Boykivske Raion

Boikivske Raion ( uk, Бойківський район) or Telmanove Raion ( uk, Тельманівський район, Telmanivskyi raion) was one of the administrative raions (a ''district'') of Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine from 1934 until 2020. The administrative center of the raion was located in the urban-type settlement of Boikivske, also known as Telmanove. The last estimate of the raion population, reported by the Ukrainian government, was

Since 2014, much of the area of the raion has been controlled by the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), a Russia-supported breakaway state (later explicitly and illegally annexed by Russia).

History

20th century

The raion was originally formed as Ostheim Raion in late 1934, with Ostheim (now Boikivske) as its center. In 1935, the raion was renamed Telmanove Raion after the German Communist leader Ernst Thälmann. As the result of the 1951 Polish–Soviet territorial exchange, the Soviet authorities deported and resettled approximately 400 families of Boykos from the village of Chorna (today Czarna in Poland), the former Nyzhni Ustryky Raion of Drohobych Oblast that was transferred to Poland.

21st century

In 2014, the pro-Russian militant group known as the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) seized almost all of Telmanove Raion, along with other parts of Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast, beginning the war in Donbas. On 9 December 2014, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's national parliament, moved the raion's administration and headquarters to Myrne, a town in Telmanove Raion which remained under government control. The boundaries of Telmanove Raion were also adjusted, changing its total area to . This was due to the fact that a small part of the raion on the west bank of the Kalmius river was under Ukrainian army control, and had been effectively severed from the rest of the raion by the frontline of the war, severely hindering the administration of the villages in that area. To fix this problem, the Ukrainian government transferred government-controlled land to Volnovakha Raion, so that the reduced area of the raion was entirely under control of the pro-Russian militants. The transferred localities included the towns Andriivka and Myrne, among other smaller settlements.

In 2016, Ukraine's national parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, renamed Telmanove Raion to ''Boikivske Raion'' and Telmanove to ''Boikivske''. The town's name change was done in commemoration of the Boykos people who were deported there in the 1950s.

The raion was officially abolished on 18 July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Donetsk Oblast to eight. The area of Boikivske Raion was merged into the newly created Kalmiuske Raion. The DPR has continued using the raion - as "Telmanove Raion" - as one of its administrative units.

Geography

Telmanove Raion bordered Novoazovsk Raion to its south, Nikolske Raion to its southwest, Volnovakha Raion to its west, Starobesheve Raion to its north. From the east, the raion was bounded by the international Russia–Ukraine border.

Administrative divisions

The district is divided into three settlement councils and twelve rural councils.

Demographics

According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census:

Gallery

File:Пам'ятник на честь 25-річчя звільнення Донбасу від німецько-фашистських загарбників.jpg, Monument in Konkove (25th Anniversary of Donbas liberation from Nazi invaders)
File:Захід над Ласпою.jpg, Landscape of the Kalmius Reserve
File:Кальмиусский заповедник 071.jpg, Kalmius River at the Kalmius Reserve

References

Former raions of Donetsk Oblast
Soviet toponymy in Ukraine
1934 establishments in Ukraine
Ukrainian raions abolished during the 2020 administrative reform

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