Volyn province: history, facts

Volyn province is one of the administrative units in the south-west of the Russian Empire. The territory of the historical region of Volyn was occupied by the province. The center until the end of the XVIII century was the city of Izyaslav, after that the status passed for nine years to Novograd-Volynsky. Already in 1804 Zhitomir was given the title of the center of the Volyn province.

General information and history of the province

The area of the Volyn province occupied more than seventy thousand square kilometers, there lived about three and a half million people. Volyn (Zhytomyr) province was near the state border with the Austrian Empire. The southern territories of the region adjoined the Carpathian Mountains. Local landscape in the past, and today - it is mostly elevations, in contrast to the north of the province.

Nature of the region

The northern lands of the Volyn province are occupied by bogs and sandstones, middle territories are loam and sandy loamy soils with stony areas, and southern ones are obese chernozem. The large territory of the region is also occupied by woodland, especially the northern edge. Volyn province is famous for its rivers, most of which flow into the river Pripyat. The exception in this case is the Western Bug and the Dnieper tributary - Teterev. As navigable places it was possible to use the waters of the Western Bug, Goryni and Styri.

Facilities and attractions

The majority of the population was engaged in agriculture. Volyn province specialized in a large extent on the cultivation of winter rye and wheat, barley, buckwheat and oats, millet and peas, potatoes, sugar beets. In addition, the cultivation of industrial crops - tobacco and hops - was common. Southern territories were also a place of development of garden crops - grapes, apricots and peaches. The wooded area was excellent for breeding bees and selling honey and wax. Cattle breeding included breeding horses, sheep, pigs and cows. In the main, considerable volumes of wool received were supplied to the domestic market of the Russian Empire, and some part was sold for sale to Austrian territories. Volyn province was also the place of discovery and development of sugar, sawmills and other industrial production facilities.

Among the attractions should be noted the famous Pochaev Lavra - the place of pilgrimage of the Orthodox, as well as the famous in the region monastery. In addition, the town of Radivilov was known.