On the Changes in Administrative Boundaries during the Paul I’s Provincial Reform

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the restructuring of provincial and uezd borders carried out during the transformations of Paul I in 1796—1797, in 25 central provinces of European Russia. Based on cartographic sources, primarily atlases of 1792 and 1800, electronic maps of administrative border systems were created at the end of the reign of Catherine II and at the end of the reign of Paul I. The study and correlation of the received multi-time electronic maps of the administrative division showed that the transformations covered all regions of the country, but to varying degrees. In the interior of the country, only two governorships were abolished, and, with this exception, the borders of the provinces did not undergo significant changes. However, the situation was different at the uezd level. In each province (except Arkhangelsk), cities were abolished and their uezds were dismantled. The study showed that mainly "new" administrative centers, which received city status during the reform of 1775, were subject to abolition. The territories of the abolished counties were distributed among neighboring ones. Although the population was not taken into account when determining which counties would be abolished, in many regions administrators sought to preserve the approximate equality of counties by residents, and other parts were often cut off from counties that acquired large plots in order to even out the resulting imbalance.