Oblast

An oblast (/ˈɒblæst/; also UK: /ˈɒblɑːst/)[1] is a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union and 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., voblast (voblasts, voblasts', [ˈvobɫasʲtsʲ]) is used for regions of Belarus and oblys (plural: oblystar) for regions of Kazakhstan.

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.

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 oblast.

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".[2]

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:

Territorial entity	Local term	English term	Details	Comment
Armenia	marz	province or region[3]	see Marz (country subdivision)	Oblast in the Russian version of a 1995 law.[4]
Belarus	voblast (vobłaść) / oblast	region[5]	see Regions of Belarus	Russian and Belarusian are both state languages.
Georgia	mkhare	region	see Mkhare
Kazakhstan	oblys	region	see Regions of Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan	oblus / oblast	region	see Regions of Kyrgyzstan	Kyrgyz and Russian are both official languages
Russia	oblast	oblast or region[6]	see Oblasts of Russia	According to the Constitution of Russia, oblasts are considered to be subjects of the Federation, which is a higher status than that of administrative units they had within the Russian SFSR before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The federal subject status gives the oblasts some degree of autonomy and gives them representation in the Federation Council.
Tajikistan	viloyat	region	see Regions of Tajikistan
Turkmenistan	welaýat	region [7]	see Regions of Turkmenistan
Ukraine	oblast	oblast or region[8][9]	see Oblasts of Ukraine
Uzbekistan	viloyat	region[10]	see Regions of Uzbekistan

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

Yugoslavia

In 1922, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was divided into 33 administrative divisions 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 Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. 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
• Krai
• Okrug
• Subdivisions of Russia

References

1. "Oblast". Collins English Dictionary/Webster's New World College Dictionary.
2. Ekonomicheskoe raionirovanie Rossii, Gosplan, Moscow 1921
3. "Government - Regions - The Government of Armenia". gov.am.
4. "Legislation: National Assembly of RA". parliament.am.
5. "Geography, Belarus - Belarus.by". belarus.by.
6. "Chapter 3. The Federal Structure - The Constitution of the Russian Federation". constitution.ru. Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved 2014-10-16.
7. "Microsoft Word - Newsletter II-2 2010-06-30.doc" (PDF). Retrieved 2019-03-07.
8. "Regions of Ukraine - MFA of Ukraine". mfa.gov.ua. Archived from the original on 2014-10-08. Retrieved 2014-10-16.
9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-10-31. Retrieved 2014-10-31.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
10. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-10-19. Retrieved 2014-10-16.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)