• '
, 1710—Ingermanland Governorate was renamed St. Petersburg Governorate' after the city of
St. Petersburg. • '
, 1710'—all governorates were divided into lots ()—a new level of grouping above (courts of ). A "lot" was defined as a unit grouping 5,536 . The process of introducing lots lasted until 1713. As a result, all governorates were subdivided into a total of 146.7 lots. •
May 19 (May 8 in the
Julian calendar),
1713 — the capital of Russia was moved from
Moscow to
St. Petersburg. •
July 28 (17),
1713 —
Riga Governorate was formed on the recently acquired lands in the north-west of
Russia. •
July 28 (17),
1713 —
Smolensk Governorate was abolished; its territory was divided between
Moscow and
Riga Governorates. •
January 26 (January 15 in the
Julian calendar),
1714 —
Nizhny Novgorod Governorate was formed on the lands in the north-west of
Kazan Governorate. •
December 3 (November 22 in the
Julian calendar),
1717 —
Astrakhan Governorate was formed on the southern lands of
Kazan Governorate. •
December 3 (November 22),
1717 —
Nizhny Novgorod Governorate abolished; its territory merged with
Kazan Governorate. •
June 9 (May 29),
1719—The
second administrative reform of 1719 was carried out by
Peter the Great in order to fix the deficiencies of the original system. On June 9 (May 29 in the
Julian calendar), 1719 Peter issued an ukase (edict) that abolished the division of the
governorates into
lots (). Instead, most of the Governorates were divided into
provinces (провинции), and provinces were further subdivided into
districts (дистрикты). Provinces were governed by
voyevodas. The idea of the subdivision of governorates into province was borrowed from the administrative division system of
Sweden and other
European countries. Districts were introduced to replace the old system of subdivision into
uyezds; however, the borders of the new districts did not match those of the old
uyezds. The purpose of the districts was also different from that of the
uyezds—population of each district was taxed to support military units assigned to it. •
June 9 (May 29),
1719—
Nizhny Novgorod Governorate was re-established. •
June 9 (May 29),
1719—
Revel Governorate was formed on the newly acquired Baltic lands. •
May 3 (April 22 in the
Julian calendar),
1725—
Azov Governorate was renamed
Voronezh Governorate. •
1726—
Smolensk Governorate was created from parts of *
1727—
Moscow and
Riga Governorates. The
administrative reform of 1727 was carried out soon after
Peter the Great's death, when it became apparent that
previous reform was not working as planned. The fast pace of the reforms came into contradiction with the traditional ways of doing things. Newly created bureaucracy required significant financial investments, which the government was lacking. Neither
Catherine I, Peter I's second wife and successor, nor her government were willing to go on with the reforms in their original form. As a result, the 1727 reform became a step back, abolishing the system of
districts () and restoring the old system of
uezds (уе́зды) instead. A total of 166
uyezds were re-established, and with the newly created
uyezds the
Russian Empire had approximately 250
uyezds. •
1727—new
Belgorod Governorate was formed from Belgorod, Oryol, and Sevsk Provinces (провинции) of
Kiev Governorate. •
1727—new
Novgorod Governorate was formed from Belozersk, Novgorod, Pskov, Tver, and Velikiye Luki Provinces of the
St. Petersburg Governorate. •
1727—Uglich and Yaroslavl Provinces of the
St. Petersburg Governorate were transferred to
Moscow Governorate. •
1727—Narva Province of
St. Petersburg Governorate was transferred to
Revel Governorate. •
1727—Solikamsk and Vyatka Provinces of
Siberian Governorate were transferred to
Kazan Governorate. •
1728—Ufa Province of
Kazan Governorate was transferred to
Siberian Governorate as a compensation for Solikamsk and Vyatka Provinces transferred to Kazan Governorate a year earlier. •
1737—Simbirsk Province was created within
Kazan Governorate. •
1744—
Vyborg Governorate was formed on the recently acquired parts of
Finland; also included portions of
St. Petersburg Governorate. •
1744—
Orenburg Governorate was created from the lands annexed from
Siberian and
Astrakhan Governorates. ==References==