The establishment of the New Russia Governorate in 1764 marked a pivotal attempt by the Russian imperial government to standardize the administration of the Black Sea steppe frontier lands. This effort, from the perspective of St. Petersburg, aimed to bring order and control to the region, while for the local population, it represented their first encounter with systematic, all‑encompassing state governance. The plan, crafted by Mel’gunov and sanctioned by the Russian Senate, envisioned the area as a largely uninhabited territory, save for previously established Balkan settler regiments and the Ukrainian fortified line. The goal was to populate the region with foreigners and former Russian subjects who had fled to the Polish‑Lithuanian Commonwealth. However, these plans clashed with the reality of a highly unstable geopolitical situation and limited Russian resources. Local resistance emerged, particularly from Cossacks and large landowners who saw the spread of the New Russia Governorate as a threat to their traditional rights and privileges. Despite the central government’s concern over public reactions
and a subsequent halt to Mel’gunov’s activities, the approach of integrating local privileges to attract settlers was adopted by future administrators.