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64-772: The Governorate of Estonia , also known as the Esthonia (Estland) Governorate , was a province ( guberniya ) and one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire . It was located in the northern Estonia with some islands in the West Estonian archipelago , including Hiiumaa and Vormsi . Previously, the Reval Governorate existed during Peter I's reign and was confirmed by the Treaty of Nystad , which ceded territory from Sweden to

128-551: A Baltic Weltanschauung , proved this aspect of Russification disorienting. Some of them, who had received their education in German, were able to retool themselves, but it was a long process. With the rise of the liberation movement in Russia, all-Empire questions began to impinge on Estonian life, as well as a new generation emerged in Estonia. The crucial point in social and political thought

192-448: A governor of an oblast or a krai . The Russian Empire had nine governorates in modern-day Ukrainian territories: Chernigov , Kharkov , Kherson , Kiev , Podolia , Poltava , Volhynia , Yekaterinoslav , and Taurida . Additional lands annexed from Poland in 1815 were organized into the Kholm governorate in 1912. After the events of 1917, which led to the declaration of independence of

256-583: A year. The Estonian independence that came on 24 February 1918 marked the permanent end for the governorate. Until the late 19th century the governorate was administered independently by the local Baltic German nobility through a feudal Regional Council. From 1561, Estonia had been under the control as a dominion of the Swedish Empire following the annexation of the northern part of the Livonian Confederation , in which nobilies swore obedience to

320-645: The Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire , which existed from 1713 to 1783. The Province of Riga was formed to replace the Eastern Provinces of the Kingdom of Sweden in 1713. After the conquest of the regions of Ingermanland , Livonia and Estonia by Sweden in the Great Northern War in 1710. In 1713, the Provinces of Riga and Tallinn were separated into separate administrative units, and in 1713–1714,

384-681: The Estonian-language Alexander School  [ et ] , the Society of Estonian Literati , and the all-Estonian song festivals . The prominent figure in the period was Carl Robert Jakobson from the neighbouring Governorate of Livonia ; he opposed the Baltic German dominance and took an anti-clerical position on the Lutheran Church. He had also begun campaigning for the introduction of zemstvo , which had already existed in

448-727: The German advance in southern Livonia and Estonia and the Bolsheviks fleeing to Soviet Russia , the Estonian Provincial Assembly asserted Estonia "independent and democratic republic" within its "historical and ethnographical borders" on 24 February, with Konstantin Päts being the leader of the new provisional government . This was nonetheless a symbolic indication, and the Germans, on the following day, entered Reval. The Governorate of Estonia

512-503: The Minister of Internal Affairs , by which all higher police officers were appointed. The new Russian officers regarded Estonian local affairs with disinterest, and its population was more impartial than the German ones, although they were non-Estonian. The Russification of jurisdiction, although the Baltic legal codes remained unchanged, was taken as well, by which the peasantry had its own courts,

576-663: The National Liberal Party and organized its first congress in 1905, in the course of the First Russian Revolution ; in response, the Russian government suppressed the revolution by declaring martial law , causing Konstantin Päts and the radical leader Jaan Teemant to flee abroad. The governorate gained more territories from the Governorate of Livonia and was granted autonomy on 12 April 1917, and lasted for nearly

640-694: The North Estonian Klint . The highest areas were Pandivere and Jõhvi Uplands; the Pandivere was where the Emumägi , the highest point in the governorate, was located. In the west, the large area was entirely flat, forming the lowlands of West Estonia and the Moonsund archipelago . The scarps of the Ösel and Moon islands and those in the western continental area formed the Silurian Klint. Crystalline rocks formed in

704-780: The Ukrainian People's Republic , these governorates became subdivisions, which also annexed Ukrainian-inhabited parts of Mogilev , Kursk , Voronezh and Minsk governorates in 1918. By the end of the Soviet–Ukrainian War in 1920, the Bolsheviks had made them part of the Ukrainian SSR . Soviet Ukraine was reorganized into 12 governorates, which were reduced to nine in 1922 upon the Soviet Union 's founding, and then replaced with okruhas in 1925. The West Ukrainian People's Republic in former Austro-Hungarian Empire territory

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768-818: The Baltic area in the 1840s, causing the struggle between the Orthodox and the Lutheran churches, which had attended since the Northern Crusades , for the allegiance of Estonians. There, the Russification process was also performed for religious purposes. In 1883, in Wiek county, the conversation movement among 3,400 Estonian peasants began, which had the motivation of strong anti-German sentiment. During his first tenure as governor, Shakhovskoy sought to propagate Orthodoxy in his ruling governorate, which caused spiritual dissatisfaction among

832-615: The Baltic natives who lived under a German-controlled Protestantism . In 1886, Shakhovskoy suggested to the procurator of the Holy Synod, Konstantin Pobedonostsev , that Orthodoxy was the quickest way to unite the Estonians into the "great Russian family". Furthermore, in 1885, Alexander III reinstated that children of mixed Lutheran-Orthodox marriages be only baptised as Orthodox, and the reconverts to Lutheranism were again considered members of

896-740: The Estonian population, were mobilised into the Russian Imperial Army; their extent of casualties is little known, and no reliable sources are available. The Estonians considered that fighting against foes—the Germans and the Austrians —was easy to transfer the enmity they felt towards the Baltic Germans, who were the representatives of the German-speaking cultural world; however, the Baltic German leadership also declared encouragement for Russia. By

960-502: The Estonians, who did not fluent in Russian, were forced to hire translators or lawyers, involving a prohibitive expense for destitute Estonians. Russification policies had also been taken in education: placing all Lutheran rural elementary schools under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education; creating the position of director and inspector so the ministry insured the state control; and introducing Russian as an instruction language in

1024-608: The Governorate of Estonia in 1897 were as follow: The first general census in the Estonia Governorate, conducted in 1881, returned a population of 376,337, consisting of 184,323 men and 192,014 women. By 1887, the population was 393,983, increasing 17,646 over 6 years. The first-and-only organised nationwide census was conducted in 1897, which turned out a population of 412,716 on 9 February 1897 [ O.S. 28 January], including 202,409 men and 210,307 women. The majority of

1088-639: The Russian government began to react with force to what it described as "revolutionary excesses": martial law was declared in Reval and the Harrien County on 10 December; the Russian army and local Baltic German militias, known as Selbstschutz , began to scour cities and the countryside for participants in the 1905 revolution; and much of the local committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party and Estonian intellectuals were arrested. In

1152-451: The Russians advanced into Estonia and Livonia , which were incorporated into Russia. In the Treaty of Nystad of 1721, Sweden formally ceded its former dominion of Estonia, Livonia, and its other territories to Russia, whereas Russia paid Sweden compensation of 2 million efimki (1.3 million rubles). Initially named Reval Governorate after the city of Reval (now known as Tallinn ), it

1216-685: The Soviet Union into particular territorial units was subject to numerous changes, especially during the 1918–1929 period. Because of the Soviet Union's electrification program under the GOELRO plan , Ivan Alexandrov directed the Regionalisation Commission of Gosplan to divide the Soviet union into thirteen European and eight Asiatic oblasts , using rational economic planning rather than "the vestiges of lost sovereign rights". Eventually, in 1929,

1280-632: The Swedish king Eric XIV as the Russians, in 1558, invaded Livonia, which prompted the Livonian War . The Treaty of Plussa forced Russia to cede to Sweden possessions along the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland , including northern Livonia and Ingria . Seeking to regain lost territories, in 1701, Tsar Peter I and his allies invaded Sweden, beginning the Great Northern War . He initially met with setbacks by King Charles XII but later gained triumphs. In 1710,

1344-435: The condition of rural people and satirised the elites. Publication of Estonian-language print grew rapidly from 1860 to 1900, and the number of books and brochures six times increased, from 55 to 312. According to the 1897 census , 96.9 per cent of Estonians, 10 years and older, could read and write, making the northern Baltic area the most literate region of the empire. In 1885, the new governor of Estonia, Sergey Shakhovskoy,

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1408-479: The consilidated governorate, which accomplished what Carl Robert Jakobson had expressed, creating the autonomous polity known as "Estonia". The decree also established a temporary zemstvo with the provincial assembly as its head. In addition, Baltic German-controlled diets and imperial local administrative organs were dissolved. In April, the provisional government appointed the Reval Mayor Jaan Poska as

1472-534: The empire; in June 1881, seventeen Estonian societies requested that they do so with equal representations for Germans and Estonians, in a memorandum to Alexander III . As a result, four of the ten points of the memorandum were implemented at the end of the 1880s. Also in this era, poet Lydia Koidula had been a prominent figure in the advocation of Estonian literature; she wrote her most important work, Emajõe ööbik  [ et ] (The Nightingale of Emajõgi), which

1536-672: The establishment of a single regiment due to pressure from the Soviets. Nevertheless, the first Estonian regiment had grown to 8,000 men by the end of July, twice as large as originally intended, and the provisional government approved the formation of a second regiment in September. After the successful October Revolution in Petrograd, the Estonian Military Revolutionary Committee, led by Viktor Kingissepp , took power from

1600-581: The first commissar, followed by, in May, elections of the provincial assembly known as Maapäev , in which political parties emerged on a broad basis for the first time, with the largest blocs being the Agrarian League and the Labour Party. The municipal elections in 1917, however, proved the significant fractionalisation of the political spectrum, as the configuration of party groupings was unstable. Predominantly,

1664-478: The governorate alone, 300 people were executed, 600 received some form of corporal punishment, and 500 were sentenced to hard labour in Siberia or elsewhere. Konstantin Päts and Jaan Teemant , the radical leader, fled to Finland and then to Western Europe; both had reasons to fear for their freedom. The outbreak of World War I was greeted by mixed reactions in the governorate. Within the Estonian population, there

1728-488: The governorate, of which Dagö (known in modern times as Hiiumaa ) was the largest, with an area of 989 square kilometres (382 sq mi). Other islands in the archipelago were Worms , Kassar , Groß Pakri and Klein Pakri , and Nargen . The area of the Governorate of Estonia was 17,791.7 square versts (20,248.1 km; 7,817.8 sq mi); of this, 16,290.5 square versts (18,539.6 km; 7,158.2 sq mi) were

1792-635: The leadership of Governor General George Browne in 1775. The All-Russian Provincial Act of 1775 was extended to the Baltic provinces and on July 3, 1783, the Riga Governorate ceased to exist, handing over much of its affairs to the Riga Viceroyalty . In 1721 the Province of Riga was divided into 2 provinces: In 1726 the Smolensk Governorate was transformed into an independent governorate. As

1856-552: The lowest part of the basement; in the northeastern part, the crystalline rocks were 60–70 metres below the surface. Below the surface, the area also consisted of a large amount of phosphorite, especially in Wesenberg deposits, and kukersite oil shales within the Baltic Oil Shale Basin. In the west, it is the location of the Moonsund archipelago , which was shared with the Governorate of Livonia. There are about 80 islands in

1920-483: The mainland and 1,032.7 square versts (1,175.3 km; 453.8 sq mi) were the islands, with 468.5 square versts (533.2 km; 205.9 sq mi) were the of Lake Peipsi as a part the governorate. The governorate consisted of the northern Estonia , approximately corresponding to: Harju , Lääne-Viru , Ida-Viru , Rapla , Järva , Lääne and Hiiu counties, and a small portion of Pärnu County . The districts ( уѣзды , uezdy ; German : kreise ) of

1984-405: The medieval estate-based system that had excluded Estonians from participation in the municipal government. Virtually all Estonians, in fact, belonged to the third curia since their begeoisie was only beginning to improve its economic position. The 1892 municipal law, in which the franchise base was determined by property value, was implemented in the Baltic provinces; for Estonians, it would increase

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2048-659: The moderates dominated the smaller urban areas, while the lefts dominated stronger in the larger industrial cities. In the early course, the soviets that emerged in Estonia were the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries , who concentrated in major cities and military garrisons. Although permission of principle for the formation of national military units was granted in April, the Minister of War Alexander Kerensky restricted

2112-524: The newly established Russian Empire. The Estonia Governorate was established in 1796 when Paul I's reforms abolished the Reval Viceroyalty . The port city of Reval (known in Russian as Revel, contemporary Tallinn ) was the administrative centre where the governor had his seat. From the 1850s to 1914, the Estonian national awakening influenced and characterized the governorate by general modernization,

2176-539: The north; Kõrksaar in the Pärnu Bay in the south. The land border was 297 versts (317 km; 197 mi) in the west, 469 versts (500 km; 311 mi) in the north, 75 versts (80 km; 50 mi) in the east with Saint Petersburg Governorate along the Neva, and 371 versts (396 km; 246 mi) with Lake Peipus and Governorate of Livonia in the south. The provincial border between Wierland and Dorpat counties

2240-614: The organization and management of the Province of Riga were also defined. On July 2, 1731, with the approval of Empress Anna I and the ukase of the Governing Senate , the island of Osel (modern Saaremaa ) received the status of a special region. Saaremaa remained a region of special status until the ukase of the Russian Empress Catherine II , which on February 21, 1765 liquidated Saaremaa as an independent province. The Provinces of Riga and Tallinn were merged under

2304-469: The peasantry, but under the Russian tsars, there was a shift towards tighter regulation. Serfdom remained in place until its abolition in 1816. The early course of the reign of Alexander II marked the emergence of the Estonian national movement, which periodised the so-called Estonian age of awakening that led to the birth of a distinctive Estonian national culture and laid the groundwork for its growing roles in Baltic politics. As agricultural reforms,

2368-415: The population indicated Estonian to be their mother tongue, with significant Russian and German speaking minorities. The urban population of the governorate was 77,081, making up 18.68 per cent of the total population. The largest settlements included Reval (64,572), Wesenberg (5,890), Hapsal (3,212), and Weißenstein (2,507). Of the preceding cities, Estonian-speakers formed majorities. Its urban population

2432-408: The possibility of winning over the Baltic German hegemony, and for the begeoisie, it would be a step forward to put all voters in the same place. In 1888–1889, the Russification of the police system took place: the Baltic Germans lost all police powers in the rural township, although they retained powers on their estates; and the police system at county and urban levels was reorganised and placed under

2496-524: The provisional government for changes in the northern Baltic area. In conjunction with a mass demonstration attended by 40,000 Estonians in Petrograd , the government agreed on 12 April [ O.S. 30 March] to reorganise the self-government in the northern Baltic. The decree consisted of the merger of the governorate of Estonia with the northern counties of the governorate of Livonia— Dorpat , Fellin , Ösel , Pernau , Werro , and some portions of Walk —into

2560-545: The provisional government's commissar. The Bolsheviks were, however, unable to consolidate their power owing to the lack of Bolshevik officials who could replace the former government's public officials; the latter refused and launched the strike. The Estonian Bolsheviks had lost much of their popular support by the end of January 1918, engaging in the cancellation of the Estonian Constituent Assembly election held on 3–4 February [ O.S. 21–22 January]. With

2624-454: The reorganization into a modern European society, and the success of the newly emerged nationalist awareness. The accession of Alexander III in 1881 marked the beginning of a period of more rigid Russification ; the previous Baltic civil and criminal codes were replaced with Russian ones, and the Russian language replaced the German language and Estonian language . Jaan Tõnisson founded

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2688-626: The revolution, whose impulse had spread into the rural area of the Baltic region; the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party organised activity in Estonia, with its counterpart formed in August. The worker strikes broke out in Reval, Narva, and Pernau in January 1905. In the rural area, 120 manor houses, which were the symbol of Baltic German power, were put to the torch by Estonians. Mass meetings called for peaceful reform in Reval, and

2752-428: The situation remained calm until 16 October; the Russian Army on that day, however, opened fire on a peaceful demonstration on a market square, which was later known as the Tallinn Bloodbath. In November 1905, Jaan Tõnisson founded the Estonian Progressive People's Party, which, along with the Baltic German-led Baltic Constitutional Party, was the only legal party in the governorate at that time. The All-Estonian Congress

2816-401: The spread of education, increasing communication beyond the Baltic, and the spirit of reformation were factors in the national awakening, from 1860, the Estonian national movement had gained more support from rising Estonians. Although many Estonians still continued to assimilate into the German and Russian cultures, many nationwide efforts to promote the Estonian culture were seen, especially for

2880-441: The state church. The major factor that was unavoidable in internal affairs was the gradual introduction of Russian as the language in administration in 1885; by 1889, Russian had become the language in municipal government and exclusively in higher courts, as well as in communication among all administrative organs. Estonian intelligentsia, which had sought equal rights for Estonian as an administrative language and had been rooted in

2944-403: The subdivision was replaced by the notions of oblast, okrug , and raion . Oblast as a unit was used even before the revolution, although unlike governorates it designated remote areas that usually incorporated huge swaths of land. In post-Soviet states such as Russia and Ukraine, the term Guberniya is considered obsolete, yet the word gubernator was reinstated and is used when referring to

3008-429: The term governorate general ( генерал-губернаторство , general-gubernatorstvo ) was in use to refer to the actual territory being governed. The office of governor general had more administrative power and was in a higher position than the previous office of governor. Sometimes a governor general ruled several governorates. By the ukase of the Russian Senate of December 31, 1796, the office of governorate general

3072-420: The third year of the school in 1887 and then the first year in 1892. Initially, the result of Russification was disorganised: many schools, which the Baltic Germans withdrew support for as a protest, were closed; much of the teaching personnel were unable to teach Russian; and the number of pupils in the governorate declined, from 25,646 to 20,565 between 1886 and 1892. The Russian Orthodoxy came unexpectedly into

3136-458: The time the Russian Empire was crumbling, the Estonian desire for unification of the Estonian-speaking area, especially the entire Estonia and northern Livonia, had come into focus. Following the February Revolution in Russia, the Russian Provisional Government was proclaimed, and the clash on the Eastern Front was still ongoing. Seeing this moment as an opportunity to fulfil what they had wanted, Jaan Tõnisson and his moderate politicians lobbied

3200-414: The township court, with appeals to the higher court for the peasantry. In 1864, the Russian institution reform was introduced, which brought more impartial justice: the justice of the peace with appeals to the conference of justices of the peace; and the circuit court with appeals to the court chamber. The major problem was that proceedings in the higher court were conducted exclusively in Russian, which meant

3264-528: Was 18.68% and rural was 81.32%. 59°26′14″N 24°44′43″E  /  59.43722°N 24.74528°E  / 59.43722; 24.74528 Guberniya Selected governorates were united under an assigned governor-general such as the Grand Duchy of Finland , Congress Poland , Russian Turkestan and others. There were also military governors such as Kronstadt , Vladivostok and others. Aside from governorates, other types of divisions were oblasts (region) and okrugs (district). This subdivision type

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3328-404: Was 20,377 fathoms (37.265 km; 23.156 mi) long, and between Wierland and Fellin counties was 18,669.3 fathoms (34.1424 km; 21.2151 mi) long. Physically, the governorate was situated on the East European Plain , where the uplands and plateau structures were interspersed with lowlands and valley structures. It consisted of the limestone plateau, the northern part of which formed

3392-405: Was also applied to subdivisions of the Kingdom of Poland ("Russian Poland") and the Grand Duchy of Finland . After the February Revolution , the Russian Provisional Government renamed governors into governorate commissars . The October Revolution left the subdivision in place, but the governing apparatus was replaced by governorate soviets ( губернский совет ). Actual subdivisions of

3456-400: Was appointed by Emperor Alexander III, who had seemed to think the father's reforms were a threat to Russian culture; this marked the beginning of the Russification process in Estonia. In 1877, the Russian urban reform of 1870 took place in the Baltic area. The new law enfranchised men 25 years of age and over, which was divided into three curiae according to the city taxes they paid, replacing

3520-463: Was based on population size, and the term guberniya was replaced by the synonym of Russian origin: namestnichestvo ( наместничество ), sometimes translated as "viceroyalty", other times as " vicegerency ". The term guberniya , however, still remained in use. These viceroyalties were governed by namestniki ( наместник ) (literal translation: "deputy") or " governors general " ( генерал-губернатор , general-gubernator ). Correspondingly,

3584-480: Was created by the edict ( ukase ) of Peter the Great on December 18, 1708 "On the establishment of the gubernias and cities assigned to them", which divided Russia into eight governorates . In 1719, governorates were further subdivided into provinces ( Russian : провинции , romanized :  provintsii ). Later the number of governorates was increased to 23 . By the reform of 1775, subdivision into governorates and further into uezds ( Russian : уезды ),

3648-418: Was demoted to the previous level of governorate, and Russia was again divided into governorates, which were subdivided into uezds, further subdivided into volosts ( волость ); nevertheless several governorates general made from several governorates existed until the Russian Revolution of 1917 . The governorate ( Russian : губе́рния , Polish : gubernia , Swedish : län , Finnish : lääni ) system

3712-436: Was established in 1719 by decree of Peter the Great on 29 May, on the territory that was acquired from Sweden, along with the Riga Governorate . In 1783, the Reval Viceroyalty was formed from Reval Governorate, and in 1796, together with Narva county, which was separated from Saint Petersburg Governorate , Estonia Governorate was formed. During the reign of the Swedish kings, there was a tendency towards granting more autonomy to

3776-467: Was held by Tõnisson and his moderates on 27–29 November, with the authority permitting that. Following the dispute over the election of vice-chairs, the congress was split into two factions: the moderates, known as the Bürgermusse ; and the radicals, known as the Aula . Nevertheless, both factions demanded the repeal of Russification; the moderates demanded the unification of Estonia and northern Livonia with an autonomous self-government. In early December,

3840-463: Was not subdivided into governorates, and would be annexed by the Second Polish Republic from 1920 until the Soviet invasion of 1939 . There is another meaning of the word as it denoted a type of estate in Lithuania of the until 1917. Riga Governorate Riga Governorate ( Latvian : Rīgas guberņa , Russian : Рижская губерния , romanized :  Rizhskaya guberniya ) was an administrative-territorial unit ( guberniya ) and one of

3904-436: Was published in 1867. Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald composed his epic Kalevipoeg , in which he portrayed the mythological adventures of the eponymous hero, who had ended up in chains at the gate of Hell and the promise of a return to home; Kalevipoeg has been later considered the national epic. Among Koidula and Kreutzwald were Mihkel Veske , Ado Reinvald , Friedrich Kuhlbars , and others. Many works in this era reflected

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3968-428: Was some enthusiasm for a struggle against a historical enemy; for the Baltic Germans, however, it was unthinkable to fight against their co-nationals—the imperial Germans. Increasingly suspicious of possible collaboration with the imperial Germans, the Russian authorities closed down German schools and forbade using German in public. Restrictions were also included for using Estonian. About 100,000 men, nearly 10 percent of

4032-408: Was the appearance of journalistic voices for the lower class, engaging in the fade of loyalty to the crown. Many intellectuals emerged in the post-Russification era; among them were Jaan Tõnisson , who represented a renewal of the moderate political orientation, and Konstantin Päts , the editor of Teataja in Reval. In 1905, the massacre on Bloody Sunday became the final straw that brought about

4096-430: Was the northernmost of the Baltic governorates , located on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland . It was bordered with the Baltic Sea in the west, the Gulf of Finland in the north, the Saint Petersburg Governorate in the east, and the Governorate of Livonia and Lake Peipus in the south. The westernmost point was Cape Kalana in Hiiumaa ; in the east, the Narva river near the city of Narva; Cape Stenskär in

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