Baltic governorates

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The Baltic governorates were the governorates (or guberniyas) of the Russian Empire on the territory of what in 1918 became, and is now, independent Estonia and Latvia.

The Baltic governorates consisted of the historic regions of Courland, Livonia, and Estonia which border on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The dominions of Swedish Estonia (in what is now northern Estonia) and Swedish Livonia (in what is now southern Estonia and northern Latvia) became the governorates of Reval and Riga, when they were conquered by Russia in during the Great Northern War, and then ceded by Sweden in the Treaty of Nystad in 1721. Notably, both Reval Governorate and Riga Governorate were each at the time subdivided into one province only: the province of Estonia and the province of Livonia, respectively. The third Baltic province of Courland was annexed into Russian Empire with the third division of Poland (1795). After an administrative reform in 1796, the Reval Governorate was renamed Governorate of Estonia (Эстляндская губерния), and Riga Governorate renamed Governorate of Livonia (Лифляндская губерния).

In some context, the province of Ingermanland on the far-eastern coast of the Baltic Sea or, more rarely, the province of Kovno in the present-day Lithuania is also included among Baltic Provinces. The latter became part of Russian Empire during partitions of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in late 18th century and became a part of independent Lithuania in 1918.

[edit] Lithuanian governorates

In 1843 another administrative reform took place. Unofficially three governorates were considered to be Lithuanian: Vilna Governorate (until 1840 known as Lithuania-Vilna Governorate), a part of which was later detached as Kovno Governorate, and Suvalki Governorate (the latter was part of the Congress Poland). Also, some parts of Courland Governorate and Grodno Governorate(until 1840 known as Lithuania-Grodno Governorate) could be also considered as Lithuanian.^{[citation needed]}