volost

plural volosts · plural volosti · alternative obsolete vollost

1. historicalA traditional administrative subdivision in Eastern Europe.

   Coordinate term: raion (modern Russia)

   4 more examples

   Next to the village stands the volost, or union of several villages, and this also is governed on the republican plan by elders elected from among the peasants themselves. Then comes the district composed of a number of volosti; […]

   1882 June 1, “The Czar’s Surrender. Melikoff [i.e., Mikhail Loris-Melikov]’s Remarkable Programme of Political Change for Russia.”, in The Sun, volume XLIX, number 274, New York, N.Y., →ISSN, →OCLC, page [4], column 1

   The office-holders and agencies which ran the new units – the elder, the clerk, the executive board, the assembly, the court – were elected by the peasants whom they served, but it is only with considerable reservation that volosti can be said to have increased the representative character of the imperial polity.

   1992, David Saunders, “Local government”, in Russia in the Age of Reaction and Reform 1801–1881 (Longman History of Russia), London; New York, N.Y.: Longman, →ISBN, chapter 9 (In the Wake of Emancipation), page 256

   “They will slaughter each other—Armenians against Azeris, Turks against Armenians, mountain peoples against Turks, Afghans against Tajiks, Tajiks against Uzbeks and so on,” said Mr. Zhirinovsky, whose party looks set to take about a fifth of the seats in Russia’s new parliament following Sunday’s elections. “And then they—or rather, those who are still alive—will come rushing to ask Russia to accept them as volosti (rural districts) or provinces,” he said.

   1993 December 16, Reuter, “‘We must provoke wars’: [Vladimir] Zhirinovsky”, in The Hamilton Spectator, Hamilton, Ont., →ISSN, →OCLC, page A3, column 5

   In 1923 Soviet Ukraine’s 102 povity were replaced by 53 larger okruhy (sing. okruha), and its 1,989 volosti by 706 raions.

   2007, John D. Pihach, “Locating the Ancestral Home” (chapter 7, pages 83–123), in Ukrainian Genealogy: A Beginner’s Guide (paperback), Edmonton · Toronto: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, →ISBN, Administrative Divisions (pages 88–96), Soviet Ukraine (pages 95–96), page 95