Another reason for this administrative change was to facilitate Russification and conversion of the non-Eastern Orthodox Christians to Orthodoxy.

However, during the Great Retreat in the summer of 1915, the Russian command gave orders to evacuate the population of the governorate.

The deported population reached a few hundred thousand people and thus significantly changed the national composition of the region.

[3] The Kholm governorate consisted of 8 Uyezds (note Russian spellings for administrative centres used): The entire population of the Kholm province, according to official Russian statistics, was 896,316 people of whom 45.1% were Roman Catholics, 36.5% Orthodox Christians, 3.2% Protestants and 15.1% Jews.

[3] Due to the 1905 Decree of Tolerance (also known as The Edict of Toleration) by Tsar Nicholas II many Orthodox people in what later became the Kholm Governorate started converting to Roman Catholicism, which caused the decline of the percentage of Orthodox population in the area during the following years.