Kharkov Governorate[a] was an administrative-territorial unit (guberniya) of the Russian Empire founded in 1835.

[2] In 1780, Sloboda Ukraine Governorate was dissolved and reorganized into the Kharkov Viceroyalty[2] in accordance with an April 25, 1780 decree signed by Catherine the Great.

[3] As part of this reform, the Kharkov Viceroyalty was abolished in 1797, and the Sloboda Ukraine Governorate was re-established.

It contained the former Kharkov Viceroyalty's territory, as well as several uyezds from Voronezh Governorate.

February 9] 1879, the terrorist Grigory Goldenberg assassinated Governor D. N. Kropotkin.

The governorate had international borders with the Don Republic to the east and the Soviet Russia to the north.

During occupation by the Volunteer Army in 1919–1920, it was transformed into the Kharkov Oblast and expanded including several governorates.

According to Soviet historians, in 1920–1921, 57 anti-Bolshevik insurgent detachments operated on the territory of the governorate, the number of some of them reaching several hundreds.

The government of the Ukrainian SSR adopted a new system of administrative division of the republic's territory on March 7, 1923, by Decree of the Presidium of the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee No.

Based on a decision of the 9th All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets, the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee signed a decree on June 3, 1925, establishing a new territorial division throughout the Ukrainian SSR based on the principle of a three-stage system of government (without governorates): Okrug–Raion–Capital.