Its capital was in the city of Hotin (today Khotyn). The territory of the county is currently divided between Ukraine (northern half) and Moldova (southern half).
According to Russian census of 1897, Ukrainians (Little Russians) represented the majority of population of Khotin Uyezd. There were 160,000 Ukrainians (55%) in rural areas, or 164,000 (53%) including urban areas.[2]
Urban population
In 1930 the urban population of Hotin County was 15,334, which included 37.7% Jews, 36.6% Russians, 14.8% Ukrainians, 8.8% Romanians, and 1.5% Poles by ethnicity. The major mother tongues among the urban population were: Yiddish (37.6%), Russian (37.5%), Ukrainian (14.7%), Romanian (8.6%), and Polish (1.2%) The religious mix of the urban population was 57.6% Eastern Orthodox, 37.7% Jewish, 2.1% Old Believers, and 1.6% Roman Catholic.
The area county of the county was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940 and became part of the Moldavian SSR and the Ukrainian SSR. The area returned to Romanian administration following the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in July 1941. A military administration was established and the region's Jewish population was either executed on the spot or deported to Transnistria, where further numbers were killed.[3] Despite the Hotin County was geographically part of Bessarabia, it was not incorporated into the Bessarabia Governorate, but rather in the Bukovina Governorate, centered around the geographical region of Bukovina. Dorohoi County was also posteriously attached to the governorate even though it was not in Bukovina either.[4] As the Soviet Union's offensive pushed the Axis powers back, the area again was under Soviet control. On September 12, 1944, Romania signed the Moscow Armistice with the Allies. The Armistice, as well as the subsequent peace treaty of 1947, confirmed the Soviet-Romanian border as it was on January 1, 1941.[5][6] The areas of the county, along with the rest of the Moldavian SSR and the Ukrainian SSR, became part of the independent countries of Moldova and Ukraine, respectively.