Editing Selsoviet

{{Refimprove|date=May 2025}}
{{Short description|Rural council in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine}}
A '''selsoviet''' ({{langx|be|сельсавет|sieł'saviet}}; {{langx|ru|сельсовет|sel'sovet}}, {{IPA|ru|sʲɪlʲsɐˈvʲet|IPA}}; {{langx|uk|сільрада|sil'rada}}) is the shortened name for '''Selsky soviet''', i.e., '''rural council''' ({{langx|be|се́льскi саве́т}}; {{langx|ru|се́льский сове́т}}; {{langx|uk|сільська́ ра́да}}). It has three closely related meanings: 
*The administration (''[[soviet (council)|soviet]]'') of a certain rural area.
*The territorial subdivision administered by such a council.
*The building of the selsoviet administration.

Selsoviets were the lowest level of administrative division in rural areas in the [[Soviet Union]]. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, they were preserved as a third tier of administrative-territorial division throughout [[Ukraine]], [[Belarus]], and many of the [[federal subjects of Russia]].

A selsoviet is a rural administrative division of a [[raion]] (district) that includes one or several smaller rural localities and is in a subordination to its respective raion administration.

The name refers to the local rural self-administration, the rural [[soviet (council)]], a part of the Soviet system of administration. The head of a selsoviet is called chairman, who had to be appointed by higher administration.

==Soviet Union==

A December 24, 1917 decree of [[Sovnarkom]] initiated the reform of the administrative division inherited from the [[Russian Empire]] by which all local power must belong to [[soviet (council)|soviet]]s of the corresponding level of hierarchy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://istmat.org/node/28283|title=№ 179. Об организации местного самоуправления. {{!}} Проект «Исторические Материалы»|website=istmat.info|access-date=2021-11-28|archive-date=2021-11-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128185034/http://istmat.info/node/28283}}</ref> The reform was finalized in 1924.<ref name=su1924/>

For a considerable period of Soviet history, [[Propiska in the Soviet Union|passports]] of rural residents were stored in selsoviet offices, and people could not move outside their area of residence without the permission of selsoviet.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://historyrussia.org/tsekh-istorikov/sozdanie-sistemy-kontrolya-nad-naseleniem-v-sssr-pasport-kak-klassovaya-sushchnost.html |title=Создание системы контроля над населением в СССР. Паспорт как классовая сущность |access-date=2022-01-31 |archive-date=2022-01-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220131104121/https://historyrussia.org/tsekh-istorikov/sozdanie-sistemy-kontrolya-nad-naseleniem-v-sssr-pasport-kak-klassovaya-sushchnost.html}}</ref><ref name="автоссылка1">{{Cite web |url=https://magazines.gorky.media/novyi_mi/1996/6/pasportnaya-sistema-sovetskogo-krepostnichestva.html |title=В. Попов. Паспортная система советского крепостничества |access-date=2022-01-31 |archive-date=2021-06-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605142806/https://magazines.gorky.media/novyi_mi/1996/6/pasportnaya-sistema-sovetskogo-krepostnichestva.html}}</ref>

==Belarus==
[[File:All administrative divisions of Belarus april 2025.png|thumb|All administrative divisions of Belarus, April 2025]]
[[Rural councils of Belarus]] are subordinated to  [[districts of Belarus]]. If a rural council includes [[agrotown (Belarus)|agrotown]]s, then one of them is the [[administrative center]] of the rural council, with some exceptions.<ref name=law>{{Cite web |url=http://www.levonevski.net/pravo/razdel2/num6/2d686.html |title=Закон Республики Беларусь от 5 мая 1998 г. №154-З "Об административно-территориальном делении и порядке решения вопросов административно-территориального устройства Республики Беларусь" |access-date=2016-10-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100616052842/http://levonevski.net/pravo/razdel2/num6/2d686.html |archive-date=2010-06-16 |url-status=dead |lang=ru}}</ref>

The system was introduced in 1924, when the whole [[Soviet Union]] replaced its administrative division inherited from the [[Russian Empire]].<ref name=su1924>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160820124643/http://bargu.by/1744-rayonirovanie-administrativno-territorialnoe-delenie-strany.html РАЙОНИРОВАНИЕ. АДМИНИСТРАТИВНО-ТЕРРИТОРИАЛЬНОЕ ДЕЛЕНИЕ СТРАНЫ.]</ref>

==Russia==
Division into selsoviets as administrative-territorial units remained after the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in many of the [[federal subjects of Russia]].

In modern Russia, a selsoviet is a [[subdivisions of Russia#Administrative divisions|type of an administrative division]] of a [[raion|district]] in a federal subject of Russia, which is equal in status to a [[town of district significance]] or an [[urban-type settlement of district significance]], but is organized around a [[types of inhabited localities in Russia|rural locality]] (as opposed to a town or an [[urban-type settlement]]). In some federal subjects, selsoviets were replaced with [[subdivisions of Russia#Municipal divisions|municipal rural settlements]], which, in turn, were granted status of administrative-territorial units.

Prior to the adoption of the 1993 [[Constitution of Russia]], this type of administrative division had a uniform definition on the whole territory of the [[Russian SFSR]]. After the adoption of the 1993 Constitution, the administrative-territorial structure of the federal subjects is no longer identified as the responsibility of the federal government or as the joint responsibility of the federal government and the federal subjects.<ref name="ConstLawDict">"Энциклопедический словарь конституционного права". Статья "Административно-территориальное устройство". Сост. А.&nbsp;А.&nbsp;Избранов.&nbsp;— Мн.: Изд. В.М. Суров, 2001.</ref> This state of the matters is traditionally interpreted by the governments of the federal subjects as a sign that the matters of the administrative-territorial divisions are the sole responsibility of the federal subjects themselves.<ref name="ConstLawDict" /> As a result, the modern administrative-territorial structures of the federal subjects vary significantly from one federal subject to another; that includes the manner in which the selsoviets are organized and the choice of a term to refer to such entities.

As of 2013, the following types of such entities are recognized:
*'''Inhabited locality''' ({{lang|ru|населённый пункт}}): in [[Krasnoyarsk Krai]] (together with selsoviets)
*'''Rural administration''' ({{lang|ru|сельская администрация}}): in the [[Republic of Kalmykia]] and in [[Tula Oblast]] (together with rural okrugs, rural territories, and volosts)
*'''Rural administrative okrug''' ({{lang|ru|сельский административный округ}}): in [[Bryansk Oblast]]
*'''Rural okrug''' ({{lang|ru|сельский округ}}): in the [[Mari El Republic]], the [[Republic of North Ossetia–Alania]], and the [[Sakha Republic]]; in [[Krasnodar Krai]] (together with stanitsa okrugs); in [[Belgorod Oblast|Belgorod]], [[Kaliningrad Oblast|Kaliningrad]], [[Kirov Oblast|Kirov]], [[Omsk Oblast|Omsk]], [[Ryazan Oblast|Ryazan]], Tula (together with rural administrations, rural territories, and volosts), [[Tyumen Oblast|Tyumen]], [[Ulyanovsk Oblast|Ulyanovsk]], and [[Yaroslavl Oblast]]s
*'''Rural settlement''' ({{lang|ru|сельское поселение}}): in the [[Altai Republic|Altai]] and the [[Chuvash Republic]]s; in [[Amur Oblast|Amur]], [[Moscow Oblast|Moscow]], [[Rostov Oblast|Rostov]], [[Smolensk Oblast|Smolensk]], [[Tver Oblast|Tver]], and [[Voronezh Oblast]]s
*'''Rural territory''' ({{lang|ru|сельская территория}}): in [[Kemerovo Oblast]] and Tula Oblast (together with rural administrations, rural okrugs, and volosts)
*'''Rural-type settlement administrative territory''' ({{lang|ru|административная территория&nbsp;– посёлок сельского типа}}): in the [[Komi Republic]] (together with selo administrative territories)
*'''Selo administrative territory''' ({{lang|ru|административная территория&nbsp;– село}}): in the Komi Republic (together with rural-type settlement administrative territories)
*'''Selsoviet''' ({{lang|ru|сельсовет}}): in the [[Republic of Bashkortostan|Republics of Bashkortostan]], [[Republic of Buryatia|Buryatia]] (together with somons), [[Republic of Dagestan|Dagestan]], [[Republic of Khakassia|Khakassia]] (together with settlement councils), [[Republic of Mordovia|Mordovia]], and the [[Udmurt Republic]]; in [[Altai Krai|Altai]] (together with settlement administrations), Krasnoyarsk (together with inhabited localities), and [[Stavropol Krai]]s; in [[Arkhangelsk Oblast|Arkhangelsk]], [[Astrakhan Oblast|Astrakhan]], [[Chelyabinsk Oblast|Chelyabinsk]], [[Kurgan Oblast|Kurgan]], [[Kursk Oblast|Kursk]], [[Lipetsk Oblast|Lipetsk]], [[Nizhny Novgorod Oblast|Nizhny Novgorod]], [[Orenburg Oblast|Orenburg]] (together with settlement councils), [[Oryol Oblast|Oryol]], [[Penza Oblast|Penza]], [[Tambov Oblast|Tambov]], [[Volgograd Oblast|Volgograd]], and [[Vologda Oblast]]s; in [[Nenets Autonomous Okrug]] (together with settlements)
*'''Settlement''' ({{lang|ru|поселение}}): in [[Kostroma Oblast|Kostroma]] and [[Novgorod Oblast]]s
*'''Settlement''' ({{lang|ru|посёлок}}): in Nenets Autonomous Okrug (together with selsoviets)
*'''Settlement administration''' ({{lang|ru|поселковая администрация}}): in Altai Krai (together with selsoviets)
*'''Settlement council''' ({{lang|ru|поссовет}}): in the Republic of Khakassia (together with selsoviets) and in Orenburg Oblast (together with selsoviets)
*'''Settlement municipal formation''' ({{lang|ru|муниципальное образование со статусом поселения}}): in [[Leningrad Oblast]]
*'''Somon''' ({{lang|ru|сомон}}): in the Republic of Buryatia (together with selsoviets)
*'''Sumon''' ({{lang|ru|сумон}}): in the [[Republic of Tuva]]
*'''Stanitsa okrug''' ({{lang|ru|станичный округ}}): in Krasnodar Krai (together with rural okrugs)
*'''Territorial okrug''' ({{lang|ru|территориальный округ}}): in [[Murmansk Oblast]]
*'''[[Volost]]''' ({{lang|ru|волость}}): in [[Pskov Oblast]] and Tula Oblast (together with rural administrations, rural okrugs, and rural territories)

==Ukraine==
Selsoviets ({{langx|uk|сiльрада}}, ''silrada'') were replaced with ''[[hromada]]s'' by the administrative reform of 2020.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=|title=Те, чого ніколи не було в Україні: Уряд затвердив адмінтерустрій базового рівня, що забезпечить повсюдність місцевого самоврядування|trans-title=That which never existed in Ukraine: The Cabinet of Ministers established the basic level of administrative division which will ensure ubiquity of local governance|url=https://decentralization.gov.ua/admin/articles/12533.html|access-date=2021-03-24|website=decentralization.gov.ua|lang=uk}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Municipal council]]
*[[Rural councils of Belarus]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Slavic terms for country subdivisions}}
[[Category:Types of administrative division]]
[[Category:Political divisions of Russia]]
[[Category:Russian-language designations of territorial entities]]
[[Category:Soviets of the Soviet Union]]