page_title: Kars Oblast
section_title: 1897
hierarchical_section_title: Kars Oblast / Demographics / 1897
caption_attribution_description: English: Kars 1897 Census
context_page_description: Kars Oblast was one of the oblasts of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire between 1878 and 1917. Its capital was the city of Kars, presently in the Republic of Turkey. The governorate bordered with the Ottoman Empire, Batum Oblast, Tiflis Governorate, Erivan Governorate, and from 1883 to 1903 the Kutais Governorate. It covered all of Turkey's present provinces of Kars and Ardahan and the northeastern part of Erzurum Province as well as a small part of Armenia.
context_section_description: The Russian Empire Census of 1897 counted 290,654 residents in Kars Oblast, including 
  160,571 men and 130,083 women. This number may perhaps imply that the 200,868 estimate for 1892 given by Brockhaus is too low, or that a large-scale migration from other provinces of the empire took place in between. The following breakdown of the population by the mother tongue was reported:
  Turkic: 104,457, including:
  Tatar (Azerbaijani Turkish): 2,347
  Bashkir: 207
  Turkish: 63,547
  Karapapak: 29,879
  Turkmen (Alevi Karapapak): 8,442
  Armenian: 73,406
  Kurdish: 42,968
  Caucasus Greeks: 32,593
  East Slavic: 27,856, including:
  Russian: 22,327
  Ukrainian: 5,279
  Belarusian: 250
  Polish: 3243
  Jewish (Yiddish etc.): 1,138
  Lithuanian: 892
  Chaldean Neo-Aramaic ('Assyrian'): 585
  Persian: 568
  Georgian: 543
  Ossetian: 520
  Estonian: 455
  Lezgin: 448
  German: 430
  The 30,000 excess population of male over females was mainly attributed to the "European" ethnic groups. Viz.,
  among the 27,856 speakers of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian, 19,910 men and 7,946 women were recorded. The Polish, and Lithuanian speakers were almost exclusively (99%) male as well; Germans and Jews, 80 to 90% males. This preponderance of males in the "European" ethnic groups (reported, usually to a lesser extent, in neighboring governorates as well) may indicate presence of a large numbers of soldiers or exiled persons in the region.
  Ethnic groups in Kars Oblast according to 1897 Russian census
caption: Kars 1897 Census
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