Federal subjects of Russia

Federal Subjects Субъекты федерации  (Russian)
Oblasts (provinces)   Republics   Krais (territories)   Autonomous Okrugs (with a substantial ethnic minority)   Federal cities   Autonomous Oblast
Category	Federal dominant-party semi-presidential constitutional republic
Location	Russia
Number	85
Populations	41,546 (Nenets Autonomous Okrug) – 10,382,754 (Moscow)
Areas	864 km2 (334 sq mi) (Sevastopol) – 3,103,200 km2 (1,198,200 sq mi) (Sakha Republic)
Government	Regional Government, National Government
Subdivisions	District

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The federal subjects of Russia, also referred to as the subjects of the Russian Federation (Russian: субъекты Российской Федерации, romanized: subyekty Rossiyskoy Federatsii) or simply as the subjects of the federation (Russian: субъекты федерации, romanized: subyekty federatsii), are the constituent entities of Russia, its top-level political divisions according to the Constitution of Russia.^[1] Since March 18, 2014, the Russian Federation constitutionally consists of 85 federal subjects.^[2] The two located on the Crimean Peninsula, Sevastopol and the Republic of Crimea, are not internationally recognized as part of Russia. Kaliningrad Oblast is the only federal subject geographically separated from the rest of the Russian Federation by other countries.

According to the Russian Constitution, the Russian Federation consists of republics, krais, oblasts, cities of federal importance, an autonomous oblast and autonomous okrugs, all of which are equal subjects of the Russian Federation.^[3] Three Russian cities of federal importance (Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Sevastopol) have a status of both city and separate federal subject which comprises other cities and towns (Zelenograd, Troitsk, Kronstadt, Kolpino, etc.) within each federal city—keeping older structures of postal addresses. In 1993 the Russian Federation comprised 89 federal subjects. By 2008, the number of federal subjects had decreased to 83 because of several mergers. In 2014 Sevastopol and the Republic of Crimea became the 84th and 85th federal subjects of Russia.^[4][5]

Every federal subject has its own head, a parliament, and a constitutional court. Each federal subject has its own constitution and legislation. Subjects have equal rights in relations with federal government bodies.^[6][7] The federal subjects have equal representation—two delegates each—in the Federation Council, the upper house of the Federal Assembly. They do, however, differ in the degree of autonomy they enjoy (asymmetric federalism).

Post-Soviet Russia formed during the history of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic within the USSR and did not change at the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. In 1992, during so-called "parade of sovereignties", separatist sentiments and the War of Laws within Russia, the Russian regions signed the Federation Treaty (Russian: Федеративный договор Federativny dogovor),^[8] establishing and regulating the current inner composition of Russia, based on the division of authorities and powers among Russian government bodies and government bodies of constituent entities. The Federation Treaty was included in the text of the 1978 Constitution of the Russian SFSR.^{[citation needed]} The current Constitution of Russia, adopted by national referendum on 12 December 1993, came into force on December 25, 1993 and abolished the model of the Soviet system of government introduced in 1918 by Vladimir Lenin and based on the right to secede from the country and on unlimited sovereignty of federal subjects (in practice secession was never allowed), which conflicts with the country's integrity and federal laws. The new constitution eliminated a number of legal conflicts, reserved the rights of the regions, introduced local self-government and did not grant the Soviet-era right to secede from the country. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the political system became de jure closer to other modern federal states with a republican form of government in the world.^{[citation needed]} In the 2000s, following the policy of Vladimir Putin and of the United Russia party (the dominant party in all federal subjects), the Russian parliament changed the distribution of tax revenues, reduced the number of elections in the regions and gave more power to the federal authorities.

Terminology[]

An official government translation of the Constitution of Russia in Article 5 states: "1. The Russian Federation shall consist of republics, krais, oblasts, cities of federal significance, an autonomous oblast and autonomous okrugs, which shall have equal rights as constituent entities of the Russian Federation."^[9]

Another translation of the Constitution of Russia gives for article 65: "The Russian Federation includes the following subjects of the Russian Federation:".^[10]

How to translate the Russian term was discussed during the 49th annual (2008) American Translators Association conference in Orlando, in which Tom Fennel, a freelance translator, argued that the term "constituent entity of the Russian Federation" should be preferred to "subject".^[11] This recommendation is also shared by Tamara Nekrasova, Head of Translation Department, Goltsblat BLP, who in her "Traps & Mishaps in Legal Translation" presentation in Paris stated that "constituent entity of the Russian Federation is more appropriate than subject of the Russian Federation (subject would be OK for a monarchy)".^[12]

Types[]

Each federal subject belongs to one of the following types:

List[]

Code	Name	Capital/Administrative centre[a]	Flag	Coat of arms	Type	Federal district	Economic region	Area (km2)[16]	Population [17]	Population density (/km2)	Year established
01	Adygea, Republic of	Maykop			republic	Southern	North Caucasus	7,600	447,109	58.83	1922
02	Bashkortostan, Republic of	Ufa			republic	Volga	Ural	143,600	4,104,336	28.58	1919
03	Buryatia, Republic of	Ulan-Ude			republic	Far Eastern	East Siberian	351,300	981,238	2.79	1923
04	Altai Republic	Gorno-Altaysk			republic	Siberian	West Siberian	92,600	202,947	2.19	1922
05	Dagestan, Republic of	Makhachkala			republic	North Caucasian	North Caucasus	50,300	2,576,531	51.22	1921
06	Ingushetia, Republic of	Magas (Largest city: Nazran)			republic	North Caucasian	North Caucasus	4,000	467,294	116.82	1992
07	Kabardino-Balkar Republic	Nalchik			republic	North Caucasian	North Caucasus	12,500	901,494	72.12	1936
08	Kalmykia, Republic of	Elista			republic	Southern	Volga	76,100	292,410	3.84	1957
09	Karachay-Cherkess Republic	Cherkessk			republic	North Caucasian	North Caucasus	14,100	439,470	31.17	1957
10	Karelia, Republic of	Petrozavodsk			republic	Northwestern	Northern	172,400	716,281	4.15	1956
11	Komi Republic	Syktyvkar			republic	Northwestern	Northern	415,900	1,018,674	2.45	1921
12	Mari El Republic	Yoshkar-Ola			republic	Volga	Volga-Vyatka	23,200	727,979	31.38	1920
13	Mordovia, Republic of	Saransk			republic	Volga	Volga-Vyatka	26,200	888,766	33.92	1930
14	Sakha (Yakutia) Republic	Yakutsk			republic	Far Eastern	Far Eastern	3,103,200	949,280	0.31	1922
15	North Ossetia-Alania, Republic of	Vladikavkaz			republic	North Caucasian	North Caucasus	8,000	710,275	88.78	1924
16	Tatarstan, Republic of	Kazan			republic	Volga	Volga	68,000	3,779,265	55.58	1920
17	Tuva Republic	Kyzyl			republic	Siberian	East Siberian	170,500	305,510	1.79	1944
18	Udmurt Republic	Izhevsk			republic	Volga	Ural	42,100	1,570,316	37.30	1920
19	Khakassia, Republic of	Abakan			republic	Siberian	East Siberian	61,900	546,072	8.82	1930
20	Chechen Republic	Grozny			republic	North Caucasian	North Caucasus	15,300	1,103,686	72.14	1991
21	Chuvash Republic	Cheboksary			republic	Volga	Volga-Vyatka	18,300	1,313,754	71.79	1920
22	Altai Krai	Barnaul			krai	Siberian	West Siberian	169,100	2,607,426	15.42	1937
23	Krasnodar Krai	Krasnodar			krai	Southern	North Caucasus	76,000	5,125,221	67.44	1937
24	Krasnoyarsk Krai	Krasnoyarsk			krai	Siberian	East Siberian	2,339,700	2,966,042	1.27	1934
25	Primorsky Krai	Vladivostok			krai	Far Eastern	Far Eastern	165,900	2,071,210	12.48	1938
26	Stavropol Krai	Stavropol			krai	North Caucasian	North Caucasus	66,500	2,735,139	41.13	1934
27	Khabarovsk Krai	Khabarovsk			krai	Far Eastern	Far Eastern	788,600	1,436,570	1.82	1938
28	Amur Oblast	Blagoveshchensk			oblast	Far Eastern	Far Eastern	363,700	902,844	2.48	1932
29	Arkhangelsk Oblast	Arkhangelsk			oblast	Northwestern	Northern	587,400	1,336,539	2.28	1937
30	Astrakhan Oblast	Astrakhan			oblast	Southern	Volga	44,100	1,005,276	22.80	1943
31	Belgorod Oblast	Belgorod			oblast	Central	Central Black Earth	27,100	1,511,620	55.78	1954
32	Bryansk Oblast	Bryansk			oblast	Central	Central	34,900	1,378,941	39.51	1944
33	Vladimir Oblast	Vladimir			oblast	Central	Central	29,000	1,523,990	52.55	1944
34	Volgograd Oblast	Volgograd			oblast	Southern	Volga	113,900	2,699,223	23.70	1937
35	Vologda Oblast	Vologda (Largest city: Cherepovets)			oblast	Northwestern	Northern	145,700	1,269,568	8.71	1937
36	Voronezh Oblast	Voronezh			oblast	Central	Central Black Earth	52,400	2,378,803	45.40	1934
37	Ivanovo Oblast	Ivanovo			oblast	Central	Central	21,800	1,148,329	52.68	1936
38	Irkutsk Oblast	Irkutsk			oblast	Siberian	East Siberian	767,900	2,581,705	3.36	1937
39	Kaliningrad Oblast	Kaliningrad			oblast	Northwestern	Kaliningrad	15,100	955,281	63.26	1946
40	Kaluga Oblast	Kaluga			oblast	Central	Central	29,900	1,041,641	34.84	1944
41	Kamchatka Krai	Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky			krai	Far Eastern	Far Eastern	472,300	358,801	0.76	2007
42	Kemerovo Oblast	Kemerovo			oblast	Siberian	West Siberian	95,500	2,899,142	30.36	1943
43	Kirov Oblast	Kirov			oblast	Volga	Volga-Vyatka	120,800	1,503,529	12.45	1934
44	Kostroma Oblast	Kostroma			oblast	Central	Central	60,100	736,641	12.26	1944
45	Kurgan Oblast	Kurgan			oblast	Ural	Ural	71,000	1,019,532	14.36	1943
46	Kursk Oblast	Kursk			oblast	Central	Central Black Earth	29,800	1,235,091	41.45	1934
47	Leningrad Oblast	Largest city: Gatchina[b]			oblast	Northwestern	Northwestern	84,500	1,669,205	19.75	1927
48	Lipetsk Oblast	Lipetsk			oblast	Central	Central Black Earth	24,100	1,213,499	50.35	1954
49	Magadan Oblast	Magadan			oblast	Far Eastern	Far Eastern	461,400	182,726	0.40	1953
50	Moscow Oblast	Largest city: Balashikha[c]			oblast	Central	Central	44,300[18]	6,618,538	149.40	1929
51	Murmansk Oblast	Murmansk			oblast	Northwestern	Northern	144,900	892,534	6.16	1938
52	Nizhny Novgorod Oblast	Nizhny Novgorod			oblast	Volga	Volga-Vyatka	76,900	3,524,028	45.83	1936
53	Novgorod Oblast	Veliky Novgorod			oblast	Northwestern	Northwestern	55,300	694,355	12.56	1944
54	Novosibirsk Oblast	Novosibirsk			oblast	Siberian	West Siberian	178,200	2,692,251	15.11	1937
55	Omsk Oblast	Omsk			oblast	Siberian	West Siberian	139,700	2,079,220	14.88	1934
56	Orenburg Oblast	Orenburg			oblast	Volga	Ural	124,000	2,179,551	17.58	1934
57	Oryol Oblast	Oryol			oblast	Central	Central	24,700	860,262	34.83	1937
58	Penza Oblast	Penza			oblast	Volga	Volga	43,200	1,452,941	33.63	1939
59	Perm Krai	Perm			krai	Volga	Ural	160,600	2,819,421	17.56	2005
60	Pskov Oblast	Pskov			oblast	Northwestern	Northwestern	55,300	760,810	13.76	1944
61	Rostov Oblast	Rostov-on-Don			oblast	Southern	North Caucasus	100,800	4,404,013	43.69	1937
62	Ryazan Oblast	Ryazan			oblast	Central	Central	39,600	1,227,910	31.01	1937
63	Samara Oblast	Samara			oblast	Volga	Volga	53,600	3,239,737	60.44	1928
64	Saratov Oblast	Saratov			oblast	Volga	Volga	100,200	2,668,310	26.63	1936
65	Sakhalin Oblast	Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk			oblast	Far Eastern	Far Eastern	87,100	546,695	6.28	1947
66	Sverdlovsk Oblast	Yekaterinburg			oblast	Ural	Ural	194,800	4,486,214	23.03	1935
67	Smolensk Oblast	Smolensk			oblast	Central	Central	49,800	1,049,574	21.08	1937
68	Tambov Oblast	Tambov			oblast	Central	Central Black Earth	34,300	1,178,443	34.36	1937
69	Tver Oblast	Tver			oblast	Central	Central	84,100	1,471,459	17.50	1935
70	Tomsk Oblast	Tomsk			oblast	Siberian	West Siberian	316,900	1,046,039	3.30	1944
71	Tula Oblast	Tula			oblast	Central	Central	25,700	1,675,758	65.20	1937
72	Tyumen Oblast	Tyumen			oblast	Ural	West Siberian	143,520	3,264,841	22.75	1944
73	Ulyanovsk Oblast	Ulyanovsk			oblast	Volga	Volga	37,300	1,382,811	37.07	1943
74	Chelyabinsk Oblast	Chelyabinsk			oblast	Ural	Ural	87,900	3,603,339	40.99	1934
75	Zabaykalsky Krai	Chita			krai	Far Eastern	East Siberian	431,500	1,155,346	2.68	2008
76	Yaroslavl Oblast	Yaroslavl			oblast	Central	Central	36,400	1,367,398	37.57	1936
77	Moscow	—			federal city	Central	Central	2,511	10,382,754	4,134.91	1147
78	Saint Petersburg	—			federal city	Northwestern	Northwestern	1,439	4,662,547	3,240.13	1703
79	Jewish Autonomous Oblast	Birobidzhan			autonomous oblast	Far Eastern	Far Eastern	36,000	190,915	5.30	1934
80	Nenets Autonomous Okrug	Naryan-Mar			autonomous okrug	Northwestern	Northern	176,700	41,546	0.24	1929
81	Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra	Khanty-Mansiysk (Largest city: Surgut)			autonomous okrug	Ural	West Siberian	523,100	1,432,817	2.74	1930
82	Chukotka Autonomous Okrug	Anadyr			autonomous okrug	Far Eastern	Far Eastern	737,700	53,824	0.07	1930
83	Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug	Salekhard (Largest city: Noyabrsk)			autonomous okrug	Ural	West Siberian	750,300	507,006	0.68	1930
84	Republic of Crimea[d]	Simferopol			republic	Southern[19][20]	North Caucasus	26,964[21]	1,966,801[22]	72.94	2014
85	Sevastopol[d]	—			federal city	Southern[19][20]	North Caucasus	864[23]	379,200[23]	438.89	2014

Statistics of federal subjects[]

• List of federal subjects of Russia by GRP
• Armorial of Russia (Coat of arms of Russian federal subjects)
• List of federal subjects of Russia by incidence of substance abuse
• List of federal subjects of Russia by GDP per capita
• List of federal subjects of Russia by murder rate
• List of federal subjects of Russia by life expectancy
• List of federal subjects of Russia by population
• List of federal subjects of Russia by total fertility rate
• List of federal subjects of Russia by Human Development Index
• List of federal subjects of Russia by unemployment rate
• Regional parliaments of Russia
• List of current heads of federal subjects of Russia
• Forest cover by federal subject in Russia
• ISO 3166-2:RU

Mergers, splits and internal territorial changes []

Map of the federal subjects of Russia highlighting those that merged in the first decade of the 21st century (in yellow), and those whose merger has been discussed in the same decade (in orange)

Starting in 2005, some of the federal subjects were merged into larger territories. In this process, six very sparsely populated subjects (comprising in total 0.3% of the population of Russia) were integrated into more populated subjects, with the hope that the economic development of those territories would benefit from the much larger means of their neighbours. The merging process was finished on 1 March 2008. No new mergers have been planned since March 2008. The six territories became "administrative-territorial regions with special status". They have large proportions of minorities, with Russians being a majority only in three of them. Four of those territories have a second official language in addition to Russian: Buryat (in two of the merged territories), Komi-Permian, Koryak. This is an exception: all the other official languages of Russia (other than Russian) are set by the Constitutions of its constituent Republics (Mordovia, Chechnya, Dagestan etc.). The status of the "administrative-territorial regions with special status" has been a subject of criticism because it does not appear in the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

In addition to those six territories that entirely ceased to be subjects of the Russian Federation and were downgraded to territories with special status, another three subjects have a status of subject but are simultaneously part of a more populated subject:

• Nenets Autonomous Okrug (2010 population of 42090) is a subject since 1993, but is also, according to its Constitution, a part of Arkhangelsk Oblast
• Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug obtained autonomy in 1977, but is simultaneously part of Tyumen Oblast
• Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug obtained the status of subject in 1992 (after obtaining autonomy in 1977), but is also part of Tyumen Oblast.

With an estimated population of 49348 as of 2018, Chukotka is currently the least populated subject of Russia that is not part of a more populated subject. It was separated from Magadan Oblast in 1993. Chukotka is one of the richest subjects of Russia (with a GRP per capita equivalent to that of Australia) and therefore does not fit in the pattern of merging a subject to benefit from the economic dynamism of the neighbour.

In 1992, Ingushetia separated from Chechnya, both to stay away from the growing violence in Chechnya and as a bid to obtain the Eastern part of Northern Ossetia (it did not work: the Chechen conflict spread violence to Ingushetia, and North Ossetia retained its Prigorodny District). Those two Muslim republics, populated in vast majority (95%+) by closely related Vainakh people, speaking Vainakhish languages, remain the two poorest subjects of Russia, with the GRP per capita of Ingushetia being equivalent to that of Iraq. According to 2016 statistics, however they are also the safest regions of Russia, and also have the lowest alcohol consumption, with alcohol poisoning at least 40 times lower than the national average.^[24][25]

Until 1994, Sokolsky District, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast was part of Ivanovo Oblast.

In 2011–2012, the territory of Moscow increased by 140% (to 2,511 km² (970 sq mi)) by acquiring part of Moscow Oblast.

On 13 May 2020, the governors of Arkhangelsk Oblast and Nenets Autonomous Okrug announced their plan to merge following the collapse of oil prices stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.^[26][27] The process was scrapped on 2 July due to its unpopularity among the population.^[28]

See also[]

• Subdivisions of Russia
• List of federal subjects of Russia by population
• Federal districts of Russia
• Economic regions of Russia
• History of the administrative division of Russia
• Flags of the federal subjects of Russia
• Armorial of Russia
• Republics of the Soviet Union
• Flags of the Soviet Republics

References[]

Notes[]

Sources[]

• 12 декабря 1993 г. «Конституция Российской Федерации», в ред. Федерального конституционного закона №7-ФКЗ от 30 декабря 2008 г. Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Российская газета", №237, 25 декабря 1993 г. (December 12, 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation, as amended by the Federal Constitutional Law #7-FKZ of December 30, 2008. Effective as of the official publication date.).