Vickipedia

MOHI’LEV, or MOGILEV, a government of European Russia. lying between Minsk and Smolensk, contains 18,500 English square miles, with a pop. (1880) of 1,092,500. The inhabitants are mostly Rusniaks, though there are also many Russians, Germans, Jews, and even Bohemians. The country is generally a plain, with here and there an occasional undulation) the soil is very fertile, and the climate most agreeably mild. Agriculture has here reached a high degree of perfection, and the same may be said of arboriculture and horticulture. The natural pasturage is of fine quality, and affords abundant nourishment to immense herds of cattle. The forests are extensive. The country is watered from the Dnieper and its numerous affluents, which form the means of communication with the Black Sea ports, and of the transit of corn, timber, and masts, of which last large quantities are annually floated down to Kherson. Bog iron-ore is found in abundance. The inhabitants are celebrated for their activity and industry; and M., from its great natural advantages has now become one of the richest provinces of Russia.

In early times, M. belonged to the territory of the Russian prince of Smolensk, but was subsequently conquered by the Grand Duke of Lithuania, and was, along with Lithuania, united to the kingdom of Poland. In 1772, it was seized by Russia at the first partition of Poland; and in 1796, was joined to the government of Vitebsk, under the name of White Russia; but since 1802. it has formed a separate government.