It was formed as the last of the Polish voivodeships in the interbellum (although the Sandomierz Voivodeship was to be created in late 1939). Following the Soviet invasion in 1939, the Voivodeship was divided between the newly created Vileyka Voblast of the Belarusian SSR and independent Lithuania (from 1940 the Lithuanian SSR). This division wasn't internationally accepted. The Polish government-in-exile nominated Zygmunt Fedorowicz in 1942 as its representative for Wilno region. He was arrested by the NKVD in 1944. Currently the former territory of Wilno Voivodeship is divided between the Vilnius and Utena counties in Lithuania and the Grodno, Minsk and Vitebsk Regions of Belarus. The Wilno Voivodeship had an area of 29,011 square kilometers (which made it the fourth biggest Polish Voivodeship) and population (according to the 1931 Polish Census) - 1,276,000. The Voivodeship was located in northeastern corner of the country, bordering Soviet Union to the east, Lithuania to the west, Latvia to the north, Nowogródek Voivodeship to the south and Białystok Voivodeship to the south-west. Landscape was flat and hilly in parts, with several lakes (such as Narocz, the biggest lake of interwar Poland). As of 1 January 1937, 21.2% of the area was forested (with national average of 22.2%). Wilno Voivodeship was created after the territory of the Republic of Central Lithuania was merged with the so-called Wilno Area. In the years 1922–1939 it was divided into 9 powiats (counties): In 1931, the biggest city of the Voivodeship (and the biggest in northeastern Poland) was Wilno, with 195 100 inhabitants. Apart from this city, Voivodeship was sparsely populated and lacked more urban centers. All other towns were very small, none of them reached the population larger than 10 000 (as for 1931). According to the Polish census of 1931 the Voivodeship was inhabited by 1,276,000 people. Majority of population was Polish (59.7% claimed Polish as their native tongue). Among minorities there were: Belarusians (22.7%), Jews (8.5%), Lithuanians (5.5%) and Russians (3.4%).