Kherson Region: Pages of History

The collection includes official documents, in particular decrees of the President of the Russian Federation, federal constitutional laws, government decrees, archives devoted to the history of the lands of Kherson Region, judicial statutes, collections of Kherson zemstvo, reviews of Kherson province, agricultural reviews, statistical and economic descriptions, cartographic and visual materials.

At the end of September 2022, a referendum was held in Kherson Region on the region’s entry into Russia. On September 28, the Declaration of Independence and Sovereignty of Kherson Region was adopted. On October 4, 2022, by Federal Constitutional Law № 8-FKZ, Kherson Region was included in the Russian Federation as a new subject.

The territory of Kherson became part of the Russian Empire in 1774 as a result of the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Peace Treaty. The fortress city at the mouth of the Dnieper Kherson was founded a little later, in 1778. The collection includes “Notes on trade on the Black Sea” and a project for the establishment of a trading society in Kherson in 1781. By decree of Emperor Alexander I, Kherson province was formed in 1803, later divided into five districts. By the beginning of the 20th century, there were two provinces on these lands - Kherson and Tauride (the collection included a 1900 project on dividing the Kherson province into Kherson and Odessa); after the revolutionary events of 1917, the first was renamed the Nikolaev province. On March 30, 1944, Kherson Region was formed by separating part of the districts from Nikolaev and Zaporozhye Regions.

The collection contains documents testifying to the participation of Kherson Region in key historical events that are associated with the reign of Russian emperors, starting with the reign of Catherine the Great and ending with the last representative of the dynasty - Nicholas II. Archival materials and book publications illustrate the construction of Kherson and other cities in the region, the establishment of district schools in the Kherson province and the emergence of women's schools, the provision of land to peasants, the implementation of zemstvo reform, the results of the first All-Russian population census; crafts and trades, handicraft industry, etc. Particular attention is paid to viticulture and winemaking in Kherson province.

In addition, there are sections dedicated to famous personalities included in the “Russia in Persons” collection, such as the founder of Kherson and many other cities of Novorossiya, Field Marshal G. A. Potemkin-Tavrichesky (1739–1791), Soviet party and statesman A. D. Tsyurupa (1870–1928), People’s Artist of the USSR, film director S. F. Bondarchuk (1920–1994), etc.