An oblast (, ) is a type of administrative division in Bulgaria and several post-Soviet states, including Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Historically, the term was used in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. The word "oblast" is often translated into English as 'region' or 'province'. In some countries, oblasts are also known by the Russian term.
Etymology
The term oblast is borrowed from Russian область (), from where it is inherited from Old Russian, in turn borrowed from Church Slavonic область oblastĭ 'power, empire', formed from the prefix (cognate with Classical Latin ob 'towards, against' and Ancient Greek ἐπί/ἔπι epi 'in power, in charge') and the stem vlastǐ 'power, rule'.
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 a few exceptions, Soviet oblasts were named after their administrative centers.
Yugoslavia
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 the Republic of Serbian Krajina and the Republika Srpska.
Word "oblast" is also prominent and widely used in Serbian language. It does not have only territorial meaning. It is also regularly used to denote parts of science, literature, or production, and so on (for example "oblast nauke" means "field of science"). So, it means something like "part of whole".
Modern oblasts
Bulgaria
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.<!-- ,,,or should the plural be oblasti? -->
Post-Soviet states
{| class="wikitable sortable"
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! Territorial entity
! Local term
! English term
! Details
! Comment
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| Armenia || marz || province or region || see: marz (country subdivision) || Oblast in the Russian version of a 1995 law.
|-
| Belarus || voblasts (voblasc) / oblast || region || see: regions of Belarus || Belarusian and Russian are both state languages
|-
| Kazakhstan || oblys || region || see: regions of Kazakhstan || Kazakh is the sole official language. Russian is officially used alongside it in state organizations and local self-government bodies according to the Constitution
|-
| Kyrgyzstan || oblus / oblast || region || see: regions of Kyrgyzstan || Kyrgyz and Russian are both official languages
|-
| Russia || oblast || oblast or region || see: oblasts of Russia || According to the Constitution of Russia, oblasts are considered to be subjects of the Federation, which is a higher status than that of administrative units they had within the Russian SFSR before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The federal subject status gives the oblasts some degree of autonomy and gives them representation in the Federation Council
|-
| Tajikistan || viloyat || region || see: regions of Tajikistan ||
|-
| Turkmenistan || welaýat || region|| see: regions of Turkmenistan ||
|-
| Ukraine || oblast || oblast or region || see: oblasts of Ukraine || In Ukraine, an oblast ( ; in English called a province or region) refers to one of the country's 24 primary administrative units. Since Ukraine is a unitary state, the provinces (or regions) do not have much legal scope of competence other than that which is established in the Ukrainian Constitution and by law. Articles 140–146 of Chapter XI of the constitution deal directly with local authorities and their competency.
Oblasts are further subdivided into raions (districts), ranging in number from 3 to 10 per entity
|-
| Uzbekistan || viloyat || region || see: regions of Uzbekistan ||
|}
Viloyat and welaýat are derived from the Turkish language term vilayet, itself derived from the Arabic language term wilāya ().
See also
- Autonomous oblast
- Guberniya, an administrative unit, comparable to an oblast, of the Russian Empire, early Russian SFSR, and the Soviet Union
- Raion, district or sub-division of an oblast
- Krai
- Okrug
- Political divisions of Russia
- Landscape park (protected area), ,