Regions of Belarus

Belarus

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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]

Contents

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

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:

See also

References

  1. ^ Belarus Regions
  2. ^ Minsk summary, at the website of the Belarus embassy in Russia.
  3. ^ a b Kratkaya Geograficheskaya Entsiklopediya, Moscow, 1960. History of Soviet Beylorussian Oblasts
  4. ^ Official population estimations 01-01-2009

External links