Moscow Governorate

Moscow Governorate Московская губерния
Governorate of Russian Empire
1708–1929
Coat of arms
Map of Moscow Governorate
Capital	Moscow
Population
• 1897	2,430,581
History
• Established	1708
• Disestablished	1929
Succeeded by Moscow Oblast

Map of Moscow Governorate in 1873 with uyezds

Moscow Governorate (Russian: Московская губерния; pre-reform Russian: Московская губернія), or the Government of Moscow, was an administrative division (a guberniya) of the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, and the Russian SFSR, which existed in 1708–1929.

Administrative division

Moscow Governorate consisted of 13 uyezds (their administrative centres in brackets):

• Bogorodsky Uyezd (Bogorodsk/Noginsk)
• Bronnitsky Uyezd (Bronnitsy)
• Vereysky Uyezd (Vereya)
• Volokolamsky Uyezd (Volokolamsk)
• Dmitrovsky Uyezd (Dmitrov)
• Zvenigorodsky Uyezd (Zvenigorod)
• Klinsky Uyezd (Klin)
• Kolomensky Uyezd (Kolomna)
• Mozhaysky Uyezd (Mozhaysk)
• Moskovsky Uyezd (Moscow)
• Podolsky Uyezd (Podolsk)
• Ruzsky Uyezd (Ruza)
• Serpukhovsky Uyezd (Serpukhov)

History

Moscow Governorate, together with seven other governorates, was established on December 29 [O.S. December 18], 1708, by Tsar Peter the Great's edict. As with the rest of the governorates, initially, neither the borders nor internal subdivisions of Moscow Governorate were defined; instead, the territory was defined as a set of cities and the lands adjacent to those cities. Later, Moscow Governorate was subdivided into 13 uyezds.

Cities included into Moscow Governorate at the time of its establishment

#	City	#	City	#	City
1.	Moscow	14.	Lyubim	27.	Suzdal
2.	Aleksin	15.	Medyn	28.	Tarussa
3.	Borovsk	16.	Mikhaylov	29.	Tsarev Borisov
4.	Dedilov	17.	Mozhaysk	30.	Tula
5.	Dmitrov	18.	Obolensk	31.	Veneva
6.	Gremyachey	19.	Pecherniki	32.	Vereya
7.	Kaluga	20.	Pereslavl Ryazanskoy	33.	Volodimir
8.	Klin	21.	Pereslavl Zaleskoy	34.	Volokolamsk
9.	Kolomna	22.	Pronsk	35.	Yaroslavets Maly
10.	Koshira	23.	Rostov	36.	Yepifan
11.	Kostroma	24.	Ruza	37.	Yuryev Polskoy
12.	Krapivna	25.	Serpukhov	38.	Zaraysk
13.	Lukh	26.	Shuya	39.	Zvenigorod

The governorate underwent numerous changes in the following years, and was finally abolished on January 14, 1929 when modern Moscow Oblast was created.

Demography

Language

• Population by mother tongue according to the Imperial census of 1897.

Language	Number	percentage (%)	males	females
Russian	2,371,102	97.5	1,181,296	1,189,806
German	19,116	0.7	9,225	9,891
Polish	10,960	0.4	7,676	3,284
Jewish	5,756	0.2	3,795	1,961
Ukrainian	5,506	0.2	4,838	668
Tatar	5,469	0.2	4,492	977
French	2,621	0.1	1,035	1,586
Armenian	1,633	0.0	1,201	432
Belarusian	1,292	0.0	948	344
English	1,135	0.0	559	576
Latvian	1,018	0.0	731	287
Lithuanian	690	0.0	600	90
Czech	636	0.0	397	239
Gypsy	511	0.0	249	262
Estonian	396	0.0	243	153
Italian	374	0.0	220	154
Greek	292	0.0	241	51
Swedish	228	0.0	117	111
Chuvash	152	0.0	147	5
Komi	148	0.0	144	4
Bulgarian	110	0.0	100	10
Other	1,436	0.0	1,013	423
Total	2,430,581	100.0	1,219,267	1,211,314

Religion

• According to the Imperial census of 1897.

Religion	Number	percentage (%)	males	females
Pravoslavs	2,272,145	93.5	1,139,289	1,132,856
Old Believers and others split from Pravoslavs	99,825	4.1	44,682	55,143
Lutherans	21,437	0.8	10,701	10,736
Roman Catholic	17,670	0.7	11,497	6,173
Judaism	8,704	0.3	5,400	3,304
Islam	5,605	0.2	4,678	927
Reformed	2,218	0.0	1,088	1,130
Armenian Gregorians	1,640	0.0	1,188	452
Anglicans	838	0.0	441	397
Karaites	347	0.0	210	137
Armenian Catholic Church	25	0.0	18	7
Buddhists, Lamaists	11	0.0	11	0
Mennonites	3	0.0	3	0
Other: Christian denominations	103	0.0	52	51
Other: non-Christians	10	0.0	9	1
Total	2,430,581	100.0	1,219,267	1,211,314

Further reading

• William Henry Beable (1919), "Governments or Provinces of the Former Russian Empire: Moscow", Russian Gazetteer and Guide, London: Russian Outlook – via Open Library

Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Moscow (government)". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.