Courland Governorate

The Courland Governorate, also known as the Province of Courland,[1] Governorate of Kurland[2] (German: Kurländisches Gouvernement; Russian: Курля́ндская губерния, romanized: Kurljándskaja gubernija; Latvian: Kurzemes guberņa) was one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire, that is now part of the Republic of Latvia.

German and Russian map of the Courland Governorate

Courland Governorate
Kurländisches Gouvernement
Курля́ндская губе́рния
Governorate of the Russian Empire
1795–1918

Courland Governorate of the Russian Empire
CapitalMitau
(present-day Jelgava)
Population 
• (1897)
674,034
History 
• Partition of Poland
28 March 1795
1918
• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
1918
Political subdivisions9
Preceded by		Succeeded by
Duchy of Courland and Semigallia
Ober Ost
Today part of Latvia
 Lithuania
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The governorate was created in 1795 out of the territory of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia that was incorporated into the Russian Empire as the province of Courland with its capital at Mitau (now Jelgava), following the third partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Until the late 19th century the governorate was not ruled by Russia but was administered independently by the local Baltic German nobility through a feudal Regional Council (German: Landtag).[3]

The governorate was bounded in the north by the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Riga and the Governorate of Livonia; west by the Baltic Sea; south by the Vilna Governorate and Prussia and east by the Vitebsk Governorate and Minsk Governorate. The population in 1846 was estimated at 553,300.[1]

It ceased to exist during World War I after the German Empire took control of the region in 1918. Russia surrendered the territory by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918.

Subdivisions

The governorate was subdivided into 10 counties (German: Kreis; Russian: Uyezd)

  • Kreis Bauske – Bauske (now Bauska)
  • Kreis Doblen – Dohlen (now Dobele)
  • Kreis Friedrichstadt – Friedrichstadt (now Jaunjelgava)
  • Kreis Goldingen – Goldingen (now Kuldīga)
  • Kreis Grobin – Grobin (now Grobiņa)
  • Kreis Hasenpoth – Hasenpoth (now Aizpute)
  • Kreis Illuxt – Illuxt (now Ilūkste)
  • Kreis Talsen – Talsen (now Talsi)
  • Kreis Tuckum – Tuckum (now Tukums)
  • Kreis Windau – Windau (now Ventspils)

List of governors

Between 1800 and 1876 overall authority in Courland was handed to the governor-general of the Baltic Provinces (German: Generalgouverneur der Ostseeprovinzen).

  • 1795 – 1796 Baron Peter Ludwig von der Pahlen (temporary governor-general of Courland and Pilten)
  • 1796 – 1798 Count Gustav Matthias Jakob von der Wenge genannt Lambsdorff
  • 1798 – 1800 Baron Wilhelm Carl Heinrich von der Oest genannt Driesen
  • 1800 – 1808 Nikolay Ivanovich Arsenyev
  • 1808 Jakob Maximilian von Brieskorn (acting governor on 18–21 May 1812)
  • 1808 – 1811 Baron Jan Willem Hogguer
  • 1811 Jakob Maximilian von Brieskorn (acting governor in August–September 1812)
  • 1811 – 1816 Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Sivers (1748–1823) (in exile in Riga during Napoleonic invasion of Courland in July–December 1812)
  • 1812 Jules de Chambaudoin and Charles de Montigny (French intendants of Courland, Semigallia and Pilten on 1 August-8 October 1812)
  • 1812 Jacques David Martin (French governor-general of Courland on 8 October-20 December 1812)
  • 1816 – 1824 Emannuel von Stanecke
  • 1824 – 1827 Paul Theodor von Hahn (1793–1862)
  • 1827 – 1853 Christoph Engelbrecht von Brevern
  • 1853 Aleksandr Petrovich Beklemishev (acting governor on 10 May–14 June 1853)
  • 1853 – 1858 Pyotr Aleksandrovich Valuyev
  • 1858 Julius von Cube (acting governor on 10–21 May 1858)
  • 1858 – 1868 Johann von Brevern
  • 1868 – 1885 Paul Frommhold Ignatius von Lilienfeld-Toal
  • 1885 Aleksandr Alekseyevich Manyos
  • 1885 – 1888 Konstantin Ivanovich Pashchenko
  • 1888 – 1891 Dmitry Sergeyevich Sipyagin
  • 1891 – 1905 Dmitry Dmitriyevich Sverbeyev
  • 1905 – 1906 Woldemar Alexander Valerian von Boeckmann
  • 1906 – 1910 Leonid Mikhailovich Knyazev
  • 1910 Nikolay Dmitriyevich Kropotkin
  • 1910 – 1915 Набоков, Сергей Дмитриевич
  • 1915–1917 Tatishchev, Pyotr Vasilyevich Gendrikov, Strakhov (in exile in Tartu after the German invasion of Courland in July 1915).

In March 1918 the Baltic provinces were transferred to German authority following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

Language
  • By the Imperial census of 1897.[4] In bold are languages spoken by more people than the state language.
Language Number percentage (%) males females
Latvian 507 511 75.29 240 672 266 839
German 51 017 7.56 23 372 27 645
Yiddish 37 689 5.59 18 137 19 552
Russian 25 630 3.8 16 319 9 311
Polish 19 688 2.92 9 985 9 703
Lithuanian 16 531 2.45 8 833 7 698
Belarusian 12 283 1.82 6 356 5 927
Romani 1 202 0.17 581 621
Persons
that didn't name
their native language		 5 >0.01 4 1
Other[5] 2 478 0.36 1 993 485
Total 674 034 100 326 252 347 782
gollark: They didn't, you're just subject to them for purposes.
gollark: Those are *so* last year.
gollark: Also the majority of impossible ones.
gollark: We can just check all possible positions simultaneously via time hax.
gollark: Positional uncertainty is irrelevant to our multiuniversal sensor grid.

See also

References and notes
  1. The English Cyclopaedia By Charles Knigh
  2. The Baltic States from 1914 to 1923 By LtCol Andrew Parrott Archived 19 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Smith, David James (2005). The Baltic States and Their Region. Rodopi. ISBN 978-90-420-1666-8.
  4. Language Statistics of 1897 (in Russian)
  5. Languages, number of speakers which in all gubernia were less than 1000
Terra MarianaCourland GovernorateDuchy of Courland and SemigalliaLatviaHistory of Latvia

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