Okrugs

Okrug (Russian: округ) is a term used in several Slavic-language contexts to designate a territorial-administrative unit. The exact meaning and legal status of an okrug vary by country and level of government, but it generally refers to a subdivision within a larger region or state. The word is employed in different forms across the post-Soviet space and in some other countries, often with historical roots in centralized administrative structures.

In Russia, okrug has several distinct meanings. An Autonomous Okrug (avtonomnyy okrug) is a federal subject that is typically located within a larger region such as an oblast or krai and has its own government and constitution, often with a substantial indigenous population. An Administrative Okrug (administrativnyy okrug) is a top-level city subdivision used in large urban areas, most prominently in Moscow, where it functions as an administrative unit within the city rather than a separate federal subject. In addition, the term can appear in regional contexts to denote intermediary administrative divisions or organizational units within a federal subject. The word is also used in the electoral sense to denote districts or constituencies (okrug) for elections to legislative bodies.

Outside Russia, variations of the term appear in other countries’ legal and administrative vocabularies, reflecting shared historical influences from the Russian imperial and Soviet periods. In practice, the powers, boundaries, and purposes of okrugs are defined by national or local law, and the same word can denote substantially different units in different jurisdictions.

Okrugs are commonly encountered in government documents, statistics, and cartography, where they indicate organized territorial divisions within larger political entities.