Chatchkovich (Hatkoff) Roots
Gubernia (huberniia). An administrative territorial unit in the Russian Empire. The division into gubernias was introduced by Peter I. In Ukraine, Azov gubernia and Kyiv gubernia were formed in 1708; the latter existed alongside the Ukrainian regimental administrative system, which was abolished in 1764–81. The extent and status of gubernias in Ukraine changed often (see Administrative territorial division). Most administrative, fiscal, judicial, and military institutions were headed by the governor, although they were staffed by officials of the respective ministry. Reforms enacted in 1775–85 were intended to create an elaborate system of administration involving the representative institutions of the nobility, urban strata, and peasants. These were only partly successful, although the gubernia Gentry Assemblies (founded in 1785) had a noticeable influence on local government. Self-administrating institutions in the gubernias, the zemstvos, began to appear in the 1860s. Towards the end of the 18th century, alongside the gubernias, the government created vicegerencies; these later became gubernias or were included in pre-existing gubernias. In 1914, there were 10 gubernias (Chernihiv gubernia, Katerynoslav gubernia, Kharkiv gubernia, Kherson gubernia, Kholm gubernia, Kyiv gubernia, Podilia gubernia, Poltava gubernia, Tavriia gubernia, and Volhynia gubernia) on Ukrainian ethnic territory, and eight (Bessarabia, Hrodna, Kursk [see Kursk region], Lublin, Mahiliou, Minsk, Orel, and Voronezh [see Voronezh region]) in ethnically mixed territories.
Vitebsk Gubernia. This gubernia was north of the Minsk Gubernia, and a principally Jewish county. See the voters list for this area. It contains ther name Paiken, a clue as to the Hatkoff maternal geneology, as the name Hatkovich or Chachkovich has not yielded any results. Here is a complete study of or life and conditions in Vitebsk Gubernia.
Chernihiv gubernia. Administrative territorial unit in Left-Bank Ukraine created in 1802. Its center was the city of Chernihiv. The gubernia was composed of 15 counties, 11 of which (Borzna, Hlukhiv, Horodnia, Kozelets, Konotip, Krolevets, Nizhen, Novhorod-Siverskyi, Oster, Sosnytsia, Chernihiv) lay within the boundaries of Ukrainian ethnic territory. The remaining four northern counties (Mglin, Novozybkov, Starodub, Surazh) were part of a mixed Ukrainian–Belarusian–Russian ethnic territory. Chernihiv gubernia covered 52,396 sq km and, according to the 1897 census, had a population of 2,298,000 (cf Ukrainian ethnic territory, which covered 38,324 sq km and had a population of 1,663,000). The 1914 population figure was 2,340,000, of which Ukrainians numbered 1,525,000. In 1919 the four northern counties were transferred to Homel gubernia and, in 1926, to Briansk gubernia, RSFSR. In 1925 the territory of Chernihiv gubernia became part of Hlukhiv, Konotip, Nizhen, and Chernihiv okruhas.
Most gubernia administrations published an official newspaper called Gubernskie vedomosti. At certain times some individual gubernias were united to create general-gubernias, headed by a governor-general. This occurred in Ukraine in the first half of the 19th century. Gubernias were in turn subdivided into counties (povity; Russian: uezdy). Gubernias were abolished in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1925.
County (Ukrainian: povit; Russian: uezd; Polish: powiat). Administrative-territorial entity introduced in Ukrainian territories in the second half of the 14th century, first in the territories under Poland and then in the territories under the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the second half of the 16th century the county system became the basis of the administrative-territorial system in all Ukrainian lands within the Polish Commonwealth. The county was not only an administrative but also a judicial territorial unit. The county was administered by the starosta. In 1772 there were 27 counties and lands (zemli) in the Ukrainian territories that belonged to the Polish Commonwealth.
In the Hetman state the county system was introduced in the 1760s (while the regimental system and company system were preserved) in connection with the judicial reforms of Hetman Kyrylo Rozumovsky. In 1782 counties became administrative and financial entities there as well. The county system was introduced to Slobidska Ukraine and southern Ukraine somewhat later (after 1775) and to Right-Bank Ukraine in the 1790s. The administrative and police authority in the counties was in the hands of the ispravnik. The county assemblies of the nobility and the marshal of the nobility elected by them were institutions of estate self-government. County zemstvo assemblies and county zemstvo executives (see Zemstvo) were the basis of zemstvo self-government. In 1913 there were 126 counties in Ukrainian territories belonging to the Russian Empire, 99 of which were in the territories that eventually formed the Ukrainian SSR.
In Galicia and Bukovyna under Austrian rule the counties were under the jurisdiction of county heads. County self-government was realized through county councils and county departments, which were headed by county marshals. In 1914 there were 59 counties in Galicia, 34 in Transcarpathia, and 10 in Bukovyna.
The county system was retained by the Ukrainian National Republic. In Western Ukrainian territories under Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Rumania it was preserved until 1939. In the Ukrainian territories within the USSR, however, the county and gubernia system was replaced in 1924–5 (and in the Voronezh region and Kursk region in 1929) by the raion and okruha (later oblast) system (see Administrative-territorial division).