Western Ukraine Administrative divisions of the Ukrainian SSR

1 western ukraine

1.1 start of world war ii
1.2 german occupation
1.3 post world war ii

western ukraine

start of world war ii

after soviet invasion of poland , resulting annexation of eastern half soviet union. territorial administration preserved converting polish voivodeships soviet oblasts. thus, 6 new oblasts established in western ukraine on 4 december 1939:

volyn oblast (with centre in lutsk, western part of wolyn voivodeship)
rovno oblast (eastern part of wolyn voivodeship)
lviv oblast (northeastern part of lwow voivodeship , northern part of tarnopol voivodeship)
drohobych oblast (southeastern part of lwow voivodeship)
stanislaviv oblast (stanislawow voivodeship)
tarnopil oblast (southern part of wolyn voivodeship , of tarnopol voivodeship)

in late june 1940 soviet union annexed bessarabia , northern bukovina kingdom of romania. on 28th of june 1940, moldavian ssr, full union republic formed out of of bessarabia , moldavian assr ukraine gave up. in return gained northern bukovina province , southern budjak region bessarabia. new territories integrated ukraine on 7 august 1940, respectively:

akkerman oblast
chernivitsi oblast

the former renamed izmail oblast on 7 december 1940, , centre moved izmail. thus, in prelude of soviet union s entry world war ii, ukraine gained 8 new oblasts, combined fifteen existing previously, brought total twenty three.

german occupation

as red army liberated ukraine throughout 1943/1944, several changes made including complete reinstatement of existed oblasts prior world war ii. on 29 march 1944 city of chernivitsi renamed chernivtsi oblast. in similar fashion tarnopil became ternopil on 15 april 1944.

the liberation left german occupied zone in crimea , taurida. facilitate crimean offensive, on 30 march 1944, new twenty fourth oblast created in taurida:

kherson oblast

post world war ii

after war ended, carpathian ruthenia province of czechoslovakia passed ussr , on 21 january 1946, territory annexed ukraine the

zakarpattia oblast

during post-war rebuilding administrative division remained stable. political aftermath following death of stalin in 1953 brought number of re-organisation policies ukraine. already, on 7 january 1954, new entity created in central ukraine via donation of bordering raions neighbouring oblasts, called

cherkasy oblast

in prelude 300th anniversary of treaty of pereyaslavl on 4 february, city of proskuriv renamed khmelnytskyi, after historic cossack leader bohdan khmelnytskyi, along oblast. on 19 february izmail oblast disbanded , merged odessa oblast. however, arguably significant change in 1954 transfer of crimea russian sfsr, , ukraine gained the

crimean oblast

after political defeat of so-called anti-party group, consisting of famous politicians such vyacheslav molotov , lazar kaganovich, nationwide renaming campaign undertaken. ensure further disturbances of such manner avoided, in 1958 moscow passed decree not name object or locale in honour of living person, , on 5 march 1958, city of voroshylovhrad (bearing name of native, kliment voroshilov) renamed historical name of luhansk oblast.

drohobych oblast, being smallest in territory start, since creation has been continuously reduce in size, ceding 3 raions polish committee of national liberation in autumn 1944 (including city of peremyshl). raion (village of medyka) followed in may 1948, , losing further 480 km² of territory in 1951 people s republic of poland. rural oblast proving economically inefficient , disbanded , territory merged lviv oblast on 21 may 1959. latter last major change of internal borders of ukraine s administrative divisions until present day, oblast count stay stable @ twenty 5 right republic s independence in 1991.

minor changes continue nonetheless. 22nd congress of cpsu initiated cosmetic phase de-stalinization programme breaking joseph stalin s cult of personality. on 9 november 1961, city of staline renamed donetsk , oblast followed suit. year later, city , oblast of stanislaviv renamed ivano-frankivsk in honour of ukrainian writer , poet ivan franko. following death of kliment voroshilov in december 1969, city , oblast of luhansk once again became voroshylovhrad on 5 january 1970.

this arrangement enter stable phase right perestroika. on 4 may 1990 voroshylovhrad once again reverted luhansk, along oblast. on 11 june 1991, city of rovno renamed rivne, oblast too. however, significant change took place on 12 february 1991, when crimean oblast re-establish crimean autonomous soviet socialist republic, held part of russian sfsr until 18 may 1944, , declare sovereignty on 4 september.

the present administrative division of ukraine have retained soviet-time arrangement, though legal formalities such crimea s status autonomous republic , status of sevastopol settled in mid-1990s.