Kharkiv Oblast

Kharkiv Oblast (Ukrainian: Харківська область, translit. Kharkivs’ka oblast’; also referred to as Kharkivshchyna – Ukrainian: Харківщина, Russian: Харьковская область, translit. Khar’kovskaya oblast’) is an oblast (province) in eastern Ukraine. The oblast borders Russia to the north, Luhansk Oblast to the east, Donetsk Oblast to the south-east, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to the south-west, Poltava Oblast to the west and Sumy Oblast to the north-west. The area of the oblast is 31,400 km², corresponding to 5.2% of the total territory of Ukraine.

The oblast is the third most populous province of Ukraine, with a population of 2,857,751 in 2004, more than half (1.5 million) of whom live in the city of Kharkiv, the oblast's administrative center. While the Russian language is primarily spoken in the cities of Kharkiv oblast, elsewhere in the oblast most inhabitants speak Ukrainian.

History

During the Soviet administrative reform of 1923–1929, in 1925, the Kharkov Governorate was abolished leaving its five okruhas: Okhtyrka (originally Bohodukhiv), Izyum, Kupyansk, Sumy, and Kharkiv. Introduced in the Soviet Union in 1923, a similar subdivisions existed in Ukraine back in 1918. In 1930 all okruhas were also abolished with raions becoming the first level of subdivision of Ukraine until 1932.

The modern Kharkiv oblast is a relatively recent creation, having been established on 27 February 1932. In summer of 1932 some parts of the oblast were included in the newly created Donetsk Oblast originally centered in Artemivsk (later in Stalino). In fall of the same year some territories of the Kharkiv Oblast were used in creation of Chernihiv Oblast. More territories became part of Poltava Oblast in fall of 1937 and Sumy Oblast in winter of 1939.

During the Holodomor the population of the Kharkiv Oblast together with Kiev Oblast suffered the most. The region saw major fighting during World War II in several Battles of Kharkov between 1941 and 1943.

During the 1991 referendum, 86.33% of votes in Kharkiv Oblast were in favor of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine. A survey conducted in December 2014 by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found 4.2% of the oblast's population supported their region joining Russia, 71.5% did not support the idea, and the rest were undecided or did not respond.^[3] A poll by Alexei Navalny also found little support for becoming part of Russia.^[4]

Points of interest

The following sites were nominated for the Seven Wonders of Ukraine.

Derzhprom Building
Pokrov monastery (Kharkiv)
Skovoroda museum

Demographics

Its population in 2001 was 2,895,800 million (1,328,900 males (45.9%) and 1,566,900 females (54.1%)).

At the 2001 census, the ethnic groups within the Kharkiv Oblast were:

Ukrainians – 70.7%,
Russians – 25.6%,
Belorussians – 0.5%
Jews – 0.4%,
Armenians – 0.4%,
Azeris – 0.2%,
Georgians – 0.15%,
Tatars – 0.14%,
others – 2.1%,;

the groups by native language:

Ukrainian 53.8%,
Russian 44.3%,
other languages 1.9%.

Age structure

0-14 years: 12.6%

(male 177,464/female 167,321)

15-64 years: 72.2%

(male 945,695/female 1,024,841)

65 years and over: 15.2%

(male 135,737/female 277,725) (2013 official)

Median age

total: 40.5 years

male: 36.9 years

female: 44.1 years

(2013 official)

Economy

The Kharkiv oblast has a primarily industrially based economy, including engineering, metallurgy, manufacturing, production of chemicals and food processing. It also has an important agricultural sector with 19,000 square kilometres of arable land (comprising 5.9% of the total arable lands of Ukraine). Agricultural production grew substantially in 2015.^[5]

Also in Kharkiv is the Airplane plant for space controlling systems. It is a major center for all branches of engineering, from large-scale manufacture to microelectronics. Also situated in Kharkiv Oblast is a gas field, which is one of the biggest in Ukraine.

Subdivisions

The Kharkiv Oblast is administratively subdivided into 27 raions (districts), as well as 7 cities (municipalities) which are directly subordinate to the oblast government: Chuhuiv, Izium, Kupiansk, Liubotyn, Lozova, Pervomaiskyi, and the administrative center of the oblast, Kharkiv.

Detailed map of Kharkiv Oblast.

Name	Ukrainian name	Area (km²)	Population census 2015^[2]	Admin.center	Urban Population Only
Kharkiv	Харків (місто)	350	1,449,674	Kharkiv (city)	1,449,674
Chuhuiv	Чугуїв (місто)	13	33,243	Chuhuiv (city)	32,401
Izium	Ізюм (місто)	44	49,822	Izium (city)	49,822
Kupiansk	Ку́п'янськ (місто)	33	56,704	Kupiansk (city)	56,704
Liubotyn	Люботин (місто)	31	24,442	Liubotyn (city)	21,619
Lozova	Лозова́ (місто)	18	65,950	Lozova (city)	64,269
Pervomaiskyi	Первомайський (місто)	15	30,616	Pervomaiskyi (city)	30,616
Balakliys'kyi raion	Балаклійський район	1,986	82,003	Balakliia	51,886
Barvinkivs'kyi raion	Барвінківський район	1,364	21,919	Barvinkove	9,057
Blyzniukivs'kyi raion	Близнюківський район	1,380	19,144	Blyzniuky	3,790
Bohodukhivs'kyi raion	Богодухівський район	1,160	39,182	Bohodukhiv	18,998
Borivs'kyi raion	Борівський район	875	16,938	Borova	5,624
Chuhuivs'kyi raion	Чугуївський район	1,148	46,579	Chuhuiv (city)	N/A *
Derhachivs'kyi raion	Дергачівський район	900	95,122	Derhachi	67,908
Dvorichans'kyi raion	Дворічанський район	1,112	17,775	Dvorichna	3,669
Iziums'kyi raion	Ізюмський район	1,553	17,382	Izium (city)	N/A *
Kehychivs'kyi raion	Кегичівський район	782	21,058	Kehychivka	8,799
Kharkivs'kyi raion	Харківський район	1,403	182,239	Kharkiv	N/A *
Kolomats'kyi raion	Коломацький район	330	7,099	Kolomak	2,919
Krasnohrads'kyi raion	Красноградський район	985	44,742	Krasnohrad	21,008
Krasnokuts'kyi raion	Краснокутський район	1,040	28,260	Krasnokutsk	8,895
Kupyans'kyi raion	Куп'янський район	1,280	24,769	Kupiansk (city)	N/A *
Lozivs'kyi raion	Лозівський район	1,403	29,139	Lozova (city)	N/A *
Novovodolaz'kyi raion	Нововодолазький район	1,182	33,175	Nova Vodolaha	11,850
Pecheniz'kyi raion	Печенізький район	467	10,113	Pechenihy	5,340
Pervomais'kyi raion	Первомайський район	1,225	16,027	Pervomaiskyi (city)	N/A *
Sakhnovshchyns'kyi raion	Сахновщинський район	1,170	21,377	Sakhnovshchyna	7,333
Shevchenkivs'kyi raion	Шевченківський район	977	20,480	Shevchenkove	6,957
Valkivs'kyi raion	Валківський район	1,011	31,897	Valky	14,174
Velykoburluts'kyi raion	Великобурлуцький район	1,221	22,541	Velykyi Burluk	6,049
Vovchans'kyi raion	Вовчанський район	1,888	47,172	Vovchansk	28,143
Zachepylivs'kyi raion	Зачепилівський район	794	15,329	Zachepylivka	3,642
Zmiyivs'kyi raion	Зміївський район	1,365	71,887	Zmiiv	33,366
Zolochivs'kyi raion	Золочівський район	969	26,543	Zolochiv	8,916

Note: Asterisks (*) Though the administrative center of the rayon is housed in the city/town that its named after, cities do not answer to the rayon authorities only towns do; instead they are directly subordinated to the oblast government and therefore are not counted as part of rayon statistics.

Nomenclature

Most of Ukraine's oblasts are named after their capital cities, officially referred to as "oblast centers" (Ukrainian: обласний центр, translit. oblasnyi tsentr). The name of each oblast is a relative adjective, formed by adding a feminine suffix to the name of respective center city: Kharkiv is the center of the Kharkivs’ka oblast’ (Kharkiv Oblast). Most oblasts are also sometimes referred to in a feminine noun form, following the convention of traditional regional place names, ending with the suffix "-shchyna", as is the case with the Kharkiv Oblast, Kharkivshchyna.

Sport

It has a regional federation within Ukrainian Bandy and Rink bandy Federation.

Notes

↑ "President introduced new Kharkiv RSA Head Ihor Rainin". president.gov.ua. 3 February 2015.
1 2 "Population Quantity". UkrStat (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 7 January 2016.
↑ "Лише 3% українців хочуть приєднання їх області до Росії" [Only 3% of Ukrainians want their region to become part of Russia]. Dzerkalo Tyzhnia (in Ukrainian). 3 January 2015.
↑ Navalny, Alexei (23 September 2014). "Соцопрос ФБК по Харьковской и Одесской областям. Европа, Россия, Новороссия" [Survey of Kharkov and Odessa Oblasts] (in Russian). navalny.com. Archived from the original on 23 September 2014.
↑ (Russian) Agriculture in 2015: results SQ News (13 February 2016)

External links

Administrative divisions of Kharkiv Oblast

Administrative center: Kharkiv

Raions

Cities

Regional	Chuhuiv Izium Kharkiv Kupiansk Lozova Liubotyn Pervomaiskyi

District	Balakliia Barvinkove Bohodukhiv Derhachi Krasnohrad Merefa Pivdenne Valky Vovchansk Zmiiv

Urban-type settlements
Category:Kharkiv Oblast

Administrative divisions of Ukraine

Capital: Kiev

Oblasts	Cherkasy Chernihiv Chernivtsi Dnipropetrovsk Donetsk Ivano-Frankivsk Kharkiv Kherson Khmelnytskyi Kiev Kirovohrad Luhansk Lviv Mykolaiv Odessa Poltava Rivne Sumy Ternopil Vinnytsia Volyn Zakarpattia Zaporizhia Zhytomyr

Cities with special status	Kiev Sevastopol¹

Autonomous republic	Crimea¹

Administrative centers	Cherkasy Chernihiv Chernivtsi Dnipropetrovsk Donetsk Ivano-Frankivsk Kharkiv Kherson Khmelnytskyi Kiev Kirovohrad Luhansk Lutsk Lviv Mykolaiv Odessa Poltava Rivne Sevastopol Simferopol Sumy Ternopil Uzhhorod Vinnytsia Zaporizhia Zhytomyr

¹Claimed and controlled by Russia as the Republic of Crimea and the Federal City of Sevastopol

Authority control	GND: 4466357-2

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