Vilna province with a population of more than one and a half million people, and once part of the Russian Empire as an independent administrative-territorial unit, has become the property of history. Today, its territory is divided between Belarus and Lithuania, and the main city of Vilna, having changed its name, has become the well-known Vilnius.
Province formed by decree of Catherine II
After the uprising of the Poles led by Kosciuszko ended in defeat in 1794, the Polish-Lithuanian state was finally liquidated. A year later, Russia, Austria and Prussia signed an agreement according to which part of the territory of the rebellious Commonwe alth was assigned to each of them. This act went down in history as the "Third Partition of Poland".
According to the signed document, the Russian Empire took possession of the lands located to the east of the Bug and bounded by the Grodno-Nemirov line, the total area of which was one hundred and twenty thousand square kilometers. A year later, by order of Empress Catherine II, the Vilna province was formed on them, the center of which wasthe city of Vilna (now Vilnius).
Subsequent transformations of the Vilna province
From the day of its formation, the province was divided into eleven counties: Shavelsky, Troksky, Rossiensky, Kovno, Vilkomirsky, Braslavsky, Upitsky, Telshevsky, Oshmyansky, Zavileysky and Vilensky. However, Paul I, who took the throne in 1796, began his reign with a number of administrative and territorial reforms, which affected, in particular, the newly formed province.
According to his decree of December 12, 1796, the Vilna province was merged with the Slonim governorship, as a result of which the Lithuanian province appeared on the map of Russia in those years, the administrative center of which was still the city of Vilna.
This newly established administrative-territorial formation lasted only five years and after the accession to the throne of Alexander I was again divided into independent territories that previously constituted it. From now on, the former Slonim province began to be called Grodno, and Vilna until 1840 was called Lithuanian-Vilna.
The last pre-revolutionary redistribution of the province
The last time the Vilna province of the Russian Empire changed its shape on the map was in 1843, during the reign of Nicholas I. subject of the federation and formed the Kovno province.
SoThus, its size turned out to be significantly reduced, and until its abolition in 1920, the Vilna province consisted of Troksky, Oshmyansky, Sventsyansky and Vilna counties. Disna, Vileika, and Lida counties, which previously belonged to the Grodno and Minsk provinces, were also attached to them.
The size and composition of the population of the province
In 1897, a general census was carried out in Russia, the results of which make it possible to judge who the Vilna province was inhabited in those years. The list of settlements in which the registration of residents was carried out covers its entire territory at the end of the 19th century.
According to the surviving data, the total population was 1,591,308 people, of which Belarusians accounted for 52.2%, Lithuanians - 13.7%, Jews - 17.1%, Poles - 12.4% and Russians only 4.7%. The ratio of population groups according to their religion is also known. The majority were Catholics - 58.7%, followed by the Orthodox - 27.8%, Jews, there were about 12.8%. This is how the Vilna province looked like in the last decades of the 19th century.
The nobility, as well as a significant part of ordinary citizens who lived on its territory, did not accept the revolution and during the Civil War they supported the White Guard movement, which put themselves in the position of opponents of Soviet power. However, they could not significantly affect the course of history.
Abolition of the province and division of its territory
In 1920, after the end of the armed conflict betweenRussia, Belarus, as well as Ukraine on the one hand, and Poland on the other, signed a peace treaty. On the basis of this document, signed on March 18, 1921 in Riga, the Vilna Governorate ceased to exist as an independent administrative-territorial unit.
The last i was dotted in October 1939, when, ignoring the opinion of the Belarusian government, the leadership of the Soviet Union transferred the city of Vilna, as well as the Vilna region, to Lithuania for a period of fifteen years. This agreement also provided for the right to bring a twenty thousandth contingent of Soviet troops into the territory of Lithuania. Since then, having become the capital of the Republic of Lithuania, which later became part of the USSR, the city changed its former name to Vilnius.
