Poltava Governorate
The Poltava Governorate (; translit.: "Poltavskaya guberniya", ) or Government of Poltava was a guberniya in the historical Left-bank Ukraine region of the Russian Empire. It was officially created in 1802 from the disbanded Malorossiya Governorate, which was split between the Chernigov Governorate and Poltava Governorate with an administrative center of Poltava. It was also known as Piltavshchyna. Administrative division. It was administered by 15 : Most of these ended up in the modern Poltava Oblast of Ukraine, although some: Zolotonosha, Konstantinograd, Pereyaslav and Romny are now part of Cherkasy, Kharkiv, Kiev and Sumy Oblasts respectively. The Poltava Governorate covered  a total area of 49,365 km, and had a population of 2,778,151 according to the 1897 Russian Empire census. It was bordering the following Russian Governorates: Chernigov Governorate and Kursk Governorate to the "north", Kiev Governorate to the "west", Kharkov Governorate to the "east", Kherson Governorate and Yekaterinoslav Governorate to the "south". In 1914, the population was 2,794,727. After the formation of the Ukrainian SSR, the territory was wholly included into the new Soviet Republic. Initially the governorate system was retained although variations included the Kremenchug Governorate which was temporarily formed on its territory (August 1920 – December 1922), and the  passing of the Pereyaslav uezd to the Kiev Governorate. However, on Third of June 1925 the guberniya was liquidated and replaced by five okrugs (which already were the uyezd subdivision as of seventh of March 1923): Kremenchutsky, Lubensky, Poltavsky, Prylutsky and Romensky (the rest two okrugs existed within the guberniya, Zolotonoshsky and Krasnohradsky, were also liquidated). Principal cities. Russian Census of 1897, the cities of more than 10,000 people. In bold are the cities of over 50,000. Language. By the Imperial census of 1897, in bold are languages spoken by more people than the state language. Religion. By the Imperial  census of 1897, the major religion in the region that was virtually the state religion was the Eastern Orthodox with some population following Judaism. Other religions in the governorate were much less common.