Ventspils apriņķis
Ventspils apriņķis (, ) was a historic county of the Courland Governorate and of the Republic of Latvia. Its capital was Ventspils ("Windau"). History. Created from northern parts of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia and District of Pilten after incorporation into the Russian Empire. In 1819, County of Ventspils ("Kreis Windau") became one of the ten counties of the Courland Governorate. After establishment of the Republic of Latvia in 1918, the "Ventspils apriņķis" existed until 1949, when the Council of Ministers of the Latvian SSR split it into the newly created districts ("rajons") of Ventspils, Alsunga (dissolved in 1956 ) and Dundaga (dissolved in 1956). Demographics. At the time of the Russian Empire Census of 1897, "Kreis Windau" had a population of 48,275. Of these, 85.2% spoke Latvian, 7.9% German, 2.9% Yiddish, 2.8% Lithuanian or Livonian (Livonian-speakers were recorded in this census as Lithuanian-speakers), 0.6% Russian, 0.3% Estonian, 0.2% Romani, 0.1% Polish and 0.1% Ukrainian as their native language.