Evolution of administrative-territorial system of Karelia in XVIII - begining of XX century

The article describes the main formation stages of the all-Russian territorial-administrative vertical in Karelia: province - district (uezd) - volost. After Peter I introduction of provincial division in 1702-1708, Southern (Olonetskaya) Karelia was included into Petersburg Province, as a special military-factories’ district, and Northern Karelia - into Arkhangelskaya Province. Peter’s provinces were heterogeneous by territory and had no clear internal structure. Attempts undertaken by Peter I and his successors to eliminate these defects were unsystematic and ineffective. In 1744, on the border of the north-western lands, Vyborg Province was set up. The province was later inhabited by Karelian population. An orderly system of administrative division, according to the scheme province-district, was introduced by Catherine II in the framework of the 1775 reforms. The introduced reforms were based on demographic and geographical principles. In 1785, most of the lands inhabited by Karelian population became part of Olonets Province. The Province lands were later subdivided into 8 districts. In 1801 Paul I annihilated Olonets Province. After its reconstruction in 1802 Alexander I left Northern Karelia (Kem district) in Arkhangelsk Province. In 1811 Vyborgskaya Province was transferred to the Grand Duchy of Finland. The lower division, originally set up in the region on the basis of self-organization of the peasantry, was not structured up to the reform of 1861. Administrative division of the territory on the level of province-uezd formed in early XIX century was practiced until 1917. The lower division (volost), originally formed in the region on the basis of self-organization of the peasants, was not institutionalized until the reform of 1861. Only after that volost was established as a basic rural administrative unit and became an integral part of the vertical management: province-district-volost.