Murmansk Governorate


Murmansk Governorate was an administrative division of the early Russian SFSR which existed in 1921–1927. The governorate was established on the territory of former Alexandrovsky Uyezd of Arkhangelsk Governorate by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Decree issued on June 13, 1921. The administrative center was in Murmansk.

Proposals to change the administrative-territorial structure

1921

At the time of its creation, the governorate was administratively divided into nine volosts and had three cities and towns. However, just one month after the creation of the governorate, a new project of the administrative-territorial division was proposed at the First Congress of the Governorate Soviets. According to the project, the governorate's territory was to be divided into four uyezds:
The proposal, however, was shelved and a special commission was appointed to study the possibilities of changing the administrative-territorial structure of the governorate.

1922–1924

By 1922, the Murmansk Governorate Statistics Bureau and the Economics Council of the Governorate jointly developed a new project of the division of the governorate into districts. The districts were delineated using the economic principles and included:
The project was approved at the session of the Murmansk Governorate Economic Conference on January 2, 1923 and sent for further consideration to the North-Western Economic Conference in Petrograd. There, however, the project was declined, and in 1924 the Murmansk Governorate Planning Commission developed yet another plan to divide the governorate into districts.
The new plan proposed only minor changes to the volost borders. However, it again included a provision to transfer Kandalakshskaya Volost from the Karelian ASSR to Murmansk Governorate; as this merger was approved by the volost population once again during the peasant conference on February 10, 1924. The plan was approved by the Presidium of the Murmansk Governorate Executive Committee on July 8, 1924 and forwarded to the administrative commission of the VTsIK. While the VTsIK approved the transfer of some inhabited localities between the volosts; in general the plan was declined and Kandalakshskaya Volost remained a part of the Karelian ASSR.

1925–1927

On January 12, 1925 the VTsIK suspended all work on the changes to the administrative-territorial divisions of the territory of the RSFSR in order to re-group and to improve planning. No changes were proposed until October 16, 1925, when at the Murmansk Governorate Commission meeting work on compiling the lists of the urban and rural localities was initiated. The commission categorized Murmansk, Alexandrovsk, and Kola as urban; however, a recommendation was sent to the VTsIK to demote the latter two to rural localities due to economic conditions, sparse population, low trade volume, lack of industrial enterprises, and "general regress". On March 15, 1926, the VTsIK approved the recommendation, and Murmansk remained the only town on the governorate's territory, while Alexandrovsk and Kola were re-categorized as rural.
The work on the redistricting of the governorate resumed in spring 1926, for which purpose a special Redistricting Commission had been established. At the first meeting on May 17, 1926, the commission decided to transform the governorate into an okrug and suggested two possible redistricting schemes. The first scheme suggested the creation of eight districts with the administrative centers in Alexandrovsk, Kandalaksha, Kola, Kuzomen, Lovozero, Ponoy, Teriberka, and Umba. The other scheme suggested six districts: Alexandrovsky, Kolsko-Loparsky, Kandalakshsko-Umbsky, Tersky, Lovozersky, and Teribersky. Both scheme assumed the transfer of Kandalakshskaya Volost to the okrug, so the third scheme, without such a merger, was also proposed as an alternative.
By the summer of 1926, two redistricting projects were refined and offered for consideration. The first project suggested the replacement of the existing nine volosts with six districts, each of which would have a certain economic specialization:
The second project suggested the incorporation of Kandalakshskaya Volost into the okrug, which would become a separate Kandalakshsky District with the administrative center in Kandalaksha and including additionally the territory of Umbskaya Volost and the southern portion of Kolsko-Loparskaya Volost, namely Yona-Babinsky Selsoviet and a part of Ekostrovsky Selsoviet; the joint territory was then to be divided into three new selsoviets. Other differences from the first project included the creation of Kuzomensky District with the administrative center in Kuzomen and including the territories of Kuzomenskaya and Tetrinskaya Volosts and a smaller Kolsky District, which, compared to the first project, would cede its southern portion to Kandalakshsky District.
The chairs of the volost executive commissions approved the first project during their meeting on June 25, 1926, but the extended Murmansk Governorate Redistricting Commission made several amendments on July 14, 1926. The names of proposed districts were changed from Zapadny Murmansky to Alexandrovsky, from Vostochny Murmansky to Teribersky, and from Kolsky to Kolsko-Loparsky. Furthermore, Iokangsky Selsoviet of Ponoyskaya Volost was to be included into Teribersky District, and Pyalitsky Selsoviet of Tetrinskaya Volost—into Ponoysky District. The Presidium of the Murmansk Governorate Executive Commission approved this amended project on July 19, 1926, and the Plenary Session of the Murmansk Governorate Executive Commission and the members of the Murmansk City Soviet followed suit on August 3, 1926. However, on April 18, 1927 the Presidium of the Murmansk Governorate Executive Commission changed the scheme yet again, increasing the number of districts to seven:
The Presidium revised and approved this scheme one last time on May 23, 1927; the number of districts was again reduced to six—Umbsky District was taken off the list with the territory of Umbskaya Volost to be included into Tersky District instead.

Transformation

On August 1, 1927, the VTsIK issued two Resolutions: "On the Establishment of Leningrad Oblast" and "On the Borders and Composition of the Okrugs of Leningrad Oblast". Murmansk Governorate was transformed into Murmansk Okrug and included into Leningrad Oblast.

Karelian border issue

Until 1923, the border between Murmansk Governorate and the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was the same as the border between the historical Kemsky and Kolsky Uyezds of Arkhangelsk Governorate established in 1857. Consequently, all of the populated places in the south of Kolsko-Loparskaya Volost were unambiguously a part of Murmansk Governorate. This changed in 1923, when the usage rights for two forest divisions in the south of Murmansk Governorate were passed to the colonization department of the Murman Railway. Since the forest divisions' territories were located in both Murmansk Governorate and the Karelian ASSR, for convenience purposes the colonization department's maps showed the Kandalaksha Forest Division as being entirely on the territory of the Karelian ASSR, which in practice meant that the map showed several inhabited localities of Ekostrovsky Selsoviet of Kolsko-Loparskaya Volost of Murmansk Governorate as being located on the territory of the Karelian ASSR. The governorate's documents, however, continued to list these inhabited localities as being a part of Ekostrovsky Selsoviet.
Later, when the NKVD was creating maps for its own use, it used the colonization department's map as a basis, and the resulting map was used by the NKVD for official purposes. The Murmansk Governorate Executive Committee pointed out this discrepancy on several occasions, but the problem was not resolved by the time the governorate was transformed into an okrug.