The administrative division reform of 1708 was carried out by

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

in an attempt to improve the manageability of the vast territory of Russia. Prior to the reform, the country was subdivided into uyezds and

volost Volost (; ; ) was a traditional administrative subdivision in Kievan Rus', the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and the Russian Empire. History The '' Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary'' (1890–1907) states that the origins of the concept is unc ...

s, and in the 17th century the number of the uyezds was 166.

Creation

On , 1708, Peter issued an edict dividing Russia into eight governorates ('' guberniyas'').Указ об учреждении губерний и о росписании к ним городов
The edict established neither the borders of the governorates nor their internal divisions; instead, their territories were defined as the sets of cities and the lands adjacent to those cities. Some older subdivision types also continued to be used.

List of the governorates created in 1708

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Administrative divisions of Russia in 1708-1710 1708-1710 1700s in Russia 1710 in Russia