This post is long overdue. Being a Belarussian Jew and after finding such beautiful maps for Lithuania and Ukraine I simply could not settle for anything less beautiful. The idea was to show Belarussian governorates all in different colors along with modern day border of Belarussian Republic along with significant level of detail. Therefore I have long procrastinated since none of the found maps fit my requirements. Finally the wait is over.
The map below found here shows administrative divisions during the late Czarist period. While the all the maps are written in Russian it is easy to follow for the trained eye.
Back then roughly two-thirds of modern day Belarus were located within Minsk and Mogilev governorates. The remaining area was divided between three governorates Vitebsk, Wilno, Grodno. Each of these included border areas in the modern Russia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
Let's go over list of districts in each governorate:
- Vitebsk governorate (northernmost shown in purple):
included districts of Vitebsk, Polotsk, Lepel, Gorodok, Drissa, Surazh (in Belarus)
with Dvinsk, Ludza, Rezekne in Latvia and Nevel, Sebezh, Velizh in Russia. - Wilno governorate (northwest territory) included Disna, Lida, Oshmyany, Vileyka (in Belarus) and along with Wilno (Vilnius), Troki and Sventiany (in Lithuania).
- Grodno governorate (southwestern territory) included Grodno, Brest-Litowsk, Volkovysk, Slonim, Kobryn, Pruzhany in Belarus along with Bialystok and Bielsk in Poland. The borders of this governorate changed throughout the Czarist period.
- Mogilev Governorate (eastern territory):
This govenorate included Senno, Orsha, Kopys, Gorki, Mstislavl, Mogilev, Chausy, Krichev, Bykhov, Cherikov, Klimovichi, Rogachev and Gomel districts all within modern day Belarus with several border lands in the the modern Smolensk region of Russia. - Minsk governorate: The largest governorate shown in the center of this map. It included districts of Borisov, Minsk, Igumen, Novogrudok, Slutsk, Bobruysk, Pinsk, Mozyr and Rechitsa.