Artvin okrug

Okrug in Caucasus, Russian Empire

Artvin okrug Артвинский округ
Okrug
Coat of arms
Location in the Batum Oblast
Country	Russian Empire
Viceroyalty	Caucasus
Oblast	Batum
Established	1878
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk	3 March 1918
Capital	Artvin
Area
• Total	3,272.00 km² (1,263.33 sq mi)
Population (1916)
• Total	37,414
• Density	11/km² (30/sq mi)
• Urban	18.70%
• Rural	81.30%

The Artvin okrug^[b] was a district (okrug) of the Batum Oblast of the Russian Empire, existing between 1878 and 1918. The district was eponymously named for its administrative centre, Artvin, presently part of the Artvin Province of Turkey. The district bordered with the Olti okrug to the south, the Ardahan okrug to the east, the Batumi okrug to the north, and the Ottoman Empire to the west. Between 1883 and 1903, the Artvin okrug formed a part of the Kutaisi Governorate.^[1]

Administrative divisions

The prefectures (участки, uchastki) of the Artvin okrug were:^[2]^[3]

Name	Administrative centre	1912 population	Area
Ardanuchskiy prefecture (Арданучский участок)	Ardanuch (Ardanuç)	18,336	684.64 square versts (779.16 km²; 300.84 sq mi)
Artvinskiy prefecture (Артвинский участок)	Artvin	12,804	1,120.18 square versts (1,274.83 km²; 492.22 sq mi)
Shavsheto-Imerkhevskiy prefecture (Шавшето-Имерхевский участок)	Satlel-Rabat	23,780	1,070.24 square versts (1,218.00 km²; 470.27 sq mi)

Demographics

Russian Empire Census

According to the Russian Empire Census, the Artvin okrug had a population of 56,140 on 28 January [O.S. 15 January] 1897, including 29,064 men and 27,076 women. The majority of the population indicated Turkish to be their mother tongue, with significant Armenian and Georgian speaking minorities.^[4]

Linguistic composition of the Artvin *okrug* in 1897^[4]
Language	Native speakers	%
Turkish	41,468	73.87
Armenian	7,819	13.93
Georgian	5,506	9.81
Ukrainian	714	1.27
Russian	308	0.55
Kurdish	112	0.20
Greek	67	0.12
Polish	21	0.04
Imeretian	15	0.03
German	13	0.02
Abkhazian	6	0.01
Tatar^[c]	5	0.01
Belarusian	4	0.01
Persian	2	0.00
Ossetian	1	0.00
Other	79	0.14
TOTAL	56,140	100.00

Kavkazskiy kalendar

According to the 1917 publication of Kavkazskiy kalendar, the Artvin okrug had a population of 37,414 on 14 January [O.S. 1 January] 1916, including 19,276 men and 18,138 women, 33,945 of whom were the permanent population, and 3,469 were temporary residents:^[7]

Nationality	Urban		Rural		TOTAL
Nationality	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Georgians	882	12.61	25,849	84.98	26,731	71.45
Armenians	5,451	77.90	3,977	13.07	9,428	25.20
Russians	217	3.10	109	0.36	326	0.87
North Caucasians	304	4.34	0	0.00	304	0.81
Shia Muslims^[d]	143	2.04	140	0.46	283	0.76
Roma	0	0.00	145	0.48	145	0.39
Sunni Muslims^[e]	0	0.00	104	0.34	104	0.28
Asiatic Christians	0	0.00	69	0.23	69	0.18
Other Europeans	0	0.00	24	0.08	24	0.06
TOTAL	6,997	100.00	30,417	100.00	37,414	100.00

Notes

^ Western Armenian pronunciation: [ɑɹtʰviˈni kʰɑˈvɑr]
^
- Russian: Артвинский округ, pre-reform orthography: Артвинскій округъ, romanized: Artvinskiy okrug [ɐrtvʲɪnskʲɪj ɐkrʊk]
- Turkish: Artvin Okrugu [aɾtvin okɾuɡu]
- Armenian: Արդվինի գավառ, classical orthography: Արդուինի գաւառ, romanized: Arduini gawaṙ [ɑɹdviˈni ɡɑˈvɑr]^[a]
- Georgian: ართვინის ოკრუგი, romanized: artvinis ok'rugi [aɾtʰʷinis okʼɾuɡi]
^ Before 1918, Azerbaijanis were generally known as "Tatars". This term, employed by the Russians, referred to Turkic-speaking Muslims of the South Caucasus. After 1918, with the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and "especially during the Soviet era", the Tatar group identified itself as "Azerbaijani".^[5]^[6]
^ Primarily Tatars.^[8]
^ Primarily Turco-Tatars.^[8]

References

^ Tsutsiev 2014.
^ Кавказский календарь на 1917 год, pp. 23–28.
^ Кавказский календарь на 1913 год, pp. 144–147.
^ ^a ^b "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". www.demoscope.ru. Retrieved 2022-03-26.
^ Bournoutian 2018, p. 35 (note 25).
^ Tsutsiev 2014, p. 50.
^ Кавказский календарь на 1917 год, pp. 182–185.
^ ^a ^b Hovannisian 1971, p. 67.

Bibliography

Bournoutian, George A. (2018). Armenia and Imperial Decline: The Yerevan Province, 1900–1914. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-06260-2. OCLC 1037283914.

Hovannisian, Richard G. (1971). The Republic of Armenia: The First Year, 1918–1919. Vol. 1. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520019843.
Кавказский календарь на 1913 год [Caucasian calendar for 1913] (in Russian) (68th ed.). Tiflis: Tipografiya kantselyarii Ye.I.V. na Kavkaze, kazenny dom. 1913. Archived from the original on 19 April 2022.
Кавказский календарь на 1917 год [Caucasian calendar for 1917] (in Russian) (72nd ed.). Tiflis: Tipografiya kantselyarii Ye.I.V. na Kavkaze, kazenny dom. 1917. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021.
Tsutsiev, Arthur (2014). Atlas of the Ethno-Political History of the Caucasus (PDF). Translated by Nora Seligman Favorov. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300153088. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 June 2023.