As a literal translation, the wordokruha means vicinity or neighborhood (sharing a root with the words "circle" and "around", a close equivalent is the German termBezirk). This level of subdivision is roughly equivalent to that of acounty,parish, orborough. Okruhas were first established in 1918 when the Polissia Okruha and Taurida Okruha were created as temporary territories of theUkrainian State of 1918.
First okruhas, created just before[clarification needed] 1918, werePolissia Okruha centered inMozyr andTaurida Okruha centered inBerdiansk. Okruhas were first introduced on a widespread scale on April 12, 1923, at the 2nd session of theCentral Executive Committee of Ukraine which accepted the declaration "About the administrative-territorial division of Ukraine". According to the declaration, theUkrainian SSR was divided into 53 okruhas that included 706 raions, thus replacing the imperial division consisting of 102povits (counties) that included 1989volosts.
September 25, 1923 Bohodukhiv Okruha changed name to Okhtyrka Okruha after transferring the okruha seat fromBohodukhiv toOkhtyrka
March 7, 1924 Moldavian Autonomous Oblast was created out of Balta Okruha and Odesa Okruha of Odesa Governorate and Tulchyn Okruha of Podolia Governorate centered in the city ofBalta[1]
June 6, 1924 Yuzivka Okruha changed name to Stalino Okruha after the okruha seat changed name from Yuzivka toStalino[2]
August 7, 1924 Lysavethrad Okruha changed name to Zinovievsk Okruha after the okruha seat changed name from Lysavethrad toZinovievsk[3]
August 12, 1924 Bakhmut Okruha changed name to Artemivsk Okruha after the okruha seat changed name from Bakhmut to Artemivsk
October 1, 1924 Tahanrih (Taganrog) Okruha and Shakhty Okruha were transferred to theRussian SFSR
June 3, 1925 the Ukrainian Central Executive Committee accepted the decision "About liquidation of governorates and transition to the three-level system of administration", according to which governorates were becoming liquidated on August 1, 1925, while June 15, 1925 eight (8) okruhas were to be liquidated as well. After the reform the Ukrainian SSR was divided into 41 okruhas and 680 raions.
August 19, 1925 Novhorod-Siverskyi Okruha changed name to Hlukhiv Okruha after transferring the okruha seat fromNovhorod-Siverskyi toHlukhiv
September 15, 1925 Zhytomyr Okruha was renamed to Volyn Okruha
October 16, 1925 out of theKursk Governorate to Ukraine were transferred several territories:
territory of the former Putivl uyezd (less Krupets volost)
Krinichanska volost of Graivoron uyezd
other two incomplete volosts of Graivoron and Belgorod uyezds
June 16, 1926 Pavlohrad Okruha was split between Kharkiv Okruha (Lozova Raion) and Katerynoslav Okruha
July 20, 1926 Katerynoslav Okruha changed name to Dnipropetrovsk Okruha after the okruha seat changed name from Katerynoslav to Dnipropetrovsk
1927 Cherkasy Okruha changed name to Shevchenko Okruha
Firstoblasts of Ukraine at the end of 1932 including recently created Donetsk and Chernihiv oblasts.
On August 5, 1930, the "News of Central Executive Committee of Ukraine"[5] reported that on August 3, 1930, there was a session of theCentral Executive Committee of Ukraine Presidium chaired byGrigory Petrovsky where a report byMykola Vasylenko on the liquidation of the system of okruhas was discussed. In the adopted resolution, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of Ukraine generally approved and endorsed the submitted projects from the government commission.
Likewise, the Presidium of Central Executive Committee of Ukraine generally approved the principle and order in the organization of local and central authorities. The Presidium requested that the commission and the Council of Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR, on the basis of the approved principles, develop a draft resolution on the liquidation of okruhas and the structure of authorities, both local and central, in connection with the transition to the rayon system.[6]
Ukrainian SSR
