Note 1 — Chapter V · FROM TIUMEN TO TOBOLSK.

I am not clearly informed as to the exact difference between a government and an oblast, but I am under the impression that an oblast (which means a “province”) is a territory often newly acquired and under martial law, whereas, in a “government,” things have settled down, and the civil and military organizations are under separate control. The word “oblasts” is sometimes translated “territories”; their relation to “governments” being similar to the relation between “Territories” and “States” in America. The oblasts in Siberia are Akmolinsk and Semipolatinsk in the west, and Yakutsk and the Sea Coast in the east; but, to avoid confusion, we will speak of them all as governments or provinces. Each province has its capital, which ranks as a “government” town, and each uyezd has likewise its principal town. Each province is subdivided into districts, called uyezds; uyezds into vollosts; and vollosts into villages, called selo, if with a church, or derevnia if without. In the villages the chief man is called a starosta; in the vollosts a zasidatil. Over each uyezd commonly presides an ispravnik; over each province a governor; and over each vice-royalty a governor-general. Western Siberia is divided into four provinces, namely: Tobolsk, Tomsk, and Semipolatinsk, each of which has a capital, bearing the name of the province; and Akmolinsk, which has Omsk for its capital. Eastern Siberia is divided into six provinces: Irkutsk and Yakutsk, with capitals of the same names; and Yeneseisk, Trans-Baikal, Amur, and Sea Coast (or Maritime), with capitals named Krasnoiarsk, Chita, Blagovestchensk, and Nikolaefsk.