Voivodeship

Voivodeship (воєводство; voievodstvo; Polish: województwo). An administrative-territorial unit equivalent to a palatinate in the 13th- to 16th-century Kingdom of Poland and the 16th- to 18th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was governed by a voivode with the help of several castellans and other officials. After the introduction of dietines each voivodeship was an autonomous unit and a separate electoral region with its own noble assembly, court, administration, army, and taxes. After the Union of Lublin Ukrainian ethnic territory was divided among Belz voivodeship, Bratslav voivodeship, Kyiv voivodeship, Podlachia voivodeship, Podilia voivodeship, Rus’ voivodeship, and Volhynia voivodeship under Polish rule, and Berestia voivodeship under Lithuanian rule. Chernihiv voivodeship was added in 1635. From 1815 to 1837 the Congress Kingdom of Poland was divided into eight commission-governed voivodeships; Lublin and Podlachia voivodeships included Ukrainian ethnic territories. The interwar Polish Republic was divided into provinces called voivodeships. Western Ukrainian ethnic territories were located in Lviv voivodeship, Stanyslaviv voivodeship, Ternopil voivodeship, Volhynia voivodeship, and Polisia voivodeship and parts of Cracow voivodeship, Lublin voivodeship, and Białystok voivodeship. (See also Administrative territorial division.)

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]