Military districts of the Russian Empire


In the Imperial Russian Army, a military district was a territorial association of military units, formations, military schools, and various local military establishments. This territorial division type was utilized to provide a more efficient management of army units, their training and other operations activities related to combat readiness.

History

In the Imperial Russian Army, military districts were first formed by Dmitry Milyutin in 1862–64 to replace the pre-existing Military Inspectorates. The military districts were organised to include civilian administration regions of gubernyas and uyezds. By 1892 there were 13 Military Districts in the Russian Empire, and one region with the status of a military district:
  1. Petersburg Military District – Saint Petersburg, Olonets, Arkhangelsk, Novgorod, Pskov, Estonia and four uyezds of the Livonia gubernya
  2. Vilno Military District – Vilno, Grodno, Kovno, Kurland, Livonia, Vitebsk, Mogilev, Minsk and Suwałki
  3. Warsaw Military District – Congress Poland without the part of Suwałki in Vilno Military District
  4. Kiev Military District – Kiev, Podolia, Volhynia, Chernigov, Poltava, Kharkov, Kursk
  5. Odessa Military District – Bessarabia, Kherson, Yekaterinoslav, Taurida
  6. Moscow Military District – Moscow, Smolensk, Tver, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vologda, Vladimir, Nizhniy-Novgorod, Kaluga, Tula, Ryazan, Orel, Tambov, Voronezh
  7. Kazan Military District – Kazan, Vyatka, Perm, Ufa, Simbirsk, Samara, Penza, Saratov, Astrakhan
  8. Caucasus Military District – Stavropol gubernya with the entire Caucasus and Transcaucasia
  9. Turkestan Military District – the region : Syrdar, Samarkand and Fergana
  10. Omsk Military District – Tobolsk and Tomsk guberniyas, the Akmolinsk, Semipalatinsk and Semirechye regions.
  11. Irkutsk Military District – Irkutsk and Yeniseysk Governorates and the Yakutsk region.
  12. Amur Military District – regions of Transbaikal, Amur, Pacific coast region and the Sakhalin island
  13. Don Host Oblast, In the Donskoy military district the right and responsibility of the Commander of forces and Governor-Generalship were entrusted to the appointed ataman; control of the military district consisted of Don Cossack host staff and administration.
During World War I the remnants of occupied Vilno Military District were organized into two districts: Dvina and Minsk.
The Commander of the military district was named Commanding troops of military district, with all troops, military institutions and military ranks of the military region subordinated to them.
In some regions the military district commander was simultaneously the local Governor-General.
Control of military district included the military-district council and functional district staff and the administrations of artillery, engineers, commissariat and military medical service.
However by the beginning of the First World War there were 12 military districts remaining: Dvinsk, Irkutsk, Caucasus, Kazan, Kiev, Minsk, Moscow, Odessa, Omsk, Petrograd, Amur and Turkestan.

Former districts