Don Host Oblast was a province (oblast) of the Russian Empire which consisted of the territory of the Don Cossacks, coinciding approximately with present-day Rostov Oblast in Russia. Its administrative center was Cherkassk, and later Novocherkassk.
It comprised the areas where the Don Cossack Host settled in the Russian Empire. From 1786, the territory was officially named Don Host Land (), renamed Don Host Oblast in 1870.
During 1914, the oblast, with an area of 164,000 km², had about 3.9 million inhabitants. Of these, 55% (2.1 million) were Cossacks in possession of all the land; the remaining 45% of the population being townsfolk and agricultural guest labourers from other parts of Russia.
It was abolished in 1920; from the major part of it the Don Oblast of the RSFSR was created, which was incorporated into the North Caucasus Krai in 1924.
Administrative divisions The districts (okrugs) of the Don Host Oblast in 1897 were as follows: District Capital Area Population(1897 census) Transliteration name Russian Cyrillic Donetsky Донецкій Kamenskaya 455,819 1st Don 1-й Донской Konstantinovskaya 271,790 2nd Don 2-й Донской Nizhne-Chirskaya 239,055 Rostovsky Ростовскій Rostov-on-Don 369,732 Salsky Сальскій Velikoknyazheskaya 76,297 Taganrogsky Таганрогскій Taganrog 412,995 Ust-Medveditsky Усть-Медведицкій Ust-Medveditskaya 246,830 Khopersky Хоперскій Uryupinskaya 251,498 Cherkassky Черкасскій Novocherkassk 240,222
Demography
Language Population by mother tongue according to the Imperial census of 1897.
+ Language Number percentage (%) males females Russian 1,712,898 66.8 858,601 854,297 Ukrainian 719,655 28.0 366,482 353,173 German 34,855 1.36 17,775 17,080 Kalmyk 32,283 1.25 16,689 15,594 Armenian 27,234 1.06 13,971 13,263 Jewish 15,121 0.59 7,448 7,673 Belarusian 9,158 0.35 5,033 4,125 Polish 3,316 0.13 1,971 1,345 Tatar 2,978 0.11 2,122 856 Greek 2,255 0.08 1,486 769 Gypsy 1,267 0.05 650 617 Other 3218 0.12 2092 1126 Total 2,564,238 100.0 1,294,320 1,269,918 +
Notes
References