View source for Oblasts of Russia

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{{Short description|Administrative division of Russia}}
{{multiple issues|
{{More sources needed|date=July 2009}}
{{short lead|date=April 2023}}}}
{{Infobox subdivision type
| name = Oblasts
| alt_name = 
| map = Map of federal subjects of Russia (2012).svg
| caption = Oblasts of Russia (yellow)
| category = [[Federated state]]
| territory = [[Russia|Russian Federation]]
| current_number = 46 (internationally recognised)
| number_date = 
| population_range = 156,996 ([[Magadan Oblast]]) – 7,095,120 ([[Moscow Oblast]])
| area_range = 15 100 km<sup>2</sup> ([[Kaliningrad Oblast]]) - 767 900 km<sup>2</sup> ([[Irkutsk Oblast]])
| government = Oblast Government, [[Regional parliaments of Russia|Oblast Duma]]
| subdivision = [[Raion#Russian Federation|Raion]], [[City of federal subject significance|City of oblast significance]], [[Selsoviet]], [[Okrug#Russian Federation|Okrug]], [[Urban-type settlement]]
}}

In Russia, the '''oblasts''' are 46 administrative territories; they are one type of [[federal subjects of Russia|federal subject]], the highest-level administrative division of Russian territory.<ref name=Hea23/>{{rp|page=43|quote=Including the two territories in Crimea, the 85 territories comprise 22 republics, nine krais (provinces), 46 oblasts (regions), three cities of federal status (Moscow, St Petersburg and Sevastopol), one autonomous oblast and four autonomous okrugs.}}

==Overview==
Oblasts are constituent [[polity|political entities]] in a [[Federated state|federal union]] with representation in the [[Federation Council (Russia)|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 [[democracy|democratically]] elected. The [[Governor (Russia)|governor]] is the highest [[Executive (government)|executive]] position of the state government in an oblast and is elected by the people. Oblasts are divided into ''[[Raion#Russian Federation|raions]]'' (districts), [[City of federal subject significance|cities of oblast significance]] (district-equivalent [[independent city|independent cities]]), and [[autonomous okrug]]s, 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 language|English]] as "[[province]]" or "[[region]]", and there are currently 46 oblasts, the most common type of the 85 federal subjects in Russia.<ref name=Hea23>{{Cite book|editor-last=Heaney|editor-first=Dominic|title=The Territories of the Russian Federation 2023|edition=24th|year=2023|isbn=9781032469744|url=https://www.routledge.com/The-Territories-of-the-Russian-Federation-2023/Publications/p/book/9781032469744|location=Abingdon|publisher=[[Routledge]]}}</ref> The majority of oblasts are named after their [[Administrative centre#Russia|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 [[Russian people|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&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (excluding autonomous okrugs [[Irkutsk Oblast]] is the largest at 767,900&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) and the smallest is [[Kaliningrad Oblast]] at 15,100&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>. The most populous oblast is [[Moscow Oblast]] at 7,095,120 and the least populous is [[Magadan Oblast]] at 156,996.

[[Krais of Russia|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==
{{further information|oblasts of the Russian Empire|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 ''[[governorate (Russia)|guberniyas]]'' (governorates) within the first-level [[Krais of the Russian Empire|krais]]. Following the numerous administration reforms during the [[history of the Soviet Union|Soviet era]], the number of oblasts gradually increased as they became the primary top-level administrative division of the [[Republics of the Soviet Union|Soviet Socialist Republics]] (SSRs), the constituent political entities of the [[Soviet Union]]. These oblasts held very little [[autonomy]] or power, but when the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|Soviet Union dissolved]] into [[sovereign state]]s along the lines of the SSRs, they became the first-level administrative divisions. The oblasts of the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]], which transitioned into the Russian Federation, became the first-level administrative divisions of the new country and received greater [[devolution|devolved power]].
===Russo-Ukrainian War===
During the [[Russian invasion of Ukraine]], Russia [[Russian annexation of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts|annexed]] the [[Donetsk Oblast|Donetsk]], [[Kherson Oblast|Kherson]], [[Luhansk Oblast|Luhansk]] and [[Zaporizhzhia Oblast|Zaporizhzhia]] regions of Ukraine.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/30/russia-ukraine-war-putin-annexation-live-updates/ |title=U.S. imposes new sanctions over Russia's illegal annexation |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=30 September 2022 |access-date=30 September 2022}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Hea23/>{{rp|pages=5–6, 16|q=Crimea and Sevastopol, which were annexed in 2014, and...four Ukrainian regions annexed de jure, if not de facto, in 2022...After Crimea and Sevastopol were annexed from Ukraine in 2014, the federal centre repeatedly emphasized internal and external threats to their stability...both territories were lavished with attention. If Russia were ever to achieve similar control over the four territories purportedly annexed from Ukraine in 2022, such focus on their security, too, would seem likely... Putin announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions: ...the southern Ukrainian oblasts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhya (Zaporozhye), despite Russian control of all of these territories being by no means assured.}}

==List==
[[File:Map of federal subjects of Russia with numbered oblasts.png|frameless|center|upright=3|alt=Map of Russia using internationally-recognized borders and showing oblasts in numbers]]
{{columns-list|colwidth=12em|
#{{flagicon|Amur Oblast}} [[Amur Oblast|Amur]]
#{{flagicon|Arkhangelsk Oblast}} [[Arkhangelsk Oblast|Arkhangelsk]]
#{{flagicon|Astrakhan Oblast}} [[Astrakhan Oblast|Astrakhan]]
#{{flagicon|Belgorod Oblast}} [[Belgorod Oblast|Belgorod]]
#{{flagicon|Bryansk Oblast}} [[Bryansk Oblast|Bryansk]]
#{{flagicon|Chelyabinsk Oblast}} [[Chelyabinsk Oblast|Chelyabinsk]]
#{{flagicon|Irkutsk Oblast}} [[Irkutsk Oblast|Irkutsk]]
#{{flagicon|Ivanovo Oblast}} [[Ivanovo Oblast|Ivanovo]]
#{{flagicon|Kaliningrad Oblast}} [[Kaliningrad Oblast|Kaliningrad]]
#{{flagicon|Kaluga Oblast}} [[Kaluga Oblast|Kaluga]]
#{{flagicon|Kemerovo Oblast}} [[Kemerovo Oblast|Kemerovo]]
#{{flagicon|Kirov Oblast}} [[Kirov Oblast|Kirov]]
#{{flagicon|Kostroma Oblast}} [[Kostroma Oblast|Kostroma]]
#{{flagicon|Kurgan Oblast}} [[Kurgan Oblast|Kurgan]]
#{{flagicon|Kursk Oblast}} [[Kursk Oblast|Kursk]]
#{{flagicon|Leningrad Oblast}} [[Leningrad Oblast|Leningrad]]
#{{flagicon|Lipetsk Oblast}} [[Lipetsk Oblast|Lipetsk]]
#{{flagicon|Magadan Oblast}} [[Magadan Oblast|Magadan]]
#{{flagicon|Moscow Oblast}} [[Moscow Oblast|Moscow]]
#{{flagicon|Murmansk Oblast}} [[Murmansk Oblast|Murmansk]]
#{{flagicon|Nizhny Novgorod Oblast}} [[Nizhny Novgorod Oblast|Nizhny Novgorod]]
#{{flagicon|Novgorod Oblast}} [[Novgorod Oblast|Novgorod]]
#{{flagicon|Novosibirsk Oblast}} [[Novosibirsk Oblast|Novosibirsk]]
#{{flagicon|Omsk Oblast}} [[Omsk Oblast|Omsk]]
#{{flagicon|Orenburg Oblast}} [[Orenburg Oblast|Orenburg]]
#{{flagicon|Oryol Oblast}} [[Oryol Oblast|Oryol]]
#{{flagicon|Penza Oblast}} [[Penza Oblast|Penza]]
#{{flagicon|Pskov Oblast}} [[Pskov Oblast|Pskov]]
#{{flagicon|Rostov Oblast}} [[Rostov Oblast|Rostov]]
#{{flagicon|Ryazan Oblast}} [[Ryazan Oblast|Ryazan]]
#{{flagicon|Sakhalin Oblast}} [[Sakhalin Oblast|Sakhalin]]
#{{flagicon|Samara Oblast}} [[Samara Oblast|Samara]]
#{{flagicon|Saratov Oblast}} [[Saratov Oblast|Saratov]]
#{{flagicon|Smolensk Oblast}} [[Smolensk Oblast|Smolensk]]
#{{flagicon|Sverdlovsk Oblast}} [[Sverdlovsk Oblast|Sverdlovsk]]
#{{flagicon|Tambov Oblast}} [[Tambov Oblast|Tambov]]
#{{flagicon|Tomsk Oblast}} [[Tomsk Oblast|Tomsk]]
#{{flagicon|Tver Oblast}} [[Tver Oblast|Tver]]
#{{flagicon|Tula Oblast}} [[Tula Oblast|Tula]]
#{{flagicon|Tyumen Oblast}} [[Tyumen Oblast|Tyumen]]
#{{flagicon|Ulyanovsk Oblast}} [[Ulyanovsk Oblast|Ulyanovsk]]
#{{flagicon|Vladimir Oblast}} [[Vladimir Oblast|Vladimir]]
#{{flagicon|Volgograd Oblast}} [[Volgograd Oblast|Volgograd]]
#{{flagicon|Vologda Oblast}} [[Vologda Oblast|Vologda]]
#{{flagicon|Voronezh Oblast}} [[Voronezh Oblast|Voronezh]]
#{{flagicon|Yaroslavl Oblast}} [[Yaroslavl Oblast|Yaroslavl]]
}}

==References==
{{notelist}}
{{Reflist}}

{{Subdivisions of Russia}}

[[Category:Oblasts of Russia| ]]
[[Category:Federal subjects of Russia]]
[[Category:Federal subjects of Russia-related lists]]