Administrative Divisions

The Piadyshev Atlas describes two semi-autonomous, or primary, administrative regions (the atlas does not include mention of namestnichestva or governor-generalships): the Grand Duchy of Finland (acquired in 1809); the Kingdom of Poland…

Provinces were the building blocks of the imperial administrative structure. Starting in the 18th century, provinces came in two forms: the guberniia and the oblast'. Empress Catherine II determined the shape and structure of the former, dominant…

Provinces came in two forms. While the guberniia was the more standardized and more prolific form, the oblast' played an important role in the administrative geography of the empire as well. The oblast' was a secondary administrative unit.A quick…

Imperial officials who daydreamed about looking out the frosty windows of the Winter Palace onto a relentlessly well-organized and highly standarized state were in for disappointment. Wedged in at the margins of the more-or-less regularized provinces…

The districts were tertiary administrative units. Each was nested within a secondary unit (guberniia, oblast', or irregular division).The Piadyshev Atlas describes 583 districts, including 24 vladeniia and okruga in Georgia, 7 nachal'stva in the Don…

The voevodstvo was the main (secondary) administrative unit of the Kingdom of Poland; the equivalent of the guberniia in Russia proper.