During its existence from 1919 to 1991, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic consisted of many administrative divisions. Itself part of a highly centralized state, sub-national divisions in the Ukrainian SSR were subordinate to higher executive authorities and devolved their power from them. Throughout the Ukrainian SSR's history, other national subdivisions were established in the republic, including guberniyas and okrugs, before finally being reorganized into their present structure as oblasts. At the time of the Ukrainian SSR's independence from the Soviet Union, the country was compromised of 25 oblasts (provinces) and two cities with special status, Kiev, the capital, and Sevastopol, respectively.
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Until the Riga Peace Treaty with Poland on 18 March 1921 the Ukrainian SSR had the governotorial administrative division of Imperial Russia and consisted of ten guberniyas. That administrative division was confirmed during the establishment of the Ukrainian State in 1918 when the Red Army withdrew from Ukraine following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Central Powers.
In 1920-1921 series of territorial changes took place as well as changing in administrative division.
On March 7, 1923 uyezds were reorganized as okrugs within governorates. Later governorates were abolished and from 1925 to 1932 okrugs served as a primary administrative-territorial unit in Ukraine along with one autonomous republic.
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In 1924 cities of Yuzivka and Yelyzavethrad were renamed into Staline and Zinov'ivsk, respectively. On October 1, 1924 parts of Tahanroh and Shakhty okrugs of Donetsk Governorate were transferred to the Russian SFSR. Around this time Bakhmut okrug was renamed into Artemivsk, Bohodukhiv into Okhtyrka, Malyn okrug of Kyiv Governorate was dissolved.
Initially organized as an autonomous oblast on 12 October 1924 the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created out of parts of Podolie Governorate (part of Tulchyn okrug) and Odessa Governorate (whole Balta okrug and part of Odessa okrug) as part of the Ukrainian SSR. The new republic was divided into 10 raions.
Until the formation of the Crimean Autonomous SSR in October 1921 the administrative-territorial division of the peninsula included 10 uyezds. After the first reform Crimea was divided into seven orkugs with 20 raions, but then in November 1923 okrug administrative division system was abolished.
On 1 August 1925 the gubernial administrative division was abolished as an obsolete. Also about 10 okrugs were dissolved and merged. Practically every governorate except one of Donetsk had at least one okrug disestablished: Zaporizhia - Berdyansk, Podillya - Haisyn, Poltava - Zolotonosha and Krasnohrad, Volyn - Novohrad-Volynsky, Chernihiv - Novhorod-Siversky and Snovsk, Katerynoslav - Oleksandria, Kharkiv - Okhtyrka, Kiev - Korsun (Shevchenko). On August 10, 1925 the Hlukhiv okrug was created.
On October 16, 1925 some territories of several uyezds Kursk Governorate were transferred to the Ukrainian SSR: most of the former Putyvl uyezd (less Krupitsk volost), Krenychan volost along with Myropillya city (today's village) of Graivoron uyezd, and two additional partial volosts from each Graivoron and Belgorod uyezds.
On July 20, 1926 Pavlohrad and Katerynoslav okrugs were merged into new Dnipropetrovsk okrug with the renaming of the administrative center from Katerynoslav to Dnipropetrovsk. Around that time few more change of names occurred: Zhytomyr okrug was renamed into Volyn, and Cherkasy into Shevchenko.
On September 2, 1930 system of okrugs were abolished and the Ukrainian SSR was divided into 484 raions.
The raion system proved very difficult to administer wholly, and on February 27, 1932 they were grouped into five oblasts, though Moldovian ASSR was kept:
The latter two, were soon partitioned in same year to create the following two oblasts:
It was during this configuration, that Ukraine underwent the first two five year plans, (a consequence of which was the catastrophic Holodomor famine in 1933), and the collectivization and industrialization that they brought. In 1934 the capital moved to Kiev, and on 30th of January 1931, the Supreme Rada of the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic adopted its version of the 1936 Soviet Constitution creating the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. To meet the economic and social demands, a restructure in the administrative division was initiated, and 22 September 1937 four more oblasts were added to the existing seven.
As Donbas continued to grow both industrially and in population, on 3 July 1938, the Donetsk Oblast was effectively split into two:
In a further re-structure 10 January 1939 the twelve existing oblasts and one republic were joined by a further three:
After the Soviet invasion of Poland and the resulting annexation of Eastern Poland by the USSR, six new oblasts were established in Western Ukraine on 4 December 1939:
In late June 1940 the Soviet Union annexed Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina from Romania. On the 28th of June 1940, the Ukrainian SSR transferred most of the Moldovian ASSR to Bessarabia creating the Moldovian SSR, a new Union Republic. In return it gained the souther Budjak region, and Northern Bukovina where on 7 August 1940, were created, respectively:
The latter on 7 December 1940 was renamed to Izmail Oblast, and the centre moved to Izmail. Thus, in the prelude of Soviet Union's entry to WWII, Ukraine gained eight new Oblasts, which combined with the fifteen existing previously, brought a total to twenty three.
As the Red Army liberated Ukraine throughout 1943/1944, several changes were made. On 29 March 1944 the city of Chernivitsi was renamed to Chernivtsi as was the oblast. In a similar fashion Tarnopil became Ternopil on 15 April 1944.
The liberation left a German occupied zone in Crimea and Taurida. To facilitate the Crimean Offensive, on 30th of March 1944, a new twenty fourth oblast was created in Taurida:
After the war ended, the USSR also gained the Carpathian Ruthenia from Czechoslovakia and on 21 January 1946, the territory was annexed to the Ukrainian SSR as the
During the post-war rebuilding the administrative division remained stable. However the political aftermath following Death of Stalin in 1953 brought a number of re-organisation policies into Ukraine. Already, on 7 January 1954, donating bordering raions from neighbouring oblasts created the
Due to the historic significance, in the prelude to the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslavl on 4 February, the city of Proskuriv was renamed to Khmelnytskyi, after the historic Cossack leader Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, along with the oblast. On 19 February the Izmail Oblast was disbanded and merged with the Odessa Oblast. However, arguably the significant change in 1954 was the transfer of Crimea from the Russian SFSR, and thus Ukraine gained the
After the political defeat of the so-called Anti-Party Group, consisting of famous politicians such as Vyacheslav Molotov and Lazar Kaganovich, a nationwide renaming campaign was undertaken. To insure against further disturbances of such manner, Moscow passed a decree in early 1958 not to name any object or locale in honour of a living person, and on 5 March 1958, the city of Voroshylovhrad (bearing the name of its native, Kliment Voroshilov) was renamed to its historical name of Luhansk as was the oblast.
The largely rural Drohobych Oblast, being a smallest in territory from the start, since its creation has been continuously reduce in size, ceding three raions to Poland in autumn 1944 (including the city of Peremyshl) another raion (village of Medyka) in may 1948, and losing a further 480 km2 of territory in 1951 was also proving to be economically inefficient and was thus disbanded and merged with the Lviv Oblast on 21 May 1959. The latter would be the last major change of internal borders of Ukraine's administrative divisions up until till present day, the Oblast count would stay stable at twenty five all right up to the republic's independence in 1991.
Minor changes would continue nonetheless. The 22nd Congress of the CPSU initiated a cosmetic face to the De-Stalinization programme by breaking Joseph Stalin's cult of personality. On 9 November 1961, the city of Staline was renamed to Donetsk and the oblast followed suit. Exactly a year later, the city and oblast of Stanislaviv was renamed to Ivano-Frankivsk in honour of the Ukrainian writer and poet Ivan Franko. Following the death of Kliment Voroshilov in December 1969, the city and oblast of Luhansk became Voroshylovhrad once more on 5 January 1970.
This arrangement would enter a stable phase right into the perestroika. On 4 May, 1990 Voroshylovhrad would be once again reverted to Luhansk, along with the oblast. On 11 June 1991, the city of Rovno was renamed to Rivne, the oblast too. However, the most significant change took place on 12 February 1991, when the Crimean Oblast would re-establish as the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which it held as part of the Russian SFSR until 18 May 1944, and would declare sovereignty on 4 September.
The present Administrative division of Ukraine remained stable since, though legal formalities such as the Crimea's status as an Autonomous republic and the status of Sevastopol would be settled in the mid-1990s.