Oblasts of Russia

Administrative division of Russia

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Oblasts of Russia" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. (April 2023)

|

(Learn how and when to remove this message)

Oblasts

Oblasts of Russia (yellow)

Category| Federated state
Location| Russian Federation
Number| 46 (internationally recognised)
Populations| 156,996 (Magadan Oblast) – 7,095,120 (Moscow Oblast)
Areas| 15 100 km2 (Kaliningrad Oblast) - 767 900 km2 (Irkutsk Oblast)
Government|

* Oblast Government, Oblast Duma

Subdivisions|

* Raion, City of oblast significance, Selsoviet, Okrug, Urban-type settlement

In Russia, the oblasts are 46 administrative territories; they are one type of federal subject, the highest-level administrative division of Russian territory.[1]: 43

## Overview

[edit]

Oblasts are constituent political entities in a federal union with representation in the Federation Council, and serve as a first-level administrative division. Each oblast features a state government holding authority over a defined geographic territory, with a state legislature, the Oblast Duma, that is democratically elected. The governor is the highest executive position of the state government in an oblast and is elected by the people. Oblasts are divided into raions (districts), cities of oblast significance (district-equivalent independent cities), and autonomous okrugs, which are legally federal subjects equal to an oblast but are administratively subservient to one. Two oblasts have autonomous okrugs: Arkhangelsk Oblast (Nenets Autonomous Okrug) and Tyumen Oblast (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug).

The term oblast can be translated into English as "province" or "region", and there are currently 46 oblasts, the most common type of the 85 federal subjects in Russia.[1] The majority of oblasts are named after their administrative center, the official term for a capital city in an oblast, which is generally the largest city. Exceptions to this include Leningrad Oblast and Moscow Oblast, which have no official capital, and Sakhalin Oblast, which is named after a geographic location. Leningrad Oblast and Sverdlovsk Oblast retain the previous names of Saint Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, respectively. Oblasts are typically areas that are predominantly populated by ethnic Russians and native Russian language speakers, and are mostly located in European Russia. The largest oblast by geographic size is Tyumen Oblast at 1,435,200 km2 (excluding autonomous okrugs Irkutsk Oblast is the largest at 767,900 km2) and the smallest is Kaliningrad Oblast at 15,100 km2. The most populous oblast is Moscow Oblast at 7,095,120 and the least populous is Magadan Oblast at 156,996.

Krais, another type of federal subject, are legally identical to oblasts. The difference between a political entity with the name "oblast" and one named "krai" is purely traditional.

## History

[edit]

Further information: oblasts of the Russian Empire and oblasts of the Soviet Union

In the Russian Empire, oblasts were a third-level administrative division, organized in 1849 and few in number, dividing the larger guberniyas (governorates) within the first-level krais. Following the numerous administration reforms during the Soviet era, the number of oblasts gradually increased as they became the primary top-level administrative division of the Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs), the constituent political entities of the Soviet Union. These oblasts held very little autonomy or power, but when the Soviet Union dissolved into sovereign states along the lines of the SSRs, they became the first-level administrative divisions. The oblasts of the Russian SFSR, which transitioned into the Russian Federation, became the first-level administrative divisions of the new country and received greater devolved power.

### Russo-Ukrainian War

[edit]

During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia annexed the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine.[2] While Donetsk and Luhansk were incorporated as republics, having their respective separate constitutions adopted since 2014 back when they were two breakaway states of Ukraine, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia were annexed de jure, but not de facto, as regular oblasts. Including these, the Kremlin claims a total of 48 oblasts. The four regions remain internationally recognized as part of Ukraine and are only partially occupied by Russia and its control of the territory is not totally assured.[1]: 5–6, 16

## List

[edit]

1. Amur
2. Arkhangelsk
3. Astrakhan
4. Belgorod
5. Bryansk
6. Chelyabinsk
7. Irkutsk
8. Ivanovo
9. Kaliningrad
10. Kaluga
11. Kemerovo
12. Kirov
13. Kostroma
14. Kurgan
15. Kursk
16. Leningrad
17. Lipetsk
18. Magadan
19. Moscow
20. Murmansk
21. Nizhny Novgorod
22. Novgorod
23. Novosibirsk
24. Omsk
25. Orenburg
26. Oryol
27. Penza
28. Pskov
29. Rostov
30. Ryazan
31. Sakhalin
32. Samara
33. Saratov
34. Smolensk
35. Sverdlovsk
36. Tambov
37. Tomsk
38. Tver
39. Tula
40. Tyumen
41. Ulyanovsk
42. Vladimir
43. Volgograd
44. Vologda
45. Voronezh
46. Yaroslavl

## See also

[edit]

* Republics of Russia
* Krais of Russia
* Autonomous okrugs of Russia
* Federal cities of Russia
* Jewish Autonomous Oblast

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c Heaney, Dominic, ed. (2023). The Territories of the Russian Federation 2023 (24th ed.). Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9781032469744.
2. ^ "U.S. imposes new sanctions over Russia's illegal annexation". The Washington Post. 30 September 2022. Retrieved 30 September 2022.

* v
* t
* e

Subdivisions of Russia

Federal subjects

Oblasts (48)|

* Amur
* Arkhangelsk
* Astrakhan
* Belgorod
* Bryansk
* Chelyabinsk
* Irkutsk
* Ivanovo
* Kaliningrad
* Kaluga
* Kemerovo
* Kherson1
* Kirov
* Kostroma
* Kurgan
* Kursk
* Leningrad
* Lipetsk
* Magadan
* Moscow
* Murmansk
* Nizhny Novgorod
* Novgorod
* Novosibirsk
* Omsk
* Orenburg
* Oryol
* Penza
* Pskov
* Rostov
* Ryazan
* Sakhalin
* Samara
* Saratov
* Smolensk
* Sverdlovsk
* Tambov
* Tomsk
* Tula
* Tver
* Tyumen
* Ulyanovsk
* Vladimir
* Volgograd
* Vologda
* Voronezh
* Yaroslavl
* Zaporozhye1

Republics (24)|

* Adygea
* Altai
* Bashkortostan
* Buryatia
* Chechnya
* Chuvashia
* Crimea1
* Dagestan
* Donetsk1
* Ingushetia
* Kabardino-Balkaria
* Kalmykia
* Karachay-Cherkessia
* Luhansk1
* Karelia
* Khakassia
* Komi
* Mari El
* Mordovia
* North Ossetia–Alania
* Sakha
* Tatarstan
* Tuva
* Udmurtia

Krais (9)|

* Altai
* Kamchatka
* Khabarovsk
* Krasnodar
* Krasnoyarsk
* Perm
* Primorsky
* Stavropol
* Zabaykalsky

Autonomous okrugs (4)|

* Chukotka
* Khanty-Mansi2
* Nenets3
* Yamalo-Nenets2

Federal cities (3)|

* Moscow
* Saint Petersburg
* Sevastopol1

Autonomous oblast (1)|

* Jewish

* 1Considered by most of the international community to be part of Ukraine.

* 2Administratively subordinated to Tyumen Oblast.

* 3Administratively subordinated to Arkhangelsk Oblast.

Non-constitutional official divisions by various institutions

* Federal districts (by President)
* Economic regions (by Ministry of Economic Development)
* Military districts (by Ministry of Defence)
* Judicial districts

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template