Development of the administrative divisions of Ukraine

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Administrative divisions development in Ukraine reviews the history of changes in the administrative divisions of Ukraine, in chronological order.

Russian Empire and Ukrainian People's Republic

Main article: Administrative divisions of Ukraine (1918–1925)

The Russian Empire had acquired much of the territory inhabited by Ukrainians between the mid 17th and early 19th centuries, which was organized into nine Ukrainian governorates:

Volhynia (Volyn), and the mainland part of Taurida (or Tavriia, without the Crimean peninsula). Additional lands annexed from Poland in 1815 were organized into the Kholm governorate in 1912.[1]

After the events of 1917, which led to the

Ukrainian SSR.[2] Soviet Ukraine was reorganized into 12 governorates, which were reduced to nine in 1922 upon the Soviet Union's founding, and then replaced with okruhas in 1925.[1]

The West Ukrainian People's Republic in former Austro-Hungarian Empire territory was not subdivided into governorates, and would be annexed by the Second Polish Republic from 1920 until the Soviet invasion of 1939.

Overview of Soviet Ukraine (1921–91)

Main article:
Administrative divisions of the Ukrainian SSR

During the existence of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Soviet Ukraine its administration division went through three changes.[citation needed]

  • governorate
    , 1919–1925
  • zemlia, 1918, not fully realized territorial administrative reform
  • subdistrict
    , 1925-1936
  • oblast, 1936–1991
    • raion and district (
      border okrug
      )

Also there existed national raions and national communities (selsoviets). In Ukraine also was established the Moldavian ASSR[clarification needed] and later[when?] also included Crimean ASSR.

National raions of Ukraine (1920s-1930s)

Main article: National districts of the Soviet Union

List of known nationality-based raions of Ukraine in the 1920s and '30s:

Bulgarians

Greeks

Jews

Part of RSFSR then

Crimean Tatars

Part of RSFSR[clarification needed] then
  • Alushta municipality
    (1930-1944)
  • Balaklava Raion
    (1930-1944)
  • Bakhchisaray Raion
    (1930-1944)
  • Sudak municipality
    (1930-1944)
  • Yalta municipality
    (1930-1944)
  • Albat
    (1935-?)

Poles

Ukrainians

Part of RSFSR then

Germans
Part of RSFSR then

Before World War II

Donetsk guberniia of the Ukrainian SSR to the North Caucasus krai of the Russian SFSR.[5][6]

Just before World War II, Hungary with the help from Poland occupied

Munich agreement
plus some additional territories of Slovakia. Poland in turn also occupied some territories of Silesia.

In the fall of 1938, the southwestern territories of

Mukacheve
were yielded to the Kingdom of Hungary.

In 1939, Carpatho-Ukraine was overrun by the Kingdom of Hungary.

Some of the newly acquired territories in 1939 were annexed and incorporated as Kárpátalja. Kárpátalja unlike most of the country, however, had a special administrative system with the intention of it being governed by the Ruthenian minority population. In practice, it was not the case. Kárpátalja was divided into three administrative delegations (közigazgatási kirendeltség) which were each divided into four districts (járás). The previously annexed territories of 1938 were divided into Bereg County and Ung County.

World War II

In 1939 and 1940, the Soviet Union launched an offensive into eastern Poland and eastern Romania. During these operations, the territories of

Stanislav Oblast, Ternopil Oblast, Volyn Oblast, and Rivne Oblast. In 1940, Bukovina was organized as Chernivtsi Oblast and Budjak as Izmail Oblast
.

After the German invasion of 1941, Ukraine was split between three countries, Germany, Romania, and Hungary. Within Germany Ukraine also was divided between the General Government (Krakau), Reichskommisariat (centered in Rivne), and Wehrmacht administration closer to the Eastern Front.

General Government

Ukrainian SSR
in 1939 were passed to other Distrikts, mostly Krakau.

Reichskommissariat Ukraine

Most of Ukraine was under a "civil administration" of Reichskommissariat Ukraine with capital in Rowno. Some territories also included former parts of Belarus. Reichskommissariat was divided into five General-bezirke and one Teil-bezirke Taurien (Krim):

  • Wolhynien und Podolien (Luzk) - 25 Kreisgebiete,
  • Shitomir - 17 Kreisgebiete,
  • Kiew - 24 Kreisgebiete,
  • Nikolajew - 13 Kreisgebiete,
  • Dnjepropetrowsk - 16 Kreisgebiete,
  • Krim (Melitopol) - 5 Kreisgebiete.

Each Generalbezirke consisted of several Kreisgebiete which in turn were divided into selsoviets. Krim, however, did not in reality encompass territory of the

Donets basin and Sloboda Ukraine) also stayed under the Wehrmacht jurisdiction due to a close proximity to front-lines. It was planned to extend the territory of such Ukraine all the way to Volga
river adding some other General-bezirke.

Romania

Romania liberated the south-western part of Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic from the foreign rule, more specifically the area which today constitutes

Northern Bukovina (Chernivtsi Oblast
), territories with Romanian ethnic majority, which Romania lost in the beginning of World War II.

Polish-Soviet border changes (1944–51)

Polish-Soviet border changes

Between 1944 and 1951 the border between Ukrainian SSR and Polish People's Republic changed a lot. There were at least five territorial transfers.

Other changes (1944–46)

A new Kherson Oblast was created during the war on March 30, 1944, out of the territories of Mykolaiv Oblast and Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Furthermore, a few raions of Odesa Oblast (including the city of Voznesensk and its surrounding areas), were transferred to Mykolaiv Oblast.

Beside a Ukrainian-Polish border exchange on January 22, 1946, the Zakarpattia Oblast was also created out of newly acquired Czechoslovakia territories, where Carpatho-Ukraine had been proclaimed just before World War II.

1954

Big changes in the administrative division in Ukraine took place in winter of 1954.

The new Cherkasy Oblast was created on January 7, mostly out of the southern raions of Kyiv Oblast, and some raions of Poltava and Kirovohrad Oblasts.

On February 15 Izmail Oblast was merged into Odesa Oblast. Several raions of the previous Odesa Oblast were transferred to the neighboring Kirovohrad and Mykolaiv Oblasts.

The

transferred
from Russia to Ukraine on February 19.

Oblast changes (1954–1991)

Before the fall of Soviet Union in 1992 the

Ukrainian SSR
consisted of 25 oblasts and two cities of republican subordination, Kyiv and Sevastopol.

In 1958 Voroshylovhrad Oblast was renamed Luhansk, then in 1970 back to Voroshylovhrad, and in 1990 once again to Luhansk.

May 21, 1959, Drohobych Oblast was merged into Lviv Oblast

1965 Talalaiv Raion was transferred from Sumy Oblast to Chernihiv Oblast

1986

Prypiat were liquidated and merged with the Ivankiv Raion, Kyiv Oblast
.

In 1988 the new city of

Chornobyl catastrophe, in Chernihiv Oblast. The city was subordinated to the Kyiv Oblast
.

On February 12, 1991, the Crimean oblast was restored to its pre-WWII status of autonomous Soviet socialist republic following a

referendum
.

Independence (1991—)

See also: List of raions of Ukraine (1966-2020)

After its declaration of independence in August 1991, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December, Ukraine grandfathered the whole Soviet system of administrative divisions. Cities of republic significance were transformed into cities with special status.[citation needed]

  • 24
    oblasts
    (regions)
  • 2
    cities with special status
    • urban raions
  • 1 autonomous republic (Crimea)
    • raions
    • cities of republic significance
    • urban raions

In February 1992, the Crimean ASSR's parliament renamed it the Republic of Crimea,[citation needed] and in 1998 the Ukrainian parliament renamed it Autonomous Republic of Crimea, following disputes over the republic's constitution and level of autonomy. In February 2014, Russian forces occupied the peninsula including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and city of Sevastopol, and in March formally annexed the territories to the Russian Federation, although it remained internationally recognized as part of Ukraine.[citation needed]

After the start of the

ceasefire was declared and a relatively stable line of contact was established, although the semi-frozen conflict has continued to cost thousands of lives along the so-called grey zone that surrounds the line of contact. About a third of the area of the two Donbas oblasts remain under the de facto control of Russian-supported self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics. In these cities and raions where the respective local governments cannot exercise their constitutional powers, Ukraine created civil–military administrations in February 2015.[7]

Administrative reform of 2015

Main article: Amalgamated hromada

In 2015 a new type of administrative unit was created, the

Volodymyr Zelensky in December 2019, the hromadas should replace the raions of Ukraine.[9]

Administrative reform of 2020

See also:
List of raions of Ukraine
Raions of Ukraine after October 2020

On 17 July 2020, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) approved an administrative reform to merge most of the 490 raions, along with the "cities of regional significance" which had been separate from raions, into just 136 reformed raions. These 136 districts include ten in Crimea and several in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, which were and remain under Russian control. New third-level hromadas have taken over most tasks of the raions (education, healthcare, sport facilities, culture, and social welfare).[10]

Administrative reform of 2023

See also:
List of urban-type settlements in Ukraine

On 24 October 2023

1991 Ukraine became independent of the Soviet Union.[12]) The only official classifications of inhabited locality in Ukraine remained a city (misto, an urban locality), a settlement (selyshche, a rural locality with a population of at least 5,000) and village (selo, a rural locality of less than 5,000).[11]

See also

References

  1. ^
    OCLC 57002343
    .
  2. ^
    OCLC 973559701
    .
  3. ^ a b c "НАЦІОНАЛЬНЕ АДМІНІСТРАТИВНО-ТЕРИТОРІАЛЬНЕ БУДІВНИЦТВО В УСРР/УРСР 1924–1940". resource.history.org.ua. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
  4. ^ "Chernihiv gubernia". Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  5. ISBN 9781442651265
    .
  6. doi:10.13187/ra.2015.10.288
    .
  7. ^ "Poroshenko gave the green light to create civil-military administrations". Ukrainska Pravda. Ukrainian. 26 February 2015. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  8. ^ a b (in Ukrainian) Elections in the united territorial communities. What is this and what you need, Espreso TV (31 October 2017)
  9. BBC Ukrainian
    (in Ukrainian). 16 December 2019.
  10. ^ Where did 354 districts disappear to? Anatomy of loud reform, Glavcom (7 August 2020) (in Ukrainian)
  11. ^ a b c "Zelensky canceled urban-type settlements" (in Ukrainian). Ukrainska Pravda. 25 October 2023. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  12. ISBN 1442610212
    (page 563/564 & 722/723)
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