Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 16:30, 26 October 2014

A raion (also rayon) (pl. raiony) is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet states (such as part of an oblast). The term, which is from French "rayon" (meaning "honeycomb, department"), describes both a type of a subnational entity and a division of a city, and is commonly translated in English as "district".

The term "raion" also can be used simply as a second degree of administrative division without anything to do with ethnicity or nationality. A raion is a standardized administrative entity across most of the Soviet Union and is usually a subdivision two steps below the national level. However, in smaller countries, it could be the primary level of administrative division (Administrative divisions of Armenia, Administrative divisions of Azerbaijan). After the fall of the Soviet Union, some of its former republics dropped raion from their use (Armenia).

Etymology

The word "raion" (or "rayon") is often used in translated form: Template:Lang-az; Template:Lang-be; Template:Lang-bg; Georgian: რაიონი, raioni; Template:Lang-lv; Template:Lang-lt; Template:Lang-ro; Template:Lang-ru and Template:Lang-uk.

History

Raions in the Soviet Union

In the Soviet Union, raions were administrative divisions created in the 1920s to reduce the number of territorial divisions inherited from the Russian Empire and to simplify their bureaucracies. The process of conversion to the system of raions was called raionirovanie ("regionalization"). It was started in 1923 in the Urals, North Caucasus, and Siberia as a part of the Soviet administrative reform and continued through 1929, by which time the majority of the country's territory was divided into raions instead of the old volosts and uyezds.

The concept of raionirovanie was met with resistance in some republics, especially in Ukraine, where local leaders objected to the concept of raions as being too centralized in nature and ignoring the local customs. This point of view was backed by the Soviet Commissariat of Nationalities. Nevertheless, eventually all of the territory of the Soviet Union was regionalized.

Soviet raions had self-governance in the form of an elected district council (raysovet) and were headed by the local head of administration, who was either elected or appointed.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, raions as administrative units continued to be used in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Latvia, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine.

List of countries with raion subdivisions

• National republics of the Soviet Union

Notes

1. Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1961, repr. 1981), s.v. raion.
2. Saunders, R.A., Strukov, V. Historical Dictionary of the Russian Federation. "Scarecrow Press", 2010, ISBN 978-0-8108-5475-8, S. 477.
3. ^ James R. Millar. Encyclopedia of Russian History. Macmillan Reference USA. New York, 2004. ISBN 0-02-865693-8

References

• 6 мая 2001 г. «Конституция Республики Тыва», в ред. Конституционного закона №1419 ВХ-2 от 10 июля 2009 г «О внесении изменений в статью 113 Конституции Республики Тыва». Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Тувинская правда", 15 мая 2001 г. (May 6, 2001 Constitution of the Tyva Republic, as amended by the Constitutional Law #1419 VKh-2 of July 10, 2009 On Amending Article 113 of the Constitution of the Tyva Republic. Effective as of the official publication date.).

• Administrative divisions of Russia
• Municipal divisions of Russia
• Administrative divisions of regions of Ukraine
• Subdivisions of Belarus
• Types of country subdivisions
• Former subdivisions of the Socialist Republic of Romania
• Russian-language designations of territorial entities