Congress Poland - Administrative Divisions

Administrative Divisions

The administrative divisions of the Kingdom changed several times over its history. Over the next several decades, various smaller reforms were carried out, either changing the smaller administrative units or merging/splitting various subdivisions.

Immediately after its creation in 1815–1816, the Kingdom of Poland was divided into departments, a relic from the times of the French-dominated Duchy of Warsaw.

On January 16, 1816 the administrative division was reformed from the departments of the Duchy of Warsaw into the more traditionally Polish voivodeships, obwóds and powiats. There were 8 voivodeships. On 7 March 1837, in the aftermath of the November Uprising earlier that decade, the administrative division was reformed once again, bringing Congress Poland closer to the structure of the Russian Empire, with the introduction of guberniyas (governorate, Polish spelling gubernia). In 1842 powiats were renamed okręgs, and obwóds were renamed powiats. In 1844 several governorates were merged with others, and some others renamed. 5 governorates remained.

The 1867 reform, initiated after the failure of the January Uprising, was designed to tie the Congress Kingdom (now de facto the Vistulan Country) more tightly to the administration structure of the Russian Empire. It divided larger governorates into smaller ones. A new lower level entity, gmina, was introduced. The existing 5 governorates were restructured into 10. The 1912 reform created a new governorate - Kholm Governorate - from parts of the Sedlets and Lublin Governorates. It was split off from the Vistulan Country and made part of the Southwestern Krai of the Russian Empire.