Chernihiv gubernia. Administrative territorial unit in Left-Bank Ukraine created in 1802. Its center was the city of Chernihiv. The gubernia was composed of 15 counties, 11 of which (Borzna, Hlukhiv, Horodnia, Kozelets, Konotop, Krolevets, Nizhyn, Novhorod-Siverskyi, Oster, Sosnytsia, Chernihiv) lay within the boundaries of Ukrainian ethnic territory. The remaining four northern counties (Mglin, Novozybkov, Starodub, Surazh) were part of a mixed Ukrainian–Belarusian–Russian ethnic territory. Chernihiv gubernia covered 52,396 sq km and, according to the 1897 census, had a population of 2,298,000 (cf Ukrainian ethnic territory, which covered 38,324 sq km and had a population of 1,663,000). The 1914 population figure was 2,340,000, of which Ukrainians numbered 1,525,000. In 1919 the four northern counties were transferred to Homel gubernia and, in 1926, to Briansk gubernia, RSFSR. In 1925 the territory of Chernihiv gubernia became part of Hlukhiv, Konotop, Nizhyn, and Chernihiv okruhas.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]