Black Sea Governorate

The Black Sea Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (guberniya) of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, established in 1896 on the territory of the Black Sea Okrug of the Kuban Oblast. The administrative center of the governorate was the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. In 1905, the population of the governorate was approximately 70,000 and its area was 6,455 square versts (7,346 km²; 2,836 sq mi), making it the smallest Russian governorate by both measures. The governorate ceased to exist when the Black Sea Soviet Republic was established on its territory in the spring of 1918—later the governorate was incorporated into the Kuban-Black Sea Oblast of the Russian SFSR in March 1920.