Batum oblast

Batum *oblast*
Батумская область
Batum oblast Батумская область
Oblast
	Coat of arms
	Administrative map of the Batum Oblast
	Coordinates: 41°38′45″N41°38′30″E / 41.64583°N 41.64167°E
Country	Russian Empire
Viceroyalty	Caucasus
Established	1873
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk	3 March 1918
Capital	Batum; (present-day Batumi)
Area
• Total	6,975.65 km2 (2,693.31 sq mi)
Population (1916)
• Total	122,811
• Density	18/km2 (46/sq mi)
• Urban	22.02%
• Rural	87.98%

Last updated October 25, 2024

The Batum oblast^{[lower-alpha 1]} was a province ( oblast ) of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, with the Black Sea port of Batum (present-day Batumi) as its administrative center. The Batum oblast roughly corresponded to the present-day Adjara autonomous region of Georgia, and most of the Artvin Province of Turkey.^[1]

History

The Batum oblast was created out of the territories of the Ottoman Empire's sanjak of Batum following the region's annexation into the Russian Empire in the aftermath of the 1878 Russo-Turkish War. Established in 1878, the Batum Oblast was later downgraded to an okrug in 1883 and incorporated into the Kutais Governorate (until 1903).

According to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Russian SFSR ceded the Batum Oblast to the Ottoman Empire, however, the Transcaucasian Seim, the authority in Transcaucasia by 1918, rejected the treaty, opting to negotiate with the Ottoman Empire on its own terms. Such action led to the former's dissolution and the subsequent Treaty of Batum, which resulted in the inevitable reannexation of Batum to the Ottoman Empire.

After the Mudros Armistice, in which the Ottoman Empire was forced to withdraw its troops from the territories of the former Russian Transcaucasus including Batum, British troops under the 27th Division occupied the district to support the British military presence in the Transcaucasus, and to serve as a terminal for supplying Denikin's Volunteer Army.

The Batum Oblast was finally evacuated by the British in the summer of 1920, and handed over to the Democratic Republic of Georgia, whom administered the district until it was occupied by Turkish revolutionaries, leading to the Treaty of Kars which resulted in the partition of the district. The north including the port of Batum was retained by Georgia as an autonomy, and the southern Artvin district was incorporated into Turkey as the Artvin Province.

Administrative divisions

The districts ( okrugs ) of the Batum oblast in 1917 were as follows:^[2]^[3]

Name	Administrative centre	Population		Area
Name	Administrative centre	1897	1916	Area
Artvin okrug (Артвинский округ)	Artvin	56,140	37,414	2,875.06 square versts (3,272.00 km² ; 1,263.33 sq mi )
Batumi okrug (Батумский округ)	Batum (Batumi)	88,444	85,397	3,254.05 square versts (3,703.31 km² ; 1,429.86 sq mi )

Demographics

Russian Empire Census

According to the Russian Empire Census, the Batum oblast (at the time part of the Kutaisi Governorate) had a population of 144,584 on 28 January [ O.S. 15 January] 1897, including 82,213 men and 62,371 women. The plurality of the population indicated Georgian to be their mother tongue, with significant Turkish, Armenian and Russian speaking minorities.^[2]

Linguistic composition of the Batum *oblast* in 1897^[2]
Language	Native speakers	%
Georgian	62,004	42.88
Turkish	44,667	30.89
Armenian	14,939	10.33
Russian	7,525	5.20
Greek	4,717	3.26
Ukrainian	2,351	1.63
Kurdish	1,811	1.25
Jewish	1,076	0.74
Polish	911	0.63
Persian	767	0.53
Abkhazian	693	0.48
Mingrelian	635	0.44
German	369	0.26
Imeretian	356	0.25
Tatar^{[lower-alpha 2]}	355	0.25
Lithuanian	157	0.11
Sartic	156	0.11
Belarusian	80	0.06
Avar-Andean	56	0.04
Kazi-Kumukh	47	0.03
English	38	0.03
Ossetian	29	0.02
Romanian	27	0.02
Svan	17	0.01
Estonian	11	0.01
Other	790	0.55
ТОТАL	144,584	100.00

Kavkazskiy kalendar

According to the 1917 publication of Kavkazskiy kalendar , the Batum oblast had a population of 122,811 on 14 January [ O.S. 1 January] 1916, including 66,808 men and 56,003 women, 95,292 of whom were the permanent population, and 27,519 were temporary residents:^[3]

Nationality	Urban		Rural		TOTAL
Nationality	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Georgians	7,363	27.25	71,476	74.61	78,839	64.20
Armenians	10,975	40.62	4,217	4.40	15,192	12.37
Sunni Muslims ^{[lower-alpha 3]}	75	0.28	14,267	14.89	14,342	11.68
Russians	5,042	18.66	3,503	3.66	8,545	6.96
Asiatic Christians	1,097	4.06	1,147	1.20	2,244	1.83
Other Europeans	855	3.16	120	0.13	975	0.79
Shia Muslims ^{[lower-alpha 4]}	529	1.96	165	0.17	694	0.57
North Caucasians	476	1.76	180	0.19	656	0.53
Jews	597	2.21	10	0.01	607	0.49
Kurds	8	0.03	544	0.57	552	0.45
Roma	0	0.00	165	0.17	165	0.13
TOTAL	27,017	100.00	95,794	100.00	122,811	100.00

Notes

↑
- Russian: Батумская область, romanized: Batumskaya oblast [bətʊmskəjəɐbɫəsʲtʲ]
- Georgian :ბათუმის ოლქი, romanized:batumis olki [b̥atʰumisolkʰi]
- Turkish: Batum Oblastı [batumobɫastɯ]
↑ Before 1918, Azerbaijanis were generally known as "Tatars". This term, employed by the Russians, referred to Turkic-speaking Muslims of the South Caucasus. After 1918, with the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and "especially during the Soviet era", the Tatar group identified itself as "Azerbaijani".^[4]^[5]
↑ Primarily Turco-Tatars.^[6]
↑ Primarily Tatars.^[6]

Related Research Articles

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The Kars okrug was a district (okrug) of the Kars Oblast of the Russian Empire between 1878 and 1918. Its capital was the city of Kars, presently part of the Kars Province of Turkey and the Amasia District of Armenia. The okrug bordered with the Ardahan okrug in the north, the Kagizman okrug in the south, the Olti okrug in the west, and the Erivan Governorate to its east.

The Ardahan okrug was a district (okrug) of the Kars Oblast of the Russian Empire between 1878 and 1918. The district was eponymously named for its administrative center, the town of Ardagan, presently part of the Ardahan Province of Turkey. The okrug bordered with the Kars okrug to the south, the Olti okrug in the west, the Batum Oblast in the north, the Tiflis Governorate in the northeast, and from 1883 to 1903 the Kutais Governorate whilst the latter included the Artvin and Batum okrugs.

The Olti okrug was a district (okrug) of the Kars Oblast of the Russian Empire existing between 1878 and 1918. Its capital was the town of Olty, presently part of the Erzurum Province of Turkey. The okrug bordered with the Kars okrug to the southeast, the Ardahan okrug to the northwest, the Kagizman okrug to its south, the Batum Oblast to the north, and the Erzurum vilayet of the Ottoman Empire to the west.

The Kagizman okrug was a district (okrug) of the Kars Oblast of the Russian Empire, existing between 1878 and 1918. Its capital was the town of Kagyzman, presently in the Kars Province of Turkey. The okrug bordered with the Kars okrug to the north, the Olti okrug to the northwest, the Erivan Governorate to the east, and the Erzurum Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire to the west.

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The Akhaltsikhe uezd was a county (uezd) of the Tiflis Governorate of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, and then of Democratic Republic of Georgia, with its administrative center in Akhaltsikh. The uezd bordered the Gori uezd and the Kutaisi Governorate to the north, the Akhalkalaki uezd to the east, the Ardahan Okrug of the Kars Oblast to the south, and the Batum Okrug of the Batum Oblast to the west. The area of the uezd roughly corresponded to the contemporary Samtskhe-Javakheti region of Georgia.

The Artvin okrug was a district (okrug) of the Batum Oblast of the Russian Empire, existing between 1878 and 1918. The district was eponymously named for its administrative centre, Artvin, presently part of the Artvin Province of Turkey. The district bordered with the Olti okrug to the south, the Ardahan okrug to the east, the Batumi okrug to the north, and the Ottoman Empire to the west. Between 1883 and 1903, the Artvin okrug formed a part of the Kutaisi Governorate.

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The Sochinsky okrug was a district (okrug) of the Black Sea Governorate of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. It bordered the Kuban Oblast to the north, the Tuapsinsky okrug to the west, the Sukhumi okrug to the east, and the Black Sea to the south. The area of the Sochinsky okrug mostly corresponds to the Krasnodar Krai region of the Russian Federation. The district was eponymously named for its administrative centre, Sochi.

The Kaytago-Tabasaranskiy okrug was a district (okrug) of the Dagestan Oblast of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. The area of the Kaytago-Tabasaranskiy okrug is included in contemporary Dagestan of the Russian Federation. The district's administrative centre was Madzhalis.

The Kyurinskiy okrug was a district (okrug) of the Dagestan Oblast of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. The area of the Kyurinskiy okrug is included in contemporary Dagestan of the Russian Federation. The district's administrative centre was Kasumkent.

References

↑ Tsutsiev 2014.
1 2 3 "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". www.demoscope.ru. Retrieved 2022-03-26.
1 2 Кавказский календарь на 1917 год, pp. 182–185.
↑ Bournoutian 2018, p. 35 (note 25).
↑ Tsutsiev 2014, p. 50.
1 2 Hovannisian 1971, p. 67.

Bibliography

Bournoutian, George A. (2018). Armenia and Imperial Decline: The Yerevan Province, 1900–1914. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-06260-2. OCLC 1037283914.

Hovannisian, Richard G. (1971). The Republic of Armenia: The First Year, 1918–1919. Vol. 1. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520019843.
Кавказский календарь на 1917 год [Caucasian calendar for 1917] (in Russian) (72nd ed.). Tiflis: Tipografiya kantselyarii Ye.I.V. na Kavkaze, kazenny dom. 1917. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021.
Tsutsiev, Arthur (2014). Atlas of the Ethno-Political History of the Caucasus (PDF). Translated by Nora Seligman Favorov. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300153088. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 June 2023.

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[1] 
Russian: Батумская область, romanized: Batumskaya oblast [bətʊmskəjəɐbɫəsʲtʲ]
Georgian :ბათუმის ოლქი, romanized:batumis olki [b̥atʰumisolkʰi]
Turkish: Batum Oblastı [batumobɫastɯ]

[mwAZo] Russian: Батумская область, romanized: Batumskaya oblast [bətʊmskəjəɐbɫəsʲtʲ]

[mwAak] Georgian :ბათუმის ოლქი, romanized:batumis olki [b̥atʰumisolkʰi]

[mwAbg] Turkish: Batum Oblastı [batumobɫastɯ]

[Caucasian_Tatars-7] Before 1918, Azerbaijanis were generally known as "Tatars". This term, employed by the Russians, referred to Turkic-speaking Muslims of the South Caucasus. After 1918, with the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and "especially during the Soviet era", the Tatar group identified itself as "Azerbaijani".^[4]^[5]

[9] Primarily Turco-Tatars.^[6]

[10] Primarily Tatars.^[6]

[FOOTNOTETsutsiev2014-2] Tsutsiev 2014.

[:1-3] 1 2 3 "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". www.demoscope.ru. Retrieved 2022-03-26.

[FOOTNOTEКавказский_календарь_на_1917_год182–185-4] 1 2 Кавказский календарь на 1917 год, pp. 182–185.

[FOOTNOTEBournoutian201835_(note_25)-5] Bournoutian 2018, p. 35 (note 25).

[FOOTNOTETsutsiev201450-6] Tsutsiev 2014, p. 50.

[FOOTNOTEHovannisian197167-8] 1 2 Hovannisian 1971, p. 67.

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v t e Subdivisions of the Russian Empire
Governorates (List)	Azov ¹ +Altai² Arkhangelsk Archangelgorod Astrakhan Belgorod Bessarabia Bratslav Belarus Caucasus Chernigov Grodno Finland Iziaslav Ingermanland Irkutsk Kazan Kaluga Kiev (1708) Kiev Kharkov Kherson Kholm Kovno Kolyvan Kostroma Kursk Lithuania Little Russia (1764) Little Russia (1796) Minsk Mogilev Moscow Nikolayev Nizhny Novgorod Novgorod-Seversky Novgorod Novorossiya Olonets Orenburg Oryol Penza Perm Petrograd² Podolia Polotsk* Poltava Pskov Ryazan Samara Saint Petersburg Saratov Siberia Simbirsk Sloboda Ukraine Slonim Smolensk Stavropol Taurida Tambov Tver Tobolsk Tomsk Tula Ufa Vilna Vitebsk Vladimir Voznesensk Vologda Volhynia Voronezh Vyatka Vyborg Yaroslavl Yekaterinoslav Yeniseysk
Oblasts	Amur Belostok Bessarabia Don Host Transbaikal Kamchatka Caspian Kwantung Orenburg Kirghiz Omsk Primorskaya Sakhalin Taurida Tarnopol Turgay Ural Yakutsk
Oblasts of Stepnoy Krai	Akmolinsk Siberian Kirghiz Semipalatinsk
Oblasts of Turkestan Krai	Transcaspian Samarkand Semirechye Oblast Syr-Darya Oblast Turkestan Fergana
Caucasus Viceroyalty	Baku (Governorate) Black Sea Derbent Elizavetpol Erivan Georgia-Imeretia Georgia Kutaisi Shemakha Tiflis Armenian Batum Dagestan Imeretia Kars Kuban Terek Sukhumi Zakatal Baku (Gradonachalstvo)
Baltic Governorates³	Courland Livonia Reval Riga Estonia
Governorates of Finland	Abo-Byorneborg Vaza Vyborg Kuopio Nyuland Sankt-Mikhel Tavastgus Uleaborg
Governorates of Poland	Avgustov Warsaw Kalish Keltsy Krakov Lomzha Lyublin Mazovia Petrokov Plotsk Podlyashye Radom Sandomir Sedlets Suvalki
Governorates of Galicia and Bukovina	Lvov Peremyshl Tarnopol Chernovtsy
Dependencies	Bukey Horde Emirate of Bukhara Khanate of Kokand Russian America Uryankhay Krai² Khanate of Khiva Zeravshan Okrug*
¹ Italics indicates renamed or abolished governorates, oblasts, etc on 1 January 1914. ² An asterisk (+) indicates governorates formed or created with renaming after 1 January 1914. ³ Ostsee or Baltic general-governorship was abolished in 1876.