Classification of inhabited localities in Russia


The classification system of inhabited localities in Russia and some other post-Soviet states has certain peculiarities compared with those in other countries.

Classes

During the Soviet time, each of the republics of the Soviet Union, including the Russian SFSR, had its own legislative documents dealing with classification of inhabited localities. After the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, the task of developing and maintaining such classification in Russia was delegated to the federal subjects. While currently there are certain peculiarities to classifications used in many federal subjects, they are all still largely based on the system used in the RSFSR. In all federal subjects, the inhabited localities are classified into two major categories: urban and rural. Further divisions of these categories vary slightly from one federal subject to another, but they all follow common trends described below.

Urban

  • Cities and towns. Cities and towns are classified by their level of jurisdiction. The Russian language has no separate words for "town" and "city".
  • Urban-type settlements is a type of smaller urban locality. This type of urban locality was first introduced in the Soviet Union in 1924, with the following subcategories:
  • *Urban-type settlement proper—mostly urban population of 3,000–12,000.
  • ** Workers' settlement —mostly urban population occupied in industrial manufacture.
  • **Suburban settlement —typically, a suburban settlement with summer dachas.
  • **Resort settlement —mostly urban population occupied in services to holidaymakers.
  • ** Shift settlements for shift method work.
In 1957, the procedures for categorizing urban-type settlements were further refined.

Rural

Multiple types of rural localities exist, some common through the whole territory of Russia, some specific to certain federal subjects. The most common types include:
  • Derevnyas, hamlets
  • Selos, villages.
  • Stanitsas, villages
  • Khutor, small hamlets, only in some federal subjects
  • Slobodas, villages
  • settlements, posyolok ; pl. посёлки ). The "rural-type" designation is added to the settlements the population of which is mostly occupied in agriculture, while posyolok proper indicates a mix of population working in agriculture and industry.

    Historical

  • Krepost, a fortified settlement
  • *A kremlin, a major krepost, usually including a castle and surrounded by a posad
  • *An ostrog, a more primitive kind of krepost which could be put up quickly within rough walls of debarked pointed timber
  • Posad, a medieval suburban settlement
  • Mestechko, a small town in the Western Krai annexed during the partitions of Poland; typically a mestechko would have a Jewish majority and such towns are referred to in English by the Yiddish term shtetl
  • Pogost
  • Seltso, a type of rural locality in the Russian Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
  • Pochinok, a newly formed rural locality of one or several families. Pochinoks were established as new settlements and usually grow into larger villages as they developed.