Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Baku Governorate was one of the guberniyas of the Russian Empire, with its centre in Baku. Area (1897): 34,4000 sq. verstas, population (1897): 789,659. The only foreign border of the governorate was Persia, in the south. Within the empire it bordered with Elisabethpol Governorate and Dagestan Oblast. The governorate was established in 1846 as Shemakha Governorate, in place of several military precincts. After the devastating 1859 Shamakhi earthquake it was decided to transfter the capital of the Province from Shemakha to Baku.