Regions of Belarus
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At the top level of administration, the Eastern European country of Belarus is divided into six voblasts (meaning "provinces" or "regions") and the city of Minsk,[1] which has a special status being the capital of Belarus. Minsk is also the capital of Minsk Region.[2]
At the second level, the voblasts are divided into raions ("districts").
The layout and extent of the voblasts were set in 1960 when Belarus (then Byelorussian SSR) was a part of the Soviet Union.[3]
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[edit] Map
| No. | Subdivision | Capital | Belarusian | Population (01.01.2009 est.)[4] |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minsk (capital) | Мiнск | 1,829,100 | ||
| 2 | Brest Region | Brest | Брэсцкая вобласць | 1,433,100 | |
| 3 | Gomel Region | Gomel | Гомельская вобласць | 1,464,500 | |
| 4 | Grodno Region | Hrodna | Гродзенская вобласць | 1,102,800 | |
| 5 | Mogilev Region | Mogilev | Магілёўская вобласць | 1,123,100 | |
| 6 | Minsk Region | Minsk | Мiнская вобласць | 1,454,000 | |
| 7 | Vitebsk Region | Vitebsk | Вiцебская вобласць | 1,265,300 |
[edit] History
At the start of the 20th century, the boundaries of the Belarusian lands within the Russian Empire were still being defined. The amount of territory that was called Belarus contained the entire Minsk Governorate and Mogilev Governorate, the majority of Hrodna Governorate, parts of Vitebsk Governorate and the parts of Vilna Governorate (the latter is now in Lithuania).[3]
Under Soviet occupation, new administrative units, called voblast (a barbarised version of the Russian word область) were introduced.
At different times, the following voblasts did exist:
- Babruysk Voblast
- Baranavichy Voblast
- Belastok Voblast
- Maladzyechna Voblast
- Navahrudak Voblast
- Pinsk Voblast
- Polatsk Voblast
- Polesia Voblast
- Vileyka Voblast
[edit] See also
- ISO 3166-2:BY, the ISO codes of the voblasts of Belarus.
- Towns of Belarus
[edit] References
- ^ Belarus Regions
- ^ Minsk summary, at the website of the Belarus embassy in Russia.
- ^ a b Kratkaya Geograficheskaya Entsiklopediya, Moscow, 1960. History of Soviet Beylorussian Oblasts
- ^ Official population estimations 01-01-2009
[edit] External links
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