Batum Okrug

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Batum Okrug
Батумский округ
Okrug
Coat of arms of Batum Okrug
Location in the Batum Oblast
Location in the Batum Oblast
CountryRussian Empire
OblastBatum
ViceroyaltyCaucasus
Established1878
Abolished1918
SeatBatum
UchastoksUpper-Adjara, Goni, Kintrishi, and Lower Adjara
Area
 • Total3,703 km2 (1,430 sq mi)
Population
 (1916)
 • Total85,397
 • Density23/km2 (60/sq mi)

The Batum Okrug (Russian: Батумский округ; Georgian: ბათუმის ოკრუგი) was one of the two okrugs of the Batum Oblast of the Russian Empire, existing between 1878 and 1918. The district was eponymously named for its administrative center, the town of Batumi, presently part of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara within Georgia. The okrug bordered with the Artvin Okrug in the south, the Ardahan Okrug in the southeast, the Tiflis Governorate in the northeast, the Kutaisi Governorate (of which it was a part 1883–1903) in the north, and the Trebizond Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire in the west.

History[]

The Batum Oblast was created out of the territories of the Ottoman Empire's , following the region's annexation into the Russian Empire in the aftermath of the 1878 Russo-Turkish War.

Established in 1878, the Batum Oblast was later downgraded to an okrug in 1883 and incorporated into the Kutais Governorate (until 1903).[1]

According to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Russian SFSR ceded the Batum Oblast to the Ottoman Empire, however, the Transcaucasian Seim, the authority in Transcaucasia by 1918, rejected the treaty, opting to negotiate with the Ottoman Empire on its own terms. Such action led to the former's dissolution and the subsequent Treaty of Batum, which resulted in the inevitable re-annexation of Batum to the Ottoman Empire.

After the Mudros Armistice, in which the Ottoman Empire was forced to withdraw its troops from the territories of the former Russian Transcaucasus including Batum, British troops under the 27th Division occupied the district to support the British military presence in the Transcaucasus, and to serve as a terminal for supplying Denikin's Volunteer Army.

The Batum Oblast was finally evacuated by the British in the summer of 1919, and handed over to the Democratic Republic of Georgia, whom administered the district until it was occupied by Turkish revolutionaries, leading to the Treaty of Kars which resulted in the partition of the district. The north including the port of Batum was retained by Georgia as an autonomy, and the southern Artvin district was incorporated into the fledgling Republic of Turkey as the Artvin Province.

Administrative divisions[]

The uchastoks (sub-counties) of the Batum Okrug were:[2]

  • Upper-Adjara (Верхне-Аджарский участок)
  • Goni (Гонийский участок)
  • Kintrishi (Кинтришский участок)
  • Lower-Adjara (Нижне-Аджарский участок)

Demographics[]

Russian Empire census (1897)[]

According to the Russian Empire census of 1897, the Batum Okrug had a population of 88,444, including 53,149 men and 35,295 women. The majority of the population indicated Georgian to be their mother tongue, with significant Russian, Armenian and Greek speaking minorities.[3]

Linguistic composition of the Batum Okrug in 1897[3]
Language Native speakers %
Georgian 56,498 63.88
Russian 7,217 8.16
Armenian 7,120 8.05
Greek 4,650 5.26
Turkish 3,199 3.62
Kurdish 1,699 1.92
Ukrainian 1,637 1.85
Jewish 1,076 1.22
Polish 890 1.01
Persian 765 0.86
Abkhazian 687 0.78
Mingrelian 635 0.72
German 356 0.40
Tatar[a] 350 0.40
Imeretian 341 0.39
Lithuanian 157 0.18
Sartic 156 0.18
Belarusian 76 0.09
Avar-Andean 56 0.06
Kazi-Kumukh 47 0.05
English 38 0.04
Ossetian 28 0.03
Romanian 27 0.03
Svan 17 0.02
Estonian 11 0.01
Other 711 0.80
ТОТАL 88,444 100.00

Caucasian Calendar (1917)[]

The 1917 Caucasian Calendar which produced statistics of 1916 indicates 85,397 residents in the Batum Okrug, including 47,532 men and 37,865 women, 61,347 of whom were the permanent population, and 24,050 were temporary residents:[4]

Nationality Center Rural TOTAL
Georgians 6,481 45,627 52,108 61.0%
Turks 75 14,163 14,238 16.7%
Russians 4,825 3,394 8,219 9.6%
Armenians 5,524 240 5,764 6.7%
Asiatic Christians 1,097 1,078 2,175 2.5%
Other Europeans 855 96 951 1.1%
Jews 597 10 607 0.7%
Kurds 8 544 552 0.4%
Azerbaijanis 386 25 411 0.5%
North Caucasians 172 180 352 0.4%
TOTAL 20,020 65,377 85,397 100.0%

Notes[]

  1. ^ Later known as Azerbaijani.

References[]

  1. ^ Tsutsiev, Arthur (2014), Atlas of the Ethno-Political History of the Caucasus, New Haven and London, p. 38, ISBN 978-0-300-15308-8, OCLC 884858065, retrieved 2021-12-25
  2. ^ Кавказский календарь .... на 1913 год (in Russian). Tiflis: Office of the Viceroy of the Caucasus. 1913. pp. 271–317.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". www.demoscope.ru. Retrieved 2022-03-26.
  4. ^ Кавказский календарь .... на 1917 год (in Russian). pp. 351–352.

See also[]

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