Administrative divisions of Lithuania Governorate (consisting of eleven districts) and Slonim Governorate, were established after the third partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Just a year later, on December 12, 1796, they were merged into one governorate, called Lithuania Governorate, with capital in Vilnius. In 1801 Lithuania Governorate was split into Lithuania-Vilna Governorate and Lithuania-Grodno Governorate. Forty years later the word "Lithuania" was dropped from the two names and official maps of Europe. The territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania became known as the Northwestern Krai. In 1843 another administrative reform took place, creating Kovno Governorate out of seven western districts of the
Regional Party of Lithuania and White Ruthenia Regional Party of Lithuania and White Ruthenia The Regional Party of Lithuania and White Ruthenia was a political party of major Polish-speaking (mostly of Belarusian origin) nobility and landlords (so called krajowcy) living on the lands of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (what is now Republic of Lithuania and Belarus) in early 20th century. The initiator of creation of the party was Raman Skirmunt (he called himself "Belarusian"). In November 1905 he published a manifest of the "Regional party of Lithuania and Ruthenia" that in fact was a party program which demanded introduction of democratic freedoms and especially the