- Western Krai
Western Krai (Западный край) was an unofficial name, introduced in 1834 by a historian and journalist
Maurycy Mochnacki , of the westernmost parts of theImperial Russia , but excluding theCongress Poland . Those territories - created from lands annexed to Russia during the partitions of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the end of the 18th century (1772, 1793 and 1795) - were also known as the Taken Lands.Western Krai was made of the following lands of the Commonwealth:
* from the first partition of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1772):Inflants (Latgale ), northern part of thePolotsk Voivodeship , entireMstsislaw Voivodeship andVitebsk Voivodeship , and south eastern part of theMinsk Voivodeship (about 92,000. km²)
* from the second partition of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1793): remaining part of the Minsk Voivodeship, the entireKiev Voivodeship ,Bracław Voivodeship andVilnius Voivodeship , parts ofPodole Voivodeship and eastern parts of the Wołyń Voivodeship andBrest Litovsk Voivodeship (about 250,000. km²)
* from the third partition of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1795): all the territories east of theBug river and (about 120,000. km²) (after 1807, theBelostok Oblast )It has never constituted one official administrative subdivision (
Krai ) of Russia but was a common name to two such subdivisionsNorthwestern Krai andSouthwestern Krai .It consisted of 9
guberniya s: 6Belarus ian andLithuania n ones that constituted theNorthwestern Krai (Vilna Governorate ,Kovno Governorate ,Grodno Governorate ,Minsk Governorate ,Mogilev Governorate andVitebsk Governorate ) and 3 Ukrainian ones that constituted theSouthwestern Krai (Volhynia Governorate ,Podolia Governorate andKiev Governorate ).Due to its national specifics, it had some special laws and elements of government.
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