Vladimir province in the context of Russian history

Vladimir Province, formed in 1796 by a decree of the Emperor Paul I and existed with minor changes until 1929, had a long history, inextricably linked with the annals of life of Russia itself. Even in the times of Ivan the Terrible, its administrative center - the ancient Russian city of Vladimir - was governed by voevoda appointed directly by the sovereign. He retained its importance in the following years.

The Epoch of Peter's Reforms

Peter I, striving to comprehensively strengthen the vertical of state power, in December 1708 issued a decree, on the basis of which the entire territory of the Russian Empire was divided into eight provinces, the rulers of which have since been called governors. At that time the city of Vladimir, which had not yet received the status of an independent subject of the federation, became part of the newly established Moscow province, becoming two years later the center of one of its commandant provinces.

Very prolific for administrative reforms, Peter I in 1718 issued a new decree, according to which the territory of Russia was subject to an even smaller division into fifty provinces, which were part of the previously established provinces and governed by the voevoda. Under this decree, Vladimir became the center of the province, from which the Vladimir province was formed in the future.

Despite the fact that the provinces were formally part of the provinces, the governors who governed them were not subordinate to the governors and had complete independence in their orders. The exception was only a set of recruits and all other issues related to providing the army.

Influence of two empresses on the fate of the Vladimir province

The reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna gave a new impetus to the spiritual life of Vladimir and the entire vast province, whose center it was. This was due primarily to the revival of the previously abolished Vladimir Diocese, as well as the creation of a spiritual seminary in the city, from which many outstanding figures of Russian Orthodoxy came.

The Vladimir province was obliged by its official birth to the personal decree of the next Russian empress - Catherine II, who in March 1778 transformed the former province into an independent administrative and economic unit and gave it the proper status.

However, after six months, the empress considered it necessary to transform the newly established province into a vicegerency, divided into fourteen counties. In this form, it lasted for eight years, until Paul I in 1796 returned her provincial status.

The bright but short epoch of Paul I

According to the Highest Decree, the counties of Vladimir province were divided into Yuryevsky, Suzdal, Pereslavl, Melenkovsky, Vyaznikovsky, Shuisky, Pokrovsky, Murom, Gorokhovets and central - Vladimirsky. In total there are ten independent administrative units on an area of almost forty-three thousand square miles, sufficient for the deployment of several European states.

In the bright but short era of his reign, Paul I established the establishment in all Russian provinces of medical administrations, which in those years were the first medical and administrative institutions in the history of the country. This was a very important step in the matter of public health, thanks to which medical care was put under state control.

Since that time, not only the city, but also the villages of the Vladimir province fell into the field of view of the administrative authorities that controlled the work of hospitals, the activities of private practitioners, and also monitored the observance of proper sanitary standards. Since that time, the history of Zemsky doctors of Russia, beginning with many well-known names, has been beginning.

In 1803, the next emperor - Alexander I, who succeeded his deceased father on the Russian throne, - also established Kovrov, Sudogodsky and Aleksandrovsky districts of the Vladimir province, bringing their total number to thirteen. All of them were divided into two hundred and twenty-two volosts.

Map of the Mende of Vladimir province

Since the main stage in the development of this very large subject of the Federation falls on the 19th century, modern researchers have a considerable amount of materials relevant to its history. In particular, what the Vladimir province looked like at that time can be recognized through the works of Lieutenant General Alexander Ivanovich Mende, one of the leaders of the Imperial Cartographic Directorate. Among the documents stored in the state archive, there are atlases of eight Russian provinces drawn up by him, among which Vladimirskaya is represented.

Its geographical outlines

Map of the Mende of Vladimir province, executed more than a hundred and fifty years ago, with a few exceptions, is similar to the map of the modern Vladimir region. Its northern borders extended to the Kostroma and Yaroslavl provinces, the eastern - to the Nizhny Novgorod, the western - to the Moscow, and the Southern - to the Ryazan and Tambov.

Judging by the data presented in the atlas and remaining unchanged until 1929, the general territory of the province reached in the second half of the XIX century up to forty-five thousand square kilometers. From east to west it stretched for three hundred and forty-eight kilometers, and the maximum length from north to south was about two hundred and fifty-six kilometers.

Large industrial area of Russia

In the years preceding the October coup, the province took the third place in Russia in terms of industrial production. On its territory there were four hundred and seventy enterprises, where about one hundred and sixty-five thousand workers worked.

As a result, this region of the country became one of the most active centers of the Bolshevik movement, which in many ways determined the way for its further development. In 1929, by decision of the government, the Vladimir province as an independent administrative unit was abolished, giving way to the newly formed Ivanovo industrial region.