questioned by Polish scholars, such as Włodzimierz Wakar, who argued that Poles made up a larger percent of the total population than according to official Russian sources.

However, during the Great Retreat in the summer of 1915, the Russian command gave orders to evacuate the population of the governorate. Due to that policy, about 2/3 of the Ukrainian population was deported to the Russian Empire in June–July 1915. The deported population reached a few hundred thousand people and thus significantly changed the national composition of the region. As of year 1918 the ethnic Polish population amounted already to around 70% of the region's total population.

Administrative Divisions

The Kholm governorate consisted of 8 Uyezds (note Russian spellings for administrative centres used):

№	Uyezd	Admin Centre	Area, (Verst)	Population (1897) (People)
1	Belgoraisky	Belgorai (5 846 )	1 500.8	96 332
2	Belsky	Bela (13 090 )	1 311.0	76 687
3	Vlodavsky	Vlodava (6 673 )	1 900.1	98 035
4	Grubeshovsky	Grubeshov (10 639 )	1 063.9	101 392
5	Zamostsky	Zamost (14 705 )	1 569.6	119 783
6	Konstantinovsky	Yanov (3 861 )	1 263.0	61 333
7	Tomashevsky	Tomashev (6 233 )	1 213.4	98 783
8	Kholmsky	Kholm (18 452 )	1 865.9	137 585

Demographics

The entire population of the Kholm province, according to official Russian statistics, was 896,316 people of whom 45.1% were Roman Catholics, 36.5% Orthodox Christians, 3.2% Protestants and 15.1% Jews. This means that even according to official data the number of Catholics was larger than the number of the Orthodox. Polish historiography considers this official Russian data as falsified. The Orthodox accounted for more than half of the population only in Grubeshovsky district, as well as in some parts of the former Lubartovsk and Krasnostavsky districts. In parts of Tomashov and Kholm districts, as well as in the former Vlodavsky Uyezd, the number of the Orthodox exceeded the number of Catholics by about 5%. In remaining areas the number of Catholics exceeded the number of the Orthodox. Due to the 1905 Decree of Tolerance (also known as The Edict of Toleration) by Tsar Nicholas II many Orthodox people in what later became the Kholm Governorate started converting to Roman Catholicism, which caused the decline of the percentage of Orthodox population in the area during the following years. The share of Orthodox Christians further declined during the evacuation of the population as part of the Great Retreat.

According to the Russian census of 1897 the share of each religion in eight uyezds which later became the Kholm Governorate was 344,098 Roman Catholics (43.6%), 314,404 Orthodox Christians (39.8%), 107,238 Jews (13.6%), 22,766 Protestants (2.9%) and 1,424 people of other religions (0.2%). According to the Polish census of 1921 the share of each religion in eight counties which used to form the Kholm Governorate before, was 494,819 Roman Catholics (65.7%), 140,549 Orthodox Christians (18.7%), 104,667 Jews (13.9%), 10,057 Protestants (1.3%) and 2,956 people of other religions (0.4%).

The total population of eight districts in 1897 was 789,930 and in 1921 it was 753,048.

Religious composition of the population according to the 1897 Russian census

Uyezd	Population 1897	Roman Catholic	%	Orthodox	%	Jewish	%	Protestant	%	Other religion	%
Konstantinovsky	61333	34335	56.0%	18742	30.6%	8185	13.3%	0	0.0%	71	0.1%
Belsky	76687	30340	39.6%	29081	37.9%	16658	21.7%	384	0.5%	224	0.3%
Vlodavsky	98035	22352	22.8%	55728	56.8%	15489	15.8%	4391	4.5%	75	0.1%
Kholmsky	137585	47849	34.8%	54485	39.6%	17486	12.7%	17148	12.5%	617	0.4%
Grubeshovsky	101392	29666	29.3%	56058	55.3%	14778	14.6%	843	0.8%	47	0.0%
Zamostsky	119783	80685	67.4%	24224	20.2%	14751	12.3%	0	0.0%	123	0.1%
Tomashevsky	98783	42944	43.5%	44715	45.3%	10933	11.1%	0	0.0%	191	0.2%
Belgoraisky	96332	55927	58.1%	31371	32.6%	8958	9.3%	0	0.0%	76	0.1%
Total in eight districts	789930	344098	43.6%	314404	39.8%	107238	13.6%	22766	2.9%	1424	0.2%

Religious composition of the population according to the 1921 Polish census

County	Population 1921	Roman Catholic	%	Orthodox	%	Jewish	%	Protestant	%	Other religion	%
Konstantynów	65055	53667	82.5%	4012	6.2%	7241	11.1%	10	0.0%	125	0.2%
Biała Podlaska	59520	37239	62.6%	9551	16.0%	11550	19.4%	226	0.4%	954	1.6%
Włodawa	76718	40881	53.3%	20104	26.2%	13562	17.7%	2017	2.6%	154	0.2%
Chełm	121475	68770	56.6%	24701	20.3%	19912	16.4%	7476	6.2%	616	0.5%
Hrubieszów	103841	50735	48.9%	38468	37.0%	13967	13.5%	273	0.3%	398	0.4%
Zamość	142614	119769	84.0%	5441	3.8%	17225	12.1%	34	0.0%	145	0.1%
Tomaszów	92809	57869	62.4%	22389	24.1%	12154	13.1%	11	0.0%	386	0.4%
Biłgoraj	91016	65889	72.4%	15883	17.5%	9056	9.9%	10	0.0%	178	0.2%
Total in eight districts	753048	494819	65.7%	140549	18.7%	104667	13.9%	10057	1.3%	2956	0.4%

In the 1931 census data Konstantynów county is counted as part of Biała Podlaska county:

Religious composition of the population according to the 1931 Polish census

County	Population 1931	Roman Catholic	%	Orthodox	%	Jewish	%	Protestant	%	Other religion	%
Biała Podlaska	116266	82647	71.1%	18192	15.6%	14288	12.3%	333	0.3%	806	0.7%
Włodawa	113566	57939	51.0%	33382	29.4%	18188	16.0%	3522	3.1%	535	0.5%
Chełm	162340	88488	54.5%	37530	23.1%	22852	14.1%	10609	6.5%	2861	1.8%
Hrubieszów	129957	63365	48.8%	49128	37.8%	15785	12.1%	419	0.3%	1260	1.0%
Zamość	149548	125249	83.8%	6778	4.5%	16738	11.2%	59	0.0%	724	0.5%
Tomaszów	121124	73021	60.3%	33059	27.3%	14204	11.7%	26	0.0%	814	0.7%
Biłgoraj	116951	82614	70.6%	20913	17.9%	12938	11.1%	31	0.0%	455	0.4%
Total in seven districts	909752	573323	63.0%	198982	21.9%	114993	12.6%	14999	1.6%	7455	0.8%

See also

• Kholm Governorate (Ukraine)

External links

• (in Russian) The legal document of the Russian Duma that proclaims the creation of the Kholm Governorate.
• Map of Kholm region Archived 20 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine