Governorate of Estonia


The Governorate of Estonia was a governorate of the Russian Empire in what is now northern Estonia. It bordered the Livonian Governorate to the south and Saint Petersburg Governorate to the east.
The Governorate was gained by the Russian Empire from Sweden during the Great Northern War in 1721. The Russian Tsars held the title Duke of Estonia, during the Imperial Russian era in English sometimes also referred to as Prince of Estonia.
Until the late 19th century the governorate was administered independently by the local Baltic German nobility through a feudal Regional Council.

History

Initially named the Reval Governorate after the city of Reval, the Governorate originated in 1719 from territories which Russia conquered from Sweden in the course of the Great Northern War of 1700-1721. Sweden formally ceded its former dominion of Swedish Estonia to Russia in the Treaty of Nystad in 1721. During subsequent administrative reordering, the governorate was renamed in 1796 as the Governorate of Estonia. While the rule of the Swedish kings had been fairly liberal with greater autonomy granted for the peasantry, the regime tightened under the Russian tsars and serfdom was not abolished until 1819.
The governorate consisted the northern part of the present-day Estonia, approximately corresponding to: Harju, Lääne-Viru, Ida-Viru, Rapla, Järva, Lääne and Hiiu counties and a small portion of Pärnu County.
After the Russian February Revolution, on ) the governorate expanded to include northern Livonia, thereby forming the Autonomous Governorate of Estonia which existed less than a year, until February 1918.

Subdivisions

The governorate was subdivided into uyezds.