[1] It formed after the Taurida Oblast was abolished in 1802 during Paul I's administrative reform of the territories of the former Crimean Khanate, which were annexed by Russia from the Ottoman Empire in 1783.

Following the 1917 October Revolution, the ethnic Tatar government proclaimed the Crimean People's Republic on December 13, 1917, which was the first Muslim Democratic state.

Major urban centres were Simferopol, Sevastopol, Theodosia, Bakhchisaray, and Yalta in Crimea, and Aleshki, Berdyansk, and Melitopol on the mainland.

In December 1917 the governorate split, with most of the peninsula forming the Crimean People's Republic (1917-1918), while the rest remained in qn undefined status including the city of Sevastopol, which remained the main naval base of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Republic.

The mainland counties were declared part of the Ukrainian People's Republic, yet remained under the effective jurisdiction of the Taurida Governorate.

The ethnicities of the urban population were Russians (49.1%), Tatars (17.16%), and Jews (11.84%), with only 31 people living in cities who chose not to disclose their identity.

Only 13% of population were Muslims (known in the Russian Empire as Magometians) who mainly lived in the peninsular portion of the guberniya, Crimea itself.