Editing Governor (section)

==Russia and former Soviet Union==
In the [[Russian Empire]], the governorate ([[guberniya]]) and governorate-general were the main units of territorial and administrative subdivision since the reforms of [[Peter the Great]]. These were governed by a governor and governor-general respectively.

A special case was the [[Chinese Eastern Railway]] Zone, which was governed as a [[concession (territory)|concession]] granted by [[Late Imperial China|Imperial China]] to the Russian 'Chinese Eastern Railway Society' (in Russian ''Obshchestvo Kitayskoy Vostochnoy Zheleznoy Dorogi''; established on 17 December 1896 in [[St. Petersburg]], later moved to [[Vladivostok]]), which built 1,481&nbsp;km of tracks (Tarskaya – Hilar – Harbin – Nikolsk-Ussuriski; 3 November 1901 traffic opened) and established on 16 May 1898 the new capital city, [[Harbin]]; in August 1898, the defense for Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) across [[northeast China]] was assumed by Russia (first under Priamur governor).

On July 1, 1903, the Chinese Eastern Railway was opened and given authority of its own CER Administration (Russian: ''Upravleniye KVZhD''), vested in the Directors of the Chinese Eastern Railway, with the additional quality of Governors of the Chinese Eastern Railway Zone (in Harbin; as such being August 12, 1903 – July 1, 1905 subordinated to the imperial Viceroyalty of the Far East, see [[Lüshunkou]]). The post continued to function despite various political changes until after [[World War II]].

Some of the administrative [[subdivisions of Russia]] are headed by governors, while others are headed by presidents or heads of administration. From 1991 to 2005, they were elected by popular vote and from 2005 to 2012, they were appointed by the federal president and confirmed by the province's legislature. After the debate, conducted by [[State Duma]] in April 2012, the [[direct elections]] of governors were expected to be restored.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.pravda.ru/russia/politics/24-04-2012/121184-gubernatorial_elections-0/|title=Gubernatorial elections to return to Russia this autumn |publisher =Pravda.ru|access-date=25 April 2012}}</ref>