Samarkand Oblast

The Samarkand Oblast^[a] was an oblast (province) of the Russian Empire between 1887 and 1924. It roughly corresponded to most of present-day central Uzbekistan and northwestern Tajikistan. It was created out of the northeastern part of the Emirate of Bukhara. It consisted of the uyezds of Samarkand (incl. cities Samarkand and Pendzhikent), Dzhizak (incl. city Dzhizak), Katta-Kurgan (incl. city Katta-Kurgan) and Khodzhent (incl. cities Khodzhent and Uratyube).^[1]

Samarkand Oblast Самаркандская область
Oblast
Coat of arms
Location in the Russian Empire
Country	Russian Empire
Governorate-General	Turkestan
Established	1887
Abolished	1919
Capital	Samarkand
Area
• Total	68,962 km2 (26,626 sq mi)
Highest elevation (Khazret Sultan)	4,643 m (15,233 ft)
Population  (1897)
• Total	860,021
• Density	12/km2 (32/sq mi)
• Urban	15.73%
• Rural	94.27%

Samarkand Oblast in 1900 (in yellow)

Demographics

As of 1897, 860,021 people populated the oblast. Uzbeks constituted the majority of the population. Significant minorities consisted of Tajiks and Kazakhs. The Turkic speaking population amounted to 609,204 (70,8%) people.

Ethnic groups in 1897^[2]

TOTAL	860,021	100%
Uzbeks	507,587	59%
Tajiks	230,384	26.8%
Kazakhs	63,091	7.3%
Uyghurs	19,993	2.3%
Turkic Sarts	18,073	2.1%
Russians	12,485	1.5%
Jews	1,312	0.2%

Russian Revolution

On April 30, 1918, the region became a part of Turkestan ASSR. On October 27, 1924 as a result of the national-territorial reorganisation of Central Asia, the Samarkand region became a part of the Uzbek SSR of the Soviet Union.

Notes

1. • Russian: Самарка́ндская о́бласть, romanized: Samarkándskaya óblastʼ
   • Uzbek: Samarqand viloyati