Voblast (country subdivision)

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Voblast (вобласць in modern Belarusian or vobłaść in Lacinka) is the major administrative subdivision in Belarus. It used to be translated as "province" or "region" in English. The latter may lead to some confusion, because the minor administrative division of Belarus is called rayon (the word is translated as "district" in the administrative division sense and "region" in other senses).

[edit] History

The current subdivision into voblasts is inherited from the subdivision of Belarus when it was part of the USSR, and the name is the Belarusian word for the Russian oblast.