Rēzekne county

Rēzekne county Latvian: Rēzeknes apriņķis Polish: powiat rzeżycki Russian: Рѣжицкiй уѣздъ
County of Latvia
1629–1949
Rēzekne county on the map of Latvia
Capital	Rēzekne
History
• Established	1629
• Disestablished	1949
Succeeded by Rēzekne District

Rēzekne county (Latvian: Rēzeknes apriņķis) was a historic county in the Vitebsk Governorate, and in the Republic of Latvia dissolved during the administrative territorial reform of the Latvian SSR in 1949. Its administrative centre was Rēzekne.

History

Established in 1629 as one of the subdivisions of the Inflanty Voivodeship (powiat rzeżycki). In 1772, after the First Partition of Poland it became one of uyezds of Polotsk Governorate (Russian: Режицкий уезд, 1776—1796), later Belarusian Governorate (1796—1802) and Vitebsk Governorate (1802—1917) of the Russian Empire.

On 31 December 1917 Rezhitsky Uyezd, having a majority Latvian population, was transferred to Governorate of Livonia, becoming a part of the Latvian Soviet autonomy of Iskolat and a part of the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic on 17 December 1918. After signing of the Latvian–Soviet Peace Treaty, Rēzeknes apriņķis was incorporated into the Republic of Latvia.

In 1949, Rēzeknes apriņķis was transformed to the Rēzeknes District (Rēzeknes rajons) of the Latvian SSR.

Demographics

At the time of the Russian Empire Census of 1897, Rezhitsky Uyezd had a population of 136,445. Of these, 57.9% spoke Latvian, 23.9% Russian, 7.4% Yiddish, 5.4% Belarusian, 4.8% Polish, 0.4% German, 0.1% Lithuanian and 0.1% Romani as their native language.