Oblasts

An oblast (; ; Cyrillic (in most languages, including Russian and Ukrainian): , Bulgarian: ) is a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as the Soviet Union and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

Official terms in successor states of the Soviet Union differ, but some still use a cognate of the Russian term, e.g., ''vobłasć'' (''voblasts'', ''voblasts'', official orthography: , Taraškievica: , ) is used for regions of Belarus, ' (plural: ') for regions of Kazakhstan, and ''oblusu'' (') for regions of Kyrgyzstan.

The term is often translated as "area", " zone", "province" or "region". The last translation may lead to confusion, because "raion" may be used for other kinds of administrative division, which may be translated as "region", "district" or "county" depending on the context.
Unlike "province", translations as "area", "zone", and "region" may lead to confusion because they have very common meanings other than a political division.

Bulgaria

Since 1999, Bulgaria has been divided into 28 ''oblasts'', usually translated as "provinces". Before, the country was divided into just nine units, also called ''oblasts''.

Russian Empire

In the Russian Empire, oblasts were considered to be administrative units and were included as parts of Governorates General or krais. The majority of then-existing oblasts were on the periphery of the country (e.g. Kars Oblast or Transcaspian Oblast) or covered the areas where Cossacks lived.

Soviet Union

In the Soviet Union, oblasts were one of the types of administrative divisions of the union republics. As any administrative units of this level, oblasts were composed of districts (''raions'') and cities/towns directly under oblasts' jurisdiction. Some oblasts also included autonomous entities called autonomous okrugs. Because of the Soviet Union electrification program under the GOELRO plan, Ivan Alexandrov, as director of the Regionalisation Committee of Gosplan, divided the Soviet Union into thirteen European and eight Asiatic oblasts, using rational economic planning rather than "the vestiges of lost sovereign rights".

The names of oblasts did not usually correspond to the names of the respective historical regions, as they were created as purely administrative units. With a few exceptions, Soviet oblasts were named after their administrative centers.

Post-Soviet countries

The oblasts in other post-Soviet countries are officially called:

''Viloyat'' and ''welaýat'' are derived from the Turkish language term ''vilayet'', itself derived from the Arabic language term '' wilāya'' ()

Ukraine

In Ukraine, an oblast ( uk, область, translit=óblastʹ ; in English called a province or region) refers to one of the country's 24 primary administrative units. Since Ukraine is a unitary state, the provinces (or regions) do not have much legal scope of competence other than that which is established in the Ukrainian Constitution and by law. Articles 140–146 of Chapter XI of the constitution deal directly with local authorities and their competency.

Oblasts are further subdivided into raions (districts), ranging in number from 11 to 27 per entity.Decrees of Kyiv City Council
Kyiv City Council decree No. 280/1257
Description of New Administrative Raions of the City of Kyiv
Passed on 2001-04-27.

Yugoslavia

In 1922, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was divided into 33 administrative divisions also called oblasts. In 1929, oblasts were replaced with larger administrative units known as banovinas.

During the Yugoslav Wars, several Serb Autonomous Oblasts were formed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia. These oblasts were later merged into the Republic of Serbian Krajina and the Republika Srpska.

See also

* Autonomous oblast
* Guberniya, an administrative unit, comparable to an oblast, of the Russian Empire, early Russian SFSR, and the Soviet Union
* Raion, district or sub-division of an Oblast
* Krai
* Okrug
* Political divisions of Russia

References

External links

{{authority control

Types of administrative division
Russian-language designations of territorial entities