Wilno Voivodeship

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the voivodship of Poland in the interwar period. Information about voivodship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is at Vilnius Voivodship

The Wilno Voivodeship (Polish: województwo wileńskie, Lithuanian: Vilniaus vaivadija, Belarusian: Віленскае вайводзтва) (or Vilnius Voivodeship) was one of Voivodeships in Poland from 1923 until the transfer of the area by the Soviet Union to Lithuania in September 1939. Its area was 29, 011 square kilometers (which made it the fourth biggest Polish Voivodeship) and population (according to the 1931 Polish Census) - 1 276 000. It was formed as the last of the Polish voivodeships in the interbellum, was created in 1923 as a combination of the lands of the former Central Lithuania and the Department of Wilno created in 1920. Populated mostly by Poles and Belarusians, with notable minorities of Polish and Lithuanian Jews, Russians and Lithuanians.

1 Location
2 Towns and administrative division
3 Population
4 Railroads and industry
5 History
- 5.1 Soviet Union
6 Notable Voivodes
7 References
8 See also

[edit] Location

This Voivodeship was located in north-east corner of the country, bordering Soviet Union to the east, Lithuania to the west, Latvia to the north, Nowogródek Voivodeship to the south and Bialystok Voivodeship to the south-west. Landscape was flat and hilly in parts, with several lakes (the Narocz, the biggest lake of interwar Poland, was located on Voivodeship's area). On Jan. 1, 1937 forested was 21.2% of the area (with national average of 22.2%)

[edit] Towns and administrative division

Wilno Voivodeship was created after the territory of the puppet state Republic of Central Lithuania was merged with the so-called Wilno Area. In the years 1922-1939 it was divided into 9 powiats (counties):

Braslaw county (area 4 217 sq. km., pop. 143 100),
Dzisna county (area 3 968 sq. km., pop. 159 900),
Molodeczno county (area 1 898 sq. km., pop. 91 300),
Oszmiana county (area 2 362 sq. km., pop. 104 600),
Postawy county (area 3 050 sq. km., pop. 99 900),
Swieciany county (area 4 017 sq. km., pop. 136 500),

- Wilejka county (area 3 427 sq. km., pop. 131 100),

- city of Wilno county (area 105 sq. km., pop. 195 100),

- Wilno - Troki county (area 5 967 sq. km., pop. 214 500. This county was the biggest in the whole interwar Poland, bigger than the whole Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship).

In 1931, the biggest city of the Voivodeship (and the biggest in northeastern Poland) was Wilno, with 195 100 inhabitants. Apart from this city, Voivodeship was sparsely populated and lacked more urban centers. All other towns were very small, none of them reached the population larger than 10 000 (as for 1931).

[edit] Population

In 1931 the Voivodeship was inhabited by 1 276 000 people. Majority of population was Polish (59.7% claimed Polish as their native tongue). Among minorities there were: Belarusians (22.7%), Russians (3.4%), Jews (8.5%) and Lithuanians (5.5%). The population density was 44 persons per sq. km. (second lowest in Poland, after Polesie Voivodeship).

[edit] Railroads and industry

Wilno Voivodeship was located in the so-called Poland “B”, which meant that it was underdeveloped, with non-existing industry (apart from the city of Wilno) and it should be more accurate to call it Poland “C”. Large part of population was poor, with high level of illiteracy (in 1931, 29.1% was illiterate, with the national average of 23.1%). Railroad network was scarce, with only few junctions - the most important one at Wilno, also at Molodeczno, Krolewszczyzna and Nowa Wilejka. Total lenght of railroads within Voivodeship's boundaries was 1 097 kilometers, which was only 3.8 per 100 square kilometers.