The Vladimir province, formed in 1796 by a registered decree of sovereign Paul I and existed with minor changes until 1929, had a long history inextricably linked with the annals of life in Russia itself. Even in the time of Ivan the Terrible, its administrative center - the ancient Russian city of Vladimir - was governed by governors appointed directly by the sovereign. He retained his significance in subsequent years.
The era of Peter's reforms
Peter I, trying to comprehensively strengthen the vertical of state power, issued a decree in December 1708, on the basis of which the entire territory of the Russian Empire was divided into eight provinces, whose rulers have since been called governors. At that time, the city of Vladimir, which had not yet received the status of an independent subject of the federation, became part of the newly established Moscow province, two years later becoming the center of one of its over-commandant provinces.
Very prolific in administrative reforms, Peter I issued a new decree in 1718, according to which the territory of Russia was subject to even smaller division into fifty provinces that were part of the previously established provinces and governed by governors. Under this decree, Vladimir became the center of the province from which the Vladimir province was formed in the future.
Despite the fact that formally the provinces were part of the provinces, the governors who led them were not subordinate to the governors and in their orders had complete independence. The only exception was a set of recruits and all other issues related to the provision of the army.
The influence of the two empresses on the fate of the Vladimir province
The period of the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna gave a new impetus to the spiritual life of Vladimir and the entire vast province, the center of which he was. This was primarily due to the revival of the previously abolished Vladimir Diocese, as well as the creation of a theological seminary in the city, from which many prominent figures of Russian Orthodoxy emerged.
Vladimir province owed its official birth to a registered decree of the next Russian empress - Catherine II, who transformed the former province in March 1778 into an independent administrative and economic unit and endowed it with the appropriate status.
However, six months later, the Empress considered it necessary to transform the newly established province into governorate, divided into fourteen districts. In this form, it existed for eight years, until Paul I in 1796 returned to it the provincial status.
Bright but short era of Paul I
According to the Highest Decree, the counties of Vladimir province were divided into Yuryevsky, Suzdal, Pereslavl, Melenkovsky, Vyaznikovsky, Shuisky, Pokrovsky, Murom, Gorokhovetsky and central - Vladimirsky. In total - ten independent administrative units on an area of ββalmost forty-three thousand square miles, sufficient to accommodate several European states.
In the bright but short era of his reign, Paul I instituted the creation of medical administrations in all Russian provinces, which in those years were the first medical and administrative institutions in the history of the country. This was a very important step in the field of public health, thanks to which medical care was placed under state control.
Since that time, not only the cities, but also the villages of the Vladimir province have come into the view of the administrative bodies that supervised the work of hospitals, the activities of private practitioners, and also monitored the observance of proper sanitary standards. Since that time, the history of Zemstvo doctors of Russia originates, subsequently decorated with many famous names.
In 1803, the next emperor, Alexander I, who succeeded his murdered father on the Russian throne, also established Kovrovsky, Sudogodsky, and Aleksandrovsky Uyezd in Vladimir Province, bringing their total number to thirteen. All of them were divided into two hundred twenty-two volosts.
Map of Mende, Vladimir Province
Since the main stage of development of this very vast subject of the federation is in the 19th century, modern researchers have a significant amount of material related to its history. In particular, how the Vladimir province looked at that time can be found out thanks to the work of one of the leaders of the Imperial Cartographic Directorate, Lieutenant General Alexander Ivanovich Mende. Among the documents stored in the state archive, there are atlases compiled by him of eight Russian provinces, among which Vladimirskaya is also represented.
Her geographic outlines
The map of Mende of the Vladimir province, made more than one and a half years ago, with a few exceptions, is similar to the map of the Vladimir region modern to us. Its northern borders extended to the Kostroma and Yaroslavl provinces, the eastern borders to Nizhny Novgorod, the western borders to Moscow, and the southern borders to Ryazan and Tambov.
Judging by the data presented in the atlas and remaining unchanged until 1929, the total territory of the province reached forty-five thousand square kilometers in the second half of the 19th century. From east to west it stretched for three hundred and forty-eight kilometers, and the maximum length from north to south was about two hundred and fifty-six kilometers.
Large industrial region of Russia
In the years preceding the October Revolution, the province occupied the third place in Russia in terms of industrial production. On its territory there were four hundred and seventy enterprises, where about one hundred and sixty-five thousand workers worked.
As a result, this region of the country became one of the most active centers of the Bolshevik movement, which largely determined the path for its further development. In 1929, by decision of the government, the Vladimir province as an independent administrative unit was abolished, giving way to the newly formed Ivanovo industrial region.