The governorate was formed by the imperial decree of Tsar Nicholas I on 26 December [O.S.

14 December] 1846, whereby the Caucasus Viceroyalty was divided into four governorates: Shemakha, Tiflis, Kutaisi and Derbent.

According to the IX Census of Russia in 1851, the population of the governorate consisted of 319,923 men and 283,083 women, in total 603,006 people.

[3] Data on the total population were provided by the Transcaucasian Office of the Imperial Ministry of Finance.

It was not possible to determine the exact number of women in each uezd:[citation needed]