Regions of Belarus

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]

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]

In Soviet Belarus, new administrative units, called voblast (a barbarised version of the Russian word область) were introduced in 1938.

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

Map

See also

• ISO 3166-2:BY, the ISO codes of the voblasts of Belarus.
• Towns of Belarus

References

External links

• Current Status of United Nations Romanization Systems for Geographical Names of Belarus

Links to related articles v t e First-level administrative divisions of Belarus Brest Gomel Grodno Minsk Minsk (city)1 Mogilev Vitebsk 1 A municipality ("horad") rather than a province ("voblast") [1] v t e First-level administrative divisions in Europe Sovereign states Albania Andorra Armenia2 Austria Azerbaijan3 Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus2 Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France1 Georgia3 Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kazakhstan2 Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Republic of Macedonia Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia1 San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain1 Sweden Switzerland Turkey1 Ukraine United Kingdom1 States with limited recognition Abkhazia3 Kosovo Northern Cyprus2 South Ossetia3 1 Has part of its territory outside Europe. 2 Considered European for cultural, political and historical reasons but is geographically in West Asia. 3 Partially or entirely in Asia, depending on the definition of the border. Table of administrative country subdivisions by country

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