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Urban-type settlements in Ukraine

{{Short description|Type of administrative division}}

Urban-type settlement ({{langx|uk|селище міського типу|selyshche miskoho typu}}) was a type of administrative division for urban-like human settlements in Ukraine from 24 October 1925 through 26 January 2024. Following the reform, this type of settlement was reduced to rural status and all urban-type settlements were renamed as settlements.

Per the Constitution of Ukraine, which was adopted in 1996, the only populated places listed are cities, settlements, and villages (Article 133). There is no mention of "urban-type settlements" in the current Constitution.

History

In 1925, the designation of urban-type settlement was introduced into the classification system of the Soviet Union. This included the Ukrainian SSR, where it replaced the previous term "town" ({{langx|uk|містечко|mistechko}}).{{cite wikisource|wslink=ЗУРРСУУ/1925/1/80/Про загальну назву селищ міського типу|wslanguage=uk|title= Про загальну назву селищ міського типу.|date= 11 November 1925}} In Crimea, this type of settlement appeared after its transfer to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954 and until then similar settlements were known as resort settlements or workers' settlements.

Ukrainian historian {{ill|Oleksandr Androshchuk|uk|Андрощук Олександр Володимирович}} described the urban-type settlement as "a peculiar category of settlements [...] detached from the centuries-old history of urban settlement in Ukraine."{{sfn|Androshchuk|2006|page=4}} The number of urban-type settlements in Ukraine increased steadily throughout the 20th century. There were 459 by 1940, 478 by 1950, 823 by 1960, 861 by 1970, 901 by 1980, and 927 by 1990. However, the newly created urban-type settlements often did not have significant differences from traditional villages, with many residents continuing to engage in agricultural lifestyles. Androshchuk notes that "during the first ten years of Soviet rule on the territory of modern Ukraine, three times more rural settlements were transferred to the category of urban-type settlements than in the previous 300 years", and argues that such a rapid change was doomed to be ineffective, as it was "not possible to force yesterday's peasant to wake up in the morning as a city dweller."{{sfn|Androshchuk|2006|page=4}}

In the years after World War II, many urban-type settlements grew to the point that their statuses were upgraded to that of cities of district subordination, shrinking the former category and growing the latter. This included places like Katyk (now Shakhtarsk), Vatutine, Kivertsi, and Haivoron.{{sfn|Androshchuk|2006|page=2}}

The largest wave of urban-type settlement creation took place in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when, according to Oleksandr Androshchuk in 2006, more than half of the urban-type settlements in existence were created. In 1957 alone, 125 settlements became urban-type settlements in Ukraine.{{sfn|Androshchuk|2006|page=4}} A 1965 decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic further clarified the definition of an urban-type settlement, defining it as "a populated area around an industrial plant, construction site, railway junction, educational institution, research station, sanatorium, or other stationary medical or convalescent establishment that has state housing and over 2,000 residents, 60 percent of whom are wage or salaried workers or members of their families." It was also specified that a such settlement may have less than 2,000 people if it is expected to develop further and pass that number.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Urban-type settlement |encyclopedia=Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine |url=https://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CU%5CR%5CUrban6typesettlement.htm|access-date=29 January 2023}}

In 1981, the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR passed a resolution further specifying the definition of an urban-type settlement, and making it more clear how settlements could change their status.{{cite web|url=http://zakon1.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?nreg=1654-10|title=Official Decree of the Presidium of Verkhovna Rada of March 12, 1981|language=uk}}

Ukraine became independent in 1991,[https://books.google.com/books?id=BNUtdVrw6lIC&dq=16+July+1991+Ukrainian+state+sovereignty.&pg=PA722 A History of Ukraine: The Land and Its Peoples] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407100810/https://books.google.com/books?id=BNUtdVrw6lIC&dq=16+July+1991+Ukrainian+state+sovereignty.&pg=PA722 |date=7 April 2023 }} by Paul Robert Magocsi, University of Toronto Press, 2010, {{ISBN|1442610212}} (page 563/564 & 722/723) but retained the Soviet-era classifications of inhabited localities for a time. By July 2023, the number of urban-type settlements in the country had fallen to 881.{{cite news|url=https://delo.ua/politics/v-ukrayini-likviduvali-selishha-miskogo-tipu-shho-shhe-peredbacaje-novii-zakon-pro-naseleni-punkti-421795/ |title=В Україні ліквідували селища міського типу: що ще передбачає новий закон про населені пункти}} On 24 October 2023, as part of wider decommunization in independent Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed Law No. 8263, which abolished the concept of "urban-type settlement" in Ukraine. He stated that it was to facilitate "de-Sovietization of the procedure for solving certain issues of the administrative and territorial system of Ukraine." The law was set to come into effect three months after its signing, which was on 26 January 2024.{{cite web |url=https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2023/10/24/7425475/|title=Zelenskyy abolished urban-type settlements|date=25 October 2023|access-date=24 October 2023|publisher=Ukrainska Pravda|language=Ukrainian}} This was part of administrative reforms for decentralization intended to help reduce corruption.

List

Below is the list of all urban-type settlements that existed in Ukraine.

During the Russo-Ukrainian War, Russia has illegally occupied parts of Ukraine. Since 2014, it has occupied the entire Crimean peninsula, as well as parts of Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast, and since 2022, it has additionally occupied significant portions of Kharkiv Oblast, Kherson Oblast, and Zaporizhzhia Oblast.{{Cite news |last=Lewis |first=David |date=2024-01-18 |title=The Quiet Transformation of Occupied Ukraine |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/quiet-transformation-occupied-ukraine |access-date=2024-01-29 |work=Foreign Affairs |language=en-US |issn=0015-7120}} Russia does not recognize Ukraine's right to make legal changes to the statuses of localities in the territories it claims, so whether a settlement is considered an urban-type settlement may differ between the laws of the two countries. For simplicity, this list only gives the statuses of places according to Ukrainian law.

=Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol=

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=Cherkasy Oblast=

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=Chernihiv Oblast=

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=Chernivtsi Oblast=

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=Dnipropetrovsk Oblast=

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=Donetsk Oblast=

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=Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast=

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=Kharkiv Oblast=

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=Kherson Oblast=

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=Khmelnytskyi Oblast=

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=Kyiv Oblast=

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=Kirovohrad Oblast=

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=Luhansk Oblast=

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=Lviv Oblast=

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=Mykolaiv Oblast=

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=Odesa Oblast=

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=Poltava Oblast=

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=Rivne Oblast=

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=Sumy Oblast=

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=Ternopil Oblast=

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=Vinnytsia Oblast=

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=Volyn Oblast=

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=Zakarpattia Oblast=

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=Zaporizhzhia Oblast=

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=Zhytomyr Oblast=

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See also

{{Portal|Ukraine}}

Notes

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References

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Bibliography

  • {{cite web|title=Міські поселення в системі територіального устрою УРСР 40-60-х років XX ст.|first=Oleksandr|last=Androshchuk|url=http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/6161/22-Androshuk.pdf|access-date=31 January 2023|date=2006}}

External links

  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20061217132356/http://www.ukrcensus.gov.ua/results/total_population1/structure_population/ 2001 Ukrainian census, Population structure] {{in lang|uk}}
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20071231154652/http://gska2.rada.gov.ua:7777/pls/z7502/a002 Regions of Ukraine and its composition] {{in lang|uk}}

{{Europe topic|List of towns in|UA={{PAGENAME}}}}

Urban-type settlements

Category:2023 disestablishments in Ukraine