Shtetl Links: Lyakhovichi

Nowogrodek Powiat under Imperial Russia
Nowogrodek Powiat was one of the last evidences of the free and independent Lithuanian nation to be eliminated by the Russian Empire. Vilna and Kovno (Kaunas) had come late to their leadership status in the Lithuanian communities, but Novogrodek had been one of the earliest, predating Vitaut, the great national hero of Lithuania and Belarus. It took until 1842 before Russia was entirely able to disintegrate the remains of this.

After the Russian absorption, Nowogrodek powiat was a separate administrative area until 1842. That year, most of it became part of the Minsk guberniya. The term "guberniya" had replaced the larger jurisdiction that was called "woiwode" under the Polish-Lithuania Commonwealth (and which had been called "palatinate" under Lithuania.) The Russian term "uzeyd" an administrative district inside a guberniya was comparable to the unit of powiat that had made up a wowoide. There had been three powiats in Nowogrodek wowoide, now the one that had been called Nowogrodek powiat was divided among Minsk guberniya's uzeyds of Slutsk, Mozyr, Minsk, Slonim, and Bobruisk with the westernmost part retaining the name Nowogrodek. The portion ceded to Slutsk included Lyakhovichi and an area close to where the town of Baranovichi would be built. Slonim became part of Grodno's uzeyd, Kletsk and Nesvizh were in another. These close-by communities that had shared access to the same courts and administrative processes were now permanently separated from Lyakhovichi in where their records would be created and stored and in the impact events in different places would have on each community.

There are separate listings in "Slownik Geografzny" for Nowogrodek as a city, a powiat, and a woiwode. The powiat article states that the Lithuanian Grand Duke Vitaut/Witold the Great brought Jews and Tatars to this area (see articles on this Web Page titled Key Events in pre-19th century Lyakhovichi Jewish Life and Title Chain of Lyakhovichi ) An additional note on Nowogrodek powiat, in a volume of Errata and Corrections for Slownik Geografznie says that in the final disposition of Nowogrodek among the uzeyds of Minsk, it became a part of Slutsk’s jurisdiction.

Nowogrodek Palatinate – under Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Novogrodek Palatinate acquired by the Russian Empire in the Third Partition of Poland, was both one of the older and one of the younger of the palatinate divisions. Officially it had been referred to as a palatinate from the fifteenth century, because of its special role as the inherited land and patrimony of the Grand Duke. In size, it was little more than a powiat, an administrative unit that would normally have a lesser official reporting to a governor of a huge region. But in 1565, it got a more legitimized standing from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. That year, the Grand Duchy decided to reorganize its territory. To reduce friction in a population that now was divided into Catholic and Orthodox territorial blocks, the Grand Duchy formalized the divisions. It made three palatinates for the Catholics and six for the Orthodox. The three Lithuanian palatinates were Samogitia, Vilnius, and Troki. Vilnius was later divided into Vilnius, Asmena, Lyda, Ukmerge, and Brest-Litovsk. The Troki palatinate consisted of Troki, Gernainys, Kaunas and Uretza powiats. Until this time, the area around Novogrodek, which was the inheritance of the family of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, had been joined to that of Troki, the administrative headquarters of the Duchy. In 1565, the Grand Duchy recognized that Novogrodek palatinate was largely Orthodox and it was joined as a powiat to other Orthodox powiats of Slonim, Kletsk, and Volkoviskas. The joined powiats became Nowogrodek Palatinate along with the separate Duchy of Slutsk. Lyakhovichi would remain in Nowogrodek Palatinate for the remainder of the time it was in Polish-Lithuanian possession. In seventeenth and eighteenth century maps, it is shown very close to the border with the Brest-Litovsk Palatinate which had been created a short time later but from whose lead Jewish communities, Lyakhovichi and other Lithuanian Jewish communities, would continue to seek leadership for generations.

Administrative Capitals
End of 18th-early 20th Centuries The national capitals of the Russian Empire were Moscow and St Petersburg. The administrative center of Minsk guberniya was the city of Minsk and the adminisrative center of the uzeyd was the city of Slutsk.
15th-end of 18th Centuries The national capitals of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic, were Krakow and Vilna. Lyakhovichi remained in the jurisdiction of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a component part of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic, until the end of the eighteenth century.
13th-14th Century For most of the fourteenth century, the capital was Troki. Troki and Novogrodek cities, with their surrounding regions, were passed down from Gedimin, the first of his line of Grand Dukes in the 1300s.They were considered part of his personal patrimony and their descent to Vitaut was undisputed when little else in the kingdom was. The city of Novogrodek and its surrounding powiat were considered an inheritance of the Lithuanian Dukedom and until three hundred years had passed in 1565, it remained a part of the Duchy of Troki which was the hereditary seat of the Grand Dukes.

Novogrodek Voivode
among 17th Century Grand Duchy of Lithuania's other wowoidships.
Wikipedia "Navahrudak Voivodeship within Lithuania in the 17th century", Author= M.K. Permis