An oblast ( / ˈ ɒ b l æ s t / or / ˈ ɒ b l ɑː s t / ) is a type of administrative division in Bulgaria and several post-Soviet states , including Belarus , Russia and Ukraine . Historically, it was used in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union . The term oblast is often translated into English as 'region' or 'province'. In some countries, oblasts are also known by cognates of the Russian term.
17-773: The Kuban oblast was a province ( oblast ) of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire . It roughly corresponded to most of the Kuban and Circassia regions. It was created in 1860 out of Kuban Cossack territories that had once been part of the Crimean Khanate and the land of the Circassians . It was dissolved upon the assumption of supreme authority by the Kuban Rada in 1917 and
34-614: A few exceptions, Soviet oblasts were named after their administrative centers. 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
51-497: Is inherited from Old East Slavic , in turn borrowed from Church Slavonic область oblastĭ 'power, empire', formed from the prefix oб- (cognate with Classical Latin ob 'towards, against' and Ancient Greek ἐπί/ἔπι epi 'in power, in charge') and the stem власть vlastǐ 'power, rule'. In Old East Slavic, it was used alongside оболость obolostǐ —the equivalent of об- 'against' and волость 'territory, state, power' (cognate with English 'wield'; see volost ). In
68-581: The Arabic language term wilāya ( ولاية ). Volost Volost ( Belarusian : во́ласць , romanized : volasts ; Russian : во́лость [ˈvoɫəsʲtʲ] ; Ukrainian : во́лость ) was a traditional administrative subdivision in Kievan Rus' , the Grand Duchy of Moscow , and the Russian Empire . The Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (1890–1907) states that
85-612: The Republic of Serbian Krajina and the Republika Srpska . 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. Oblasts are further subdivided into raions ( districts ), ranging in number from 3 to 10 per entity. Viloyat and welaýat are derived from the Turkish language term vilayet , itself derived from
102-707: 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. 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
119-667: The Russian Empire Census , the Kuban oblast had a population of 1,918,881 on 28 January [ O.S. 15 January] 1897, including 973,023 men and 945,858 women. The plurality of the population indicated Ukrainian to be their mother tongue, with a significant Russian speaking minority. According to the 1917 publication of Kavkazskiy kalendar , the Kuban oblast had a population of 3,022,683 on 14 January [ O.S. 1 January] 1916, including 1,523,057 men and 1,499,626 women, 1,870,280 of whom were
136-530: The Velikiy Knyaz ( Grand Prince ). Starting from the end of the 14th century, volost was a unit of administrative division in Grand Duchy of Lithuania , Poland , Muscovy , lands of modern Latvia and Ukraine. Since about the 16th century it was a part of provincial districts that were called " uezd " in Muscovy and the later Russian Empire . Each uezd had several volosts that were subordinated to
153-657: 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
170-500: The authority of the police commissaries ( stanovoi ) and by the power of general oversight given to the nominated "district committees for the affairs of the peasants". Volosts were abolished by the Soviet administrative reform of 1923–1929. Raions may be roughly called a modern equivalent of both volosts and uezds. Volosts were governed by volost administration ( волостное правление , volostnoye pravleniye ), which consisted of
187-521: The electable chief of volost ( volostnoy starshina ), chiefs of villages (village starostas ) and other officials electable by the Volost Assembly (волостной сход, volostnoy skhod ). Volost Court was the court electable by the Volost Assembly, which could handle smaller civil and criminal cases. It could sentence people to corporal punishment , fine or short-term incarceration . In modern Russia, Veps National Volost existed in
SECTION 10
#1732772962042204-545: The independence of the Kuban People's Republic in 1918. Its capital was the city of Yekaterinodar (present-day Krasnodar ). The Cossack districts ( otdels ) of the Kuban oblast in 1917 were as follows: The militarized nature of the Kuban meant that, rather than a traditional governorate ( guberniya ) with counties ( uezds ), the territory was administered by the Kuban Cossacks as an oblast which
221-399: The origins of the concept is unclear: whether it originally referred to an administrative subdivision or to a peasant obshchina , the term referring to a territory under a single rule. In earlier East Slavic history, in the lands of Ruthenia , volost was a name for the territory ruled by the knyaz , a principality; either as an absolute ruler or with varying degree of autonomy from
238-477: The permanent population, and 1,152,403 were temporary residents. 45°02′N 38°58′E / 45.033°N 38.967°E / 45.033; 38.967 This Russian location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Ukrainian history –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Oblast The term oblast is borrowed from Russian область ( pronounced [ˈobɫəsʲtʲ] ), where it
255-460: The supreme ataman of the Kuban host , who was in turn appointed directly by the Russian emperor. Prior to 1870, this system of legislature in the oblast remained a robust military one and all legal decisions were carried out by the stanitsa ataman and two elected judges. Afterwards, however, the system was bureaucratized and the judicial functions were independent of the stanitsas . According to
272-399: The uezd city. After the abolition of Russian serfdom in 1861, volost became a unit of peasant 's local self-rule . A number of mirs are united into a volost, which has an assembly consisting of elected delegates from the mirs. These elect an elder ( starshina ) and, hitherto, a court of justice ( volostnoy sud ). The self-government of the mirs and volosts was, however, tempered by
289-473: Was split into otdels . Each otdel had its own sotnias which in turn would be split into stanitsas and khutors . The ataman ("commander") for each region was not only responsible for the military preparation of the Cossacks, but for the local administration duties. Local stanitsa and khutor atamans were elected, but approved by the atamans of the otdel . These, in turn, were appointed by
#41958