Russian Empire
The Russian Empire, also known as Imperial Russia or simply Russia, was an empire that existed across Eurasia and North America from 1721, following the end of the Great Northern War, until the Republic was proclaimed by the Provisional Government that took power after the February Revolution of 1917.
History of the administrative division of Russia
Technically, the territorial-administrative reform started out in the Tsardom of Russia before the Imperial period. On , 1708, in order to improve the manageability of the vast territory of the state, Tsar Peter the Great issued an ukase (edict) dividing Russia into eight administrative divisions, called governorates ("guberniyas"), which replaced the 166 uyezds and razryads which existed before the reform: