Slavo-Serbia

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Map of present-day Ukraine with the territory of Slavo-Serbia indicated with yellow on the right side.

Map of Slavo-Serbia

Slavo-Serbia (Russian: Славяносербия, Serbian: Славеносрбија or Slavenosrbija, archaic Serbian name: Славено-Сербія) was a territory of Imperial Russia between 1753 and 1764. It was located by the right bank of the Donets River between the Bakhmut (Бахмут) and Lugan (Лугань) rivers, which constitutes the territories of present-day Luhansk Oblast of Ukraine and Rostov Oblast of Russia. The administrative centre of Slavo-Serbia was Slovianoserbsk.

[edit] History

By the decree of the Senate of May 29, 1753, the free lands of this area were offered for settlement to Serbs, Bulgarians, Romanians, Hungarians and other Balkan peoples of Orthodox Christian denomination in order to ensure frontier protection and development of this part of Southern steppes.

Slavo-Serbia was directly governed by Russia's Governing Senate. The settlers eventually formed the Bakhmut hussar regiment in 1764. Also in 1764, Slavo-Serbia was transformed into the Donets uyezd of Yekaterinoslav Governorate (now in Dnipropetrovs'ka oblast', Ukraine).

[edit] Demographics

The province had ethnically diverse population that included Serbs, Vlachs, Hungarians, Macedonians, and others. In 1755, the population of Slavo-Serbia numbered 1,513 inhabitants (of both genders), while in 1763, the population numbered 3,992 male inhabitants, of whom only 378 were Serbs.