Administrative reforms by Peter the Great Technically, the territorial-administrative reform started out in the
Tsardom of Russia before the Imperial period. On , 1708, in order to improve the manageability of the vast territory of the state,
Tsar Peter the Great issued an ukase (edict) dividing Russia into eight administrative divisions, called
governorates (
guberniyas), which replaced the 166 uyezds and razryads which existed before the reform: •
Archangelgorod Governorate •
Azov Governorate •
Ingermanland Governorate •
Kazan Governorate •
Kiev Governorate •
Moscow Governorate •
Siberia Governorate •
Smolensk Governorate The reform of 1708 established neither the borders of the governorates nor their internal divisions. In 1719, Peter enacted
another administrative reform to fix the deficiencies of the original system, as the governorates were too big and unmanageable. This reform abolished the system of lots, dividing most of the governorates into
provinces (), which were further divided into districts (). During this time, territories were frequently reshuffled between the governorates, and new governorates were added to accommodate population growth and territorial expansion. in 1721 the Russian Empire possessed a multinational population of about 17.5 million population in all administrative districts. Out of the 13.5 million Russians, 5.5 million men were liable to the poll tax; 3 percent of them were townsmen and 97 percent peasants. Of the peasants, 25 percent cultivated church lands, 19 percent state lands, and the remainder worked the estates of some 100,000 families of secular landowners. Russia’s territory of about 4,633,200 square miles (12,000,000 square km) included some recent and valuable acquisitions.
Subsequent reforms In 1727, soon after Peter the Great's death,
Catherine I enacted
another reform, which rolled back many of the previous reform's developments. The system of districts was abolished, and the old system of
uyezds was restored. A total of 166 uyezds was re-established; together with the newly created uyezds, the Russian Empire had approximately 250. The reform also reshuffled some territories.
Narva Province was transferred from
Saint Petersburg Governorate to
Revel Governorate; Solikamsk and Vyatka Provinces were transferred from
Siberia Governorate to
Kazan Governorate; and
Uglich and
Yaroslavl Provinces were transferred from Saint Petersburg Governorate to
Moscow Governorate. In addition,
Belgorod,
Oryol, and
Sevsk Provinces of
Kiev Governorate were reconstituted as
Belgorod Governorate; and
Belozersk,
Novgorod,
Pskov,
Tver, and
Velikiye Luki Provinces of Saint Petersburg Governorate were reconstituted as
Novgorod Governorate. The following years saw few changes. In 1728,
Ufa Province was transferred from Kazan Governorate to Siberia Governorate, and in 1737,
Simbirsk Province was created within Kazan Governorate.
Administrative reforms by Catherine the Great By 1775, the existing system of administrative divisions proved inefficient, which was further underlined by
Pugachev's Rebellion, and
Catherine the Great issued a document known as
Decree on the Governorates (). The second part of the same decree was issued in 1780, which, however, contained very few significant changes with respect to the first part. A major administrative territorial restructuring of the
Russian Empire after vast land acquisition from the
Ottoman Empire and
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the late 18th century. The reform saw introduction of the office of viceroy (gosudarev namestnik) which later were transformed into a general governor. Gosudarev namestnik literally means an imperial representative to the land. During the reform several already existing governments (
guberniya) were combined under the office of the Russian viceroy and were called
namestnichestvo. Those namestnichestvo were introduced onto the expanded territory as well, the only exclusion were the governments of Moscow and Saint Petersburg. In 1796 all namestnichetvo were officially renamed into general governments. General governments exercised a small degree of autonomy as certain laws varied from general government to another.
Reforms in the 19th century After the
abolition of Russian serfdom in 1861, volosts became a unit of
peasant's local
self-rule. A number of
mirs were united into a typical volost, which had an assembly consisting of elected delegates from the mirs. The self-government of the mirs and volosts was tempered by the authority of the police commissaries (
stanovoy) and by the power of general oversight given to the nominated "district committees for the affairs of the peasants".
Reforms in the 20th century By the 1910s, 104 administrative governorate units existed. ==Soviet Russia==