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Geographical Regions for the JewishGen Belarus Database

Today's Belarus was part of five Russian Empire gubernias (pre-1917): Grodno, Minsk, Mogilev, Vilna, and Vitebsk.

Each gubernia (губерния) was comprised of several districts (уѣздъ / уезд = uyezds):

  • Minsk gubernia [Минская губерния] was comprised of 9 districts (uyezds):
    Bobruisk, Borisov, Igumen, Minsk, Mozyr, Novogrudok, Pinsk, Rechitsa and Slutsk.

    Between the two world wars — the western third was in Poland (southern Nowogródek and northeastern Polesie provinces).
    Today — the vast majority of Minsk gubernia is in modern Belarus; small portions of southern Pinsk and Mozyr uyezds are in modern Ukraine.

  • Mogilev gubernia [Могилевская губерния] was comprised of 11 districts (uyezds):
    Bykhov, Chausy, Cherikov, Gomel, Gory-Gorki, Klimovichi, Mogilev, Mstislavl, Orsha, Rogachev, and Senno.

    Today — the majority of Mogilev gubernia is in modern Belarus; small portions of northeastern Mogilev gubernia (eastern Orsha, eastern Mstislavl, and northern Klimovichi uyezds) are in modern Russia.

  • Vitebsk gubernia [Витебская губерния] was comprised of 11 districts (uyezds):
    Drissa, Dvinsk, Gorodok, Lepel, Liutsin, Nevel, Polotsk, Rezhitsa, Sebezh, Velizh, and Vitebsk.

    Today — Dvinsk, Rezhitsa, and Liutsin uyezds (and a small part of Drissa) are now in Latvia;
    Sebezh, Nevel, and parts of Gorodok and Velizh uyezds are now in Russia;
    Lepel, Polotsk, Vitebsk, most of Drissa and Gorodok, and parts of Velizh uyezds are now in Belarus.
    For more details, see Geographical Regions for the JewishGen Latvia Database.

  • Grodno gubernia [Гродненская губерния] was comprised of 9 districts (uyezds):
    Bialystok, Bielsk, Brest, Grodno, Kobrin, Pruzhany, Slonim, Sokolka and Volkovysk.

    Between the two world wars — was in Poland (western Polesie, western Nowogródek, eastern Białystok provinces).
    Today — the western third (Bialystok, Bielsk, and Sokolka uyezds) are in Poland; the remainder of the uyezds are in Belarus.

  • Vilna Gubernia [Виленская губерния] was comprised of 7 districts (uyezds):
    Disna, Lida, Oshmyany, Vilejka, Sventsyany, Troki and Vilna.

    Between the two world wars — was in Poland (Wilno and northern Nowogródek provinces).
    Today — the four southern uyezds (Disna, Lida, Oshmyany, and Vilejka) are all or primarily in Belarus,
    as is a small part of Vilna and half of Sventsyany uyezd.
    The three northern/western uyezds are primarily in Lithuania (all of Troki, most of Vilna, and half of Sventsyany).
    For more details, see Geographical Regions for the JewishGen Lithuania Database.

  • Small parts of former Kovno Gubernia (eastern Novo-Alexandrovsk uyezd), Suwałki Gubernia (eastern Augustów uyezd), and Volhynia Gubernia (northern Kovel uyezd) are also now in Belarus.


JewishGen Database Sharing:

Because of overlapping political borders over time, some regions are shared with other JewishGen databases.


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Last Update: May 30 2013  
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