Vilna Military District (Russian Empire)

Vilna Military District (Ви́ленский вое́нный о́круг) was a military district of the Imperial Russian Army. The district was formed in 1862 as part of Russian military reforms and was responsible for parts of modern Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. The district was disbanded at the beginning of the First World War in July 1914, and its headquarters were used to form another district farther to the rear.

History
In the Russian Empire, military districts were first formed by Dmitry Milyutin in 1862–64 to replace the pre-existing Military Inspectorates. The military districts were organised to include civilian administration regions of gubernyas and uyezds. The Vilna Military District was created on 6 July 1862. The district headquarters were in Vilna (now Vilnius, Lithuania), and were formed from the headquarters of the 1st Army Corps, which it replaced. In 1864, the district opened the Vilna Junker Infantry School to prepare non-commissioned officers.

In 1870, it had the second highest concentration of troops in the military district system after the Warsaw Military District, with 78,180 men. By 1871, the district's troops had been reduced to seven infantry divisions, a cavalry brigade, a demining brigade and four reserve battalions, an organization proposed in 1864. The district commander often simultaneously held the position of Governor-General of Vilna.

On 17 July 1914, just before the beginning of the First World War, martial law was imposed in the district. After the outbreak of the war later that month, the district headquarters became the headquarters of the new Dvinsk Military District. Combat units stationed in the district at the time became part of the new 1st Army, under the command of district commander Paul von Rennenkampf.

Area covered
The Vilna Military District comprised the following gubernyas:
 * Vilna
 * Grodno
 * Kovno
 * Courland
 * Livonia (excluding the Pernov, Fellinskiy, Valkskiy and Verrosskiy uyezds)
 * Vitebsk
 * Mogilev
 * Minsk
 * Suwałki (excluding Shchuchinsk uyezd)

Military units
The following units were based in the Vilna Military District upon the outbreak of the First World War in 1914:
 * 2nd Army Corps
 * 3rd Army Corps
 * 4th Army Corps
 * 20th Army Corps

Commanders
The district was commanded by the following officers:
 * Lieutenant General and Adjutant General Vladimir Nazimov (6 July 1862 – 1 May 1863)
 * Lieutenant General (Promoted to General of cavalry April 1878) Pyotr Albedinsky (22 July 1874 – 18 May 1880)
 * General of engineers Eduard Totleben (18 May 1880 – 19 June 1884)
 * General of infantry Alexander Nikitin (23 September 1884 – 11 March 1886)
 * General of infantry Nikolay Ganetsky (13 March 1886 – 11 February 1895)
 * General of infantry and Adjutant General Vitaly Trotsky (1897–1901)
 * General of infantry Alexander Gurchin (1901–1902)
 * General of infantry Oskar Grippenberg (10 November 1902 – 11 September 1904)
 * General of infantry Alexander Freze (12 October 1904 19 December 1905)
 * Lieutenant General (Promoted to General of infantry 1906) Konstantin Krzhivitsky (1905–1909)
 * Lieutenant General (Promoted to General of infantry 1910) Sergei Gershelman (17 March 1909 17 November 1910, died of illness)
 * Lieutenant General (Promoted to General of infantry 6 December 1910) Fyodor Martson (23 November 1910 – 17 January 1913)
 * General of cavalry and Adjutant General Paul von Rennenkampf (20 January 1913 – 19 July 1914)