Ilūkste county (, , ) was a historic

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

of the

Courland Governorate Courland Governorate, also known as the Province of Courland or Governorate of Kurland, and known from 1795 to 1796 as the Viceroyalty of Courland, was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') and one of the Baltic governorates of the ...

and of the

Republic of Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. Its capital was

Ilūkste Ilūkste (; ; ) is a town in Augšdaugava Municipality in the Selonia region of Latvia. The population in 2020 was 2,216. History The territory of modern Ilūkste was inhabited by the Selonians, an ancient Baltic peoples, Baltic tribe. As a set ...

(''Illuxt''), but the most populous settlement was

Grīva Daugavpils (see also other names) is a state city in southeastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city derives its name. The parts of the city to the north of the river belong to the historical Latvian region ...

(''Griwa-Semgallen'') immediately south of

Daugavpils Daugavpils (see also other names) is a state city in southeastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city derives its name. The parts of the city to the north of the river belong to the historical Latvian region ...

(''Dünaburg'').

History

Initially, the Captaincy of Illuxt () was as a subdivision of the

Duchy of Courland and Semigallia The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was a duchy in the Baltic states, Baltic region, then known as Livonia, that existed from 1561 to 1569 as a nominal vassal state of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and subsequently made part of the Crown of th ...

. In 1795, the Duchy was incorporated into the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, and in 1819 Illuxt County (''Kreis Illuxt'') became one of the ten counties of the Courland Governorate. It was forming a wedge between

Vilna Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

(later

Kovno Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

) and

Vitebsk Vitebsk or Vitsyebsk (, ; , ; ) is a city in northern Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Vitebsk Region and Vitebsk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it has 358,927 inhabitants, m ...

governorates. After the establishment of the Republic of Latvia in 1918, the ''Ilūkstes apriņķis'' existed until 1949, when the Council of Ministers of the

Latvian SSR The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (Also known as the Latvian SSR, or Latvia) was a Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republic of the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1941, and then from 1944 until 1990. The Soviet occupation of the Bal ...

split it into the newly created districts (''rajons'') of

(dissolved in 1955),

Aknīste Aknīste (; ; ) is a town in Jēkabpils Municipality in the Selonia region of Latvia, situated near the Lithuanian border. The town is located near the river Dienvidsusēja. Prior to the 2009 administrative reforms, it was part of Jēkabpils dis ...

(dissolved in 1956) and

(dissolved in 1962 and merged with the Daugavpils district).

Demographics

At the time of the Russian Empire Census of 1897, ''Kreis Illuxt'' had a population of 66,461. Of these, 28.5% spoke Latvian, 17.3%

Belarusian Belarusian may refer to: * Something of, or related to Belarus * Belarusians, people from Belarus, or of Belarusian descent * A citizen of Belarus, see Demographics of Belarus * Belarusian language * Belarusian culture * Belarusian cuisine * Byelor ...

, 17.1%

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

, 15.2%

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

, 10.5%

Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Lithuania, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe ** Lithuanian language ** Lithuanians, a Baltic ethnic group, native to Lithuania and the immediate geographical region ** L ...

and 9.6%

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

as their native language.

References

External links

{{coord missing, Latvia Counties of Latvia Captaincies of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia Uezds of Courland Governorate